Martin O'Neill lauds Hibernian chief Ben Kensell over 'brave' decision amid Rangers controversy

Martin O'Neill has praised Hibernian chief Ben Kensell for his decision to reduce the number of tickets Rangers and Celtic receive for matches at Easter Road.

Speaking on talkSPORT on Monday (18 March, via The National), the pundit said the Hibs CEO was talking about the problems surrounding flares and pyros rather than "tragedy chanting" after he revealed that the Edinburgh club were prepared to lose money to address the issue.

He added that it's a "brave move" to reduce the allocations for the Old Firm sides if he thinks songs being sung by their fans could be "causing deep offence" to people.

“He was talking especially about the flares and pyros," said O'Neill. "A player going to take a corner kick and being pelted with stuff. Those things are issues (for Hibs) rather than sort of tragedy chanting. It’s been going on for a long time.

“Is it something they want to try and ban because someone from a Celtic viewpoint sings The Fields of Athenry or from a Rangers viewpoint they sing The Sash My Father Wore? I’m not sure.

"It’s a brave move of him in reducing an allocation if he thinks this is causing deep offence to a lot of people up there because Hibs will be losing out in terms of money.”

Hibernian taking action against Rangers and Celtic chants

It's a potentially tricky situation for O'Neill to talk about due to his deep routes with Celtic, having managed them for five years during the early 2000s.

The action from Hibernian is obviously looking to take a stand against chants from sections of the Old Firm clubs' supporters after forward Martin Boyle was abused during the Scottish Cup clash on 10 March.

There are a lot of eyes currently on fan behaviour in Scotland, with the debate around flares also rumbling on. 

But some of the chanting that can be heard is completely unacceptable and doesn’t belong inside a football stadium.

It's going to be a difficult situation for the authorities to get a handle on after it's gone on for so long, but Hibs appear to now be taking matters into their own hands by reducing their away allocations.

In other Rangers news, a BBC pundit has made a title admission after what happened at Ibrox.

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