ST JOHNSTONE chairman Steve Brown has called the decision to hand over tickets intended for his club's supporters to Hibernian fans as "outrageous" and slammed the timing of the switch which came just a few days ahead of their League Cup semi-final.
The SPFL revealed on Monday that around 600 seats in the Main Stand at Tynecastle, which had originally been set-aide for the Perth club's supporters if they sold out their allocation, would instead go to their opponents.
Brown and his club are furious as Hibs will now have three quarters of the neutral ground for Saturday's tie, which could well hand an advantage to Alan Stubbs and his players, something that was not supposed to happen after St Johnstone sold out their 3300 allocation in only four days.
“The first thing I want to say is that I fully share in the frustration caused by the delay in the announcement not to allocate Main Stand tickets to Saints fans and I can understand the anger and disappointment of ticketless fans," said Brown.
"I can assure supporters that from the outset these Main Stand tickets were intended for St Johnstone fans.
"However, with increased concerns about access, egress and segregation arrangements in that corner of the ground being raised by safety and security staff at Tynecastle and Police Scotland, the SPFL took the decision that the final approval for the release of these tickets to St Johnstone would be delayed in order to gauge sales of Main Stand tickets by Hibernian FC and maximise the chances of an alternative segregation and operational arrangement within the Main Stand.
"Coming at a time when fan engagement has been recently stated as a key objective for the future of our game I find the timing of this decision – five days before the match – outrageous and I would state that this is totally unacceptable to St Johnstone Football Club.
"I would hope that lessons are learned from this fiasco in order to avoid any repeat of the uncertainty and disillusionment suffered by the people who matter most – the supporters."
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