Hearts vs Rangers 50-50 ticket split after SFA talks

The date and time of the fixture has been confirmed for Sunday, April 21 at 3pm.

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"Yesterday, the club put forward a proposal to secure an equal share of tickets, guaranteeing Hearts supporters the opportunity to purchase seats in Hampden’s North Stand", a statement read. "We had to make an extremely strong case for our argument, given the size of our opponents’ fanbase and historic semi-final ticket sales.

"We are, therefore, extremely pleased to confirm that our proposition was accepted, and both Hearts and Rangers will be given an initial 21k allocation of tickets to sell to our respective supporters.

"We would like to thank the Scottish FA for their assistance in this process."

"This gives us the best opportunity to have Steven Naismith and our players walk out onto the Hampden pitch to a sea of maroon, spread out equally and fairly across the national stadium."

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While Hearts secured 21,000 briefs, Aberdeen were given up to 19,000. The Dons had "requested the opportunity to sell up to 50% of the tickets, with any unsold tickets by an agreed date being allocated to our opponents".

As part of the agreement Hearts had with the SFA, the club will have to cover the cost of any unsold tickets. Hearts Standard understands Aberdeen were offered the same condition but declined the option. 

The Hearts statement added: "The door has now been opened for as many Hearts fans as possible to attend and, hopefully, have a special day out. One condition of this agreement is that the club covers the cost of any unsold tickets from our allocation so it is in all of our interests to sell out and give the team the level of backing that Hearts fans are famous for."