Rodgers fury over ticket split

BRENDAN RODGERS last night waded into his club’s William Hill Scottish Cup Final ticket row by branding the prospect of Celtic receiving 700 less Hampden seats than Aberdeen as ‘astonishing’.

Celtic battled with the Scottish Football Association last week for an increased share but left ‘very disappointed’ in the outcome at an operations meeting, according to a statement released on their official website.

The SFA threw out a number of what Celtic claim were ‘positive suggestions’ that would have released more briefs for their fans. They included revisiting plans for segregation, Upper South Stand reconfiguration and creating a neutral area in order to best accommodate fans from the wider ‘football family’.

And that has left Celtic angered that many of their supporters who attended the semi-final win over Rangers will be denied a ticket for the May showpiece as their club bids for the Treble.

When asked about the row after the 4-1 victory over St Johnstone, Rodgers said: ‘It’s a strange one. I am always one who thinks the Cup Final should be balanced. It should be 50-50. I find it staggering that a club like Celtic, which has the third or fourth highest average attendance in Britain, is getting less than Aberdeen. I find that astonishing.’

‘I can only hope they will look at that. At worst, it should be 50-50 — at worst!’

Both clubs were expected to receive just under 20,000 tickets for the Saturday, May 27 clash with the rest of the tickets going to corporate, debenture holders, sponsors, staff and SFA members in the 52,063 capacity stadium.