Uttiyo Sarkar

Why Celtic Park is Adding Nets Ahead of the Club Brugge Clash

Celtic, Club Brugge, UEFA Champions League

Celtic have a strong chance of finishing in the top-24 in the league stages of the 2024/25 UEFA Champions League as they don’t have any more matches remaining against a major European heavyweight.

Brendan Rodgers’ side, however, needs to win at least a couple more matches to consolidate their ability to at least play in the playoffs for the knockout rounds.

The Bhoys have a major opportunity to move up the Champions League table by defeating Club Brugge in their next game at Celtic Park. After having defeated RB Leipzig in their last game, the Celtic fans can’t be blamed for feeling optimistic about the upcoming match.

Celtic have also seemingly made some special arrangements for the incoming Brugge fans for the away stands at Celtic Park.

Thousands of Belgian supporters are likely to flock over to Glasgow for this European clash and the Scottish heavyweights have deemed this game as ideal to trial a new idea in the stands.

For the first time in a European game, the Celtic management have decided to deploy safety nets in the away stand in the stadium.

This is a transparent net with black borders that basically separates the away supporters from the home faithful.

Because of the close proximity between where the travelling fans sit and the home supporters, Celtic have deemed it necessary to install these huge empty nets.

This isn’t the first time that safety nets are being deployed at Celtic Park. The Bhoys have also done it in the past during a few Glasgow Derby matches against Rangers.

Celtic deemed it necessary to bring down the nets after some incidents where their supporters were struck by missiles in the Ibrox Stadium stands.

Celtic are installing this extra bit of safety against Club Brugge to ensure that the fans’ experience isn’t hampered by hooliganism or unnecessary violence.

That is because some of the Brugge supporters can be very difficult to deal with and often look for ways to antagonize or pick fights with opposition fans.

Some of the Celtic faithful were worried that the opposition supporters might stuff like throwing missiles or lighters on their end to trigger some trouble in the stands.

The safety nets will basically ensure an enjoyable and uninterrupted viewing experiencing for both the home and away fans, because it covers the entire length of the stand and ensures no fan can throw anything onto the other side.

Club Brugge has also gained a reputation for having some rowdy and extremist right-wing supporters in their fanbase.

Earlier in the 2024/25 season, the Belgian club themselves started proceedings to give 24 of their supporters a stadium ban after these individuals were caught doing the ‘Kühnen salute’, which is a three-finger Nazi party symbol, in away matches.

Moreover, the Belgian clubs’ supporters are also notorious for bringing smoke bombs and flares with them into stadiums.

Last season, Brugge had also been forced to take action against 26 supporters for misbehaving in stadiums. Incidents like throwing cups onto supporters and enacing in violent behavior were listed as reasons for the suspension.

Celtic’s management want to safeguard their own fans from any potential trouble and the possibility of being seriously hurt by any missiles or foreign object thrown onto their end by the Brugge supporters.

While there has been some complaining on social media that the safety nets will ruin the viewing experience for the Brugge fans because it’s basically an obstacle, but this is definitely needed to ensure that the Champions League clash isn’t tainted by fan violence.