QR codes and Celtic’s poor communication with supporters

The Celtic Star

·28 de marzo de 2025

QR codes and Celtic’s poor communication with supporters

Let’s talk about QR codes and Celtic’s inability to communicate messages to supporters correctly…

Celtic supporters during the Premier Sports Cup Final victory over theRangers at Hampden on 15 December 2024. Photo AJ for The Celtic Star

For those who have missed the news

For those who have missed the news, and you quite easily could have missed it, all tickets for Celtic’s Scottish Cup semi-final against St Johnstone next month will be issued digitally, with no paper tickets available. They will be accessible through the Hampden Park App oh and a sneaky wee booking fee with apply too.

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Tickets will be available in the Hampden Park App around a week before the match, with QR codes becoming visible on the app on the day of the game.

To attend the semi-final, all season ticket holders are required to have an email address linked to their season ticket. Also, the transfer of tickets on the app will NOT be available.

Celtic supporters during the Premier Sports Cup Final victory over theRangers at Hampden on 15 December 2024. Photo AJ for The Celtic Star

This will cause absolute havoc

This will cause absolute havoc. Let’s not sugarcoat it. Granted, we live in an era of technological advancements and digital evolution, but this will create unnecessary chaos for a demographic of our supporters.

What Celtic have not answered in their lowkey briefing of semi-final tickets being announced [a rare announcement of ticketing arrangements on their social platforms]is the following:

1 – What are Celtic supporters who do not own a smart phone meant to do? Can you not attend the game if say, you have a Nokia rather than an iPhone?

2 – Why is there a booking fee of £1.50 per ticket when there are literally no tickets being posted to your address? Bewildering.

3 – How is the ticket allocation for CSC’s and fan groups going to work when there are no paper tickets?

4 – With Hampden Park’s Wi-Fi not being the most workable at the best of times, how are the Scottish FA alongside Celtic and Police Scotland going to facilitate a smooth matchday experience at the turnstiles?

5 – Why can’t tickets be transferred between supporters on your Celtic network who have qualified for the criteria?

Celtic supporters during the Premier Sports Cup Final victory over theRangers at Hampden on 15 December 2024. Photo AJ for The Celtic Star

Feel free to ask more questions

Feel free to ask more questions, as I am sure there are more unanswered concerns. There will be many Celtic supporters, including myself, who go to the games with their Mum, Dad, Gran or Grampa that don’t know what a QR code is. They might be lucky to see the second half.

Also, where is the communication? No consultation with supporters regarding the changing ways of how ticketing will operate for major national cup games at Hampden. And I repeat, there will be supporters who will be oblivious to the fact that no paper tickets will be posted.

Celtic supporters during the Premier Sports Cup Final victory over theRangers at Hampden on 15 December 2024. Photo AJ for The Celtic Star

Why have Celtic’s communication department stopped this basic process of informing supporters?

As alluded to earlier, this has been an issue Celtic have had all season concerning tickets arrangements. For example, communication for domestic away matches and European away games are no longer posted on ‘X.’ This was previously a straightforward way of viewing whether you qualified for a ticket or not. Why have Celtic’s communication department stopped this basic process of informing supporters?

May put off some older generation of fans from attending the game

Finally, I hope this is not the case, but I do feel this may put off some of the older generation of fans from attending the game. It’s OK for Celtic to be putting out information about what the new ticket situation looks like, but over the next week or so they need to address the concerns their own fanbase quite rightfully have.

Conor Spence

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