Cup Final Allocation

Last updated : 19 May 2004 By Kevin Smith
Once again, the SFA have messed up the job of allocating seats for the Scottish Cup Final.

Hampden Park will be the venue on Saturday, when Celtic meet Dunfermline. Hampden holds 52,000, Dunfermline have been given 15,000 seats. Given that around 12,000 will go to investors, sponsors and corporate hospitality, it leaves Celtic supporters with about 25,000 seats.

Now there are a few ways to look at this. One is that it is a national Cup Final, therefore, both teams should be given a 50/50 split of the tickets, and that is fair enough.

Another is to allocate tickets based on the club's average attendace throughout the season. In this case, there would be an overwhelming majority of Celtic supporters, who take an average home gate of over 55,000 to each home game, compared to Dunfermline's rough gate of under 5,000. This would give a massive advantage to Celtic and would be deemed unfair in the SFA's eyes.

The SFA have opted to give Celtic 25,000 and Dunfermline 15,000 tickets for the game.

Dunfermline played at Celtic Park recently and there were under 100 Pars fans there. Where did they get 15,000 fans from? As I said before, their average home gate is under 5,000, and their Semi-Final replay against Inverness was the lowest attendance ever recorded at a Scottish Cup Semi-Final.

Anyway, the bottom line is that there will be many families from Fife who fancy a day out on Saturday. So mum, dad, and the three kids who have together conjoured up a total of nil Dunfermline matches this season, take their seats at Hampden on Cup Final day. They are seats which belong to Celtic supporters who have been there: home, away and in Europe this season, but were unlucky not to get a ticket for Saturday.

Today it was revealed that police are worried of violence if Celtic fans are situated in the Dunfermline end. Of course, the Dunfermline section will be full of Celtic fans as it sold out in under a week. And as I said before, Dunfermline simply do not have 15,000 supporters.

Celtic fans in their end should keep quiet, and try to contain themselves as much as possible. Do not wear colours or cheer Celtic in any way. This way you will avoid getting thrown out of the ground.

Save your energy for after the game, cheering Henrik running around Hampden with the Scottish Cup!