HEARTS will complete the signing of Bulgarian teenager Branimir Kostadinov inside the next ten days after the player secured a student visa for his move to Scotland.

The 16-year-old has been training with the Jambos since January, when the club began fighting through stringent red tape to sign a player whose country is not a member of the European Union.

However, Kostadinov secured a two-year student visa this week and will now enrol in a plush Edinburgh school to facilitate his move to Tynecastle, which should be finalised next week when his registration is lodged with the SFA.

"It's 99.9 per cent done and dusted," said John Murray, Hearts' youth academy director. "Now Branimir has his student visa, we have to meet with the SFA to get him registered with that.

"We met with the SFA a while ago to apply for international clearance for him, which hasn't arrived yet, so now we will go back to them with all the relevant documentation that will allow him to sign as an amateur and play for our youth side.

"I will make an appointment to see the SFA and they will give us a date, probably next week some time, and we can go through and talk to them with a view to getting things tied up as soon as possible.

"The whole process should be completed in the next week to ten days, which will be great news for us."

Hearts and Hibs will receive ticket allocations of 21,000 each for the all-Edinburgh Scottish Cup semi-final.

The SFA has held preliminary discussions with both clubs to outline their segregation plans for Hampden for the April 2 showpiece.

The national stadium will be split evenly between both sets of fans and demand is certain to heavily outweigh supply at both clubs. With 42,000 reserved for Hearts and Hibs, the remaining 10,000 in Hampden's 52,000 capacity will be distributed amongst sponsors, players' families, SFA officials and others.

Hearts are requesting that all fans who wish to attend the semi-final complete the relevant application form, which will be available through the club website, www.heartsfc.co.uk

Tickets will be distributed on the following basis:

Full season ticket holders and shareholders who bought a cup top-up this season - two tickets per person.

Full season ticket holders with cup top up - two tickets per person.

Season ticket holders and shareholders - one ticket per person.

Season ticket holders - one ticket per person.

Shareholders - one ticket per person

General sale (postal application still required) - one ticket per person.

Another Hearts teenager, Daniel Galbraith, remains on his way out of Tynecastle in a £50,000 deal to Manchester United, although the move will not go through until the summer.

Meanwhile, Hearts' SPL visit to Celtic, which had been scheduled for the weekend of the semi-finals, has been moved to Wednesday, April 5, with a 7.45pm kick-off.

Taken from the Scotsman