League Cup final: SFL hands St Mirren 600 tickets

By ANGUS WRIGHT
Published on Wednesday 13 March 2013 01:53

THE Scottish Football League has handed St Mirren 600 of the extra 3,500 West Stand tickets they had initially issued to Hearts late last week.

St Mirren had hit out at the original decision, which left them unable to sell any more family tickets, but last night an SFL statement read: “The original decision to offer Heart of Midlothian FC a further 3,500 tickets was based on health and safety reasons regarding segregation and the provision of facilities and based on last week’s prevailing rate of sale by both clubs.

“Today following detailed discussion with Hampden Park Ltd and Strathclyde Police, and a full operational inspection of the area of the West Stand, an appropriate segregation plan can be implemented to the satisfaction of all parties.”

Last week St Mirren chairman Stewart Gilmour had expressed his anger at the decision to hand Hearts more tickets, insisting the Paisley club should have been part of any discussions to reallocate the remaining tickets.

“We asked if they could look at segregation, but there’s been no discussion with us or negotiation,” said Gilmour.

“Football is a working man’s game and our fans can’t get tickets for their kids without paying £30, so we’re going to try and do something about it.

“The final was well-priced, but it’s just not right that the tickets were given to Hearts without consultation. If the tickets had sold out, that would be fine – but I went on to the Hearts website last night and could buy tickets, so they hadn’t sold them out.

“This is the communities cup. Is it all about money and selling tickets? This decision should have been discussed between David Longmuir, his staff, Hearts and St Mirren over the weekend. It wasn’t – that shouldn’t have happened.”

Taken from the Scotsman