Hearts lose out in ticket game of two halves

29 Oct 1996

FOOTBALL UPDATE

HEARTS lost their bid to obtain half of the available tickets for the Coca-Cola Cup final against Rangers at Celtic Park on November 24.

Last season, in a similar confrontation, the Tynecastle club won the day when the SFA gave them an allocation of 17,000 tickets for the Scottish Cup final at Hampden - when Rangers had asked for the lion's share.

The Scottish League yesterday decided that the Glasgow side would receive a larger number of tickets than Hearts.

The capacity of Celtic Park is close to 50,000 and that will include the temporary structure at the west of the ground, which will be given to the Ibrox support.

The split will allow Rangers close to 29,000 tickets and Hearts just short of 20,000.

Special temporary barriers in the new stand will separate the rival factions.

Last night both clubs were happy to accept the decision, which had been announced earlier in the day by League secretary Peter Donald.The respective average attendances of the two clubs had been taken into consideration.

Rangers' secretary Campbell Ogilvie said: "We are happy with the allocation.

We have 36,000 season ticket holders but we do believe that we shall be able to kep most of our fans happy with the number of tickets we have now received." Hearts' chairman Chris Robinson added: "We did look for a straight 50-50.

However, we are happy with the decision reached by the Scottish League." Despite the snub handed out by Ibrox fans to last week's semi-final against Dunfermline at the same venue, the final - which will be live on television - is certain to be a sell-out.

Taken from the Herald