Belgian First Division A football club Anderlecht has warned that any Celtic fans that show up without a ticket for the Uefa Champions League game tonight (Wednesday) could be arrested.
The Group B match in Brussels is being held at the Constant Vanden Stock Stadium in the Anderlecht region of the capital city.
While a large traveling group of fans is expected to arrive in Brussels, the Scottish Premiership club has been told that supporters risk arrest if they show up in the municipalities of Anderlecht or Saint-Giles without a ticket for the game.
A statement on rsca.be reads: “Anderlecht would like to remind all fans of Celtic who will be making the trip to Brussels that it is mandatory to be in possession of a valid match ticket when they are present in the territory of Anderlecht or the neighbouring community of Sint-Gillis/Saint-Gilles.
“All Celtic supporters who can’t show a valid match ticket when asked by the authorities, risk being arrested.”
This pre-emptive warning to Celtic fans comes shortly after 20,000 largely ticketless Cologne fans showed up in London prior to the club’s Champions League match against Arsenal.
The German Bundesliga club only had an allocation of just 2,900 tickets for the game at Emirates Stadium, though it was revealed that Cologne fans were able to purchase tickets in the home end through Craigslist, independent ticket touts and websites such as Viagogo and Ticketbis, owned by StubHub.
Thousands of ticketless supporters descended on the stadium in the lead-up to the match and, according to the BBC, there were a number of scuffles between fans and stewards once the gates to the venue were opened.
Image: Davidlohr Bueso
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