Global IT outage causes disruption for Premiership football clubs

Scottish Premiership clubs have been hit by the global IT outage, with tickets sales and club shops affected by the ongoing issue.

Banks, airlines and media companies have been taken offline as mass IT outages sweep across the globe, with tech giant Microsoft saying it was working to resolve the problem.

Councils, supermarkets and rail services in Scotland have all reported difficulties in processing payments and Scottish football clubs have told fans they are also encountering issues.

Celtic have postponed ticket sales for the opening fixture of the men’s 2024/25 season against Kilmarnock due to disruption to its ticketing platform and have also suspended sales of season tickets for their women’s team.

A message posted on their social media channels read: “Due to a global third-party system outage, some online services, including our ticketing platform are experiencing disruption today.

“We are monitoring the situation closely but as a result we have postponed today’s online sale of tickets for the opening fixture of the 2024/25 season. Please note the ability to buy Celtic FC Women’s Season Tickets is also impacted.

“We will update supporters in due course, apologies for any inconvenience caused.”

Hearts said that they could complete some online sales but no transactions at their ticket office, while the club store was also affected.

“Our Ticket Office is currently experiencing technical difficulties due to the global Microsoft outage,” a club statement said.

“At present, no in-store transactions can be completed. Online transactions are, slowly, being processed.

“The Clubstore has been processing in-store card payments, however, the success of these transactions may depend on your banking provider. Cash sales can be accommodated with no issues.

“We apologise for any inconvenience but this is, unfortunately, completely outwith our control. We will update in due course.”

Hibernian announced that they were experiencing similar issues.

“The major worldwide IT outage is currently affecting the Easter Road Ticket Hub and online ticketing site,” a notice on the club website said.

“As a result of this, the general sale of tickets for St Mirren (A) has been delayed because of this.

“We’ll provide a further update as soon as possible.”

Scottish Rugby told supporters that season ticket sales for the women’s side had been hit by the issue.

It said: “Due to the global IT issue, today’s scheduled sale of the Scotland Women Season Pass 2024/25 has been postponed.

“We’ll be in touch with supporters as soon as a revised sale date is confirmed.”