Rangers riled as Hearts get all-clear to cut away tickets

STEPHEN HALLIDAY

HEARTS yesterday won their battle with Rangers to cut the ticket allocation for visiting supporters at Tynecastle for the next Bank of Scotland Premierleague meeting between the clubs on 18 March next year.

Rangers had lodged a formal complaint with the SPL in September, in which they claimed Hearts had gone back on an existing agreement that supporters of the Ibrox club occupy the whole of the 3,600-capacity Roseburn Stand at Tynecastle.

Hearts, who had agreed to honour the previous arrangement for the first game between the sides earlier this season, angrily refuted Rangers' claims and pressed ahead with plans to cut the visiting allocation to 2,100 tickets for the March fixture.

Under SPL regulations, there are no specific percentages of tickets which clubs must make available to away supporters. Instead, it is stipulated that "a reasonable number" must be issued, with clubs encouraged to reach an accord amongst themselves.

With Hearts and Rangers failing to do so, it was left to yesterday's meeting of the SPL executive board at Hampden to settle the disagreement and it ruled in favour of the Edinburgh club.

Iain Blair, secretary of the SPL, said: "The board decided that Hearts' allocation of 2,100 tickets to Rangers for the game is reasonable. It is more than 12 per cent of Tynecastle's capacity and in most competitions, a figure of around 5 per cent is considered reasonable."

Roman Romanov, the chairman and acting chief executive of Hearts, expressed his satisfaction at the ruling which will allow his currently resurgent club to satisfy the growing demand for tickets from their own supporters.

"We are delighted with the SPL decision," said Romanov, "and believe that this is a fair outcome to the matter. We have said all along that we are keen to provide as much opportunity as possible for as many of our fans to watch games at Tynecastle and this decision ensures that we will have a large home support in the stadium for the next home league match against Rangers."

It was an unhappy first SPL board meeting for Martin Bain, the Rangers chief executive who was elected as a director last month in place of the Ibrox club's former chairman John McClelland. Bain left the meeting when the ticket-row issue was discussed, the decision being taken by his fellow members of the SPL board which comprises executive chairman Lex Gold, Hibs chairman Rod Petrie, Dundee United chairman Eddie Thompson and Inverness Caledonian Thistle chairman David Sutherland.

A statement on Rangers official website said that the club were "extremely disappointed" by the SPL ruling and that "Hearts reneged on an agreement reached with Rangers back in June". The statement added that some 1,400 Rangers supporters already informed they would have a ticket for the fixture would now be disappointed while Rangers would also "incur additional administrative costs" as a result of the decision.

The onus will now be on Hearts to ensure the Roseburn Stand is properly and safely segregated for the 18 March fixture. It is segregated for the visits of other clubs, but few of them carry such a substantial travelling support.

Meanwhile, Vladimir Romanov, the majority shareholder at Tynecastle, returned to Edinburgh yesterday to step up his search for a director of football and new chief executive. He will hold a series of key meetings with his son, Roman, and his advisers in the coming days.

Taken from the Scotsman