The Sydney Tour or the Ange Postecoglou Homecoming, whatever you want to call it has been one of the most controversial ever arranged that I can remember in my time supporting Celtic.
It’s the first ever tour that has involved our rivals and passions and opinions are certainly split when it comes to agreeing whether it should go ahead or not.
By all accounts, it seems that there is no appetite from fans in Scotland to have the fixture played but it does look like it is going ahead all the same.
But with intense rivalry comes, unfortunately, the ugly side of the game. The Glasgow Derby has been notorious for trouble outside the ground and there has been a stark warning issued for any fans thinking of travelling to Australia to watch the game.
Speaking to the Sydney Herald, New South Wales Sports Minister Stuart Ayres issued a start warning to any fans that are thinking of travelling to the country to watch the game, “It’s not 1984, it’s 2022, and we love passion, we love noise, but we want safe environments that people can come to.
“We’ve got a long runway, the event’s in November, we’ll do a lot of clear messaging around ticket sales and expectations of fan behaviour: come along, have a great time, just don’t be a d*ckh**d.
“We’re a well-experienced city when it comes to running large-scale, major events.
“We’ll engage with the clubs, we’ll take advice from them around preparations.”
This is a great opportunity for our clubs to promote our game overseas. The last thing anyone wants is negative publicity or headlines surrounding this fixture.
Let’s hope that the warning is heeded and fans behave themselves.
The damage that could be visited on our travelling support “who btw” have a fantastic reputation in these type of events, could be damaged beyond repair if the hvns kick off, as they are prone to do. I just hope our deserved reputation goes before us, I know theirs will.