I said earlier that I thought Aberdeen would demand a 50/50 ticket split for the upcoming Scottish Cup Final. I thought that common sense may prevail and Aberdeen would have received around 15,000 tickets, which would have been at least a couple of thousand more than they took to the semi-final. I was quite angry when I heard the SFA decision yesterday, but I suppose not really surprised, Mr Maxwell has been no friend to Celtic during his time, even I think Celtic supported him to get the job.
I have written to him this morning; the letter is below.
Mr Maxwell,
Chief Executive,
Scottish Football Association.
I think the decision taken by the SFA with regard to the ticket split for this year’s Scottish Cup Final was a scandalous decision, and one that is a slap in the face to the supporters of Celtic Football Club, who have been a cash cow for the SFA and Hampden Park for many years. Since the 2017 season, Celtic will have played in fourteen finals, seven Scottish Cup, and seven League Cup, so counting semi-finals twenty eight appearance in total.
In this year’s Scottish Cup Semi-Final Celtic sold in excess of 37,000 tickets, Hearts reported sales of 20,000, Aberdeen 13,000 (at most), and St Johnstone somewhere around 3,000, so Celtic sold more than the other three teams put together, and received 25% of the profit. Just imagine Mr Maxwell if St Johnstone had managed to beat Celtic in the semi-final to play Aberdeen in the final, you wouldn’t have been able to give away more than 30,000 tickets.
Now in the final every Aberdeen supporter who attended the semi-final should be guaranteed a ticket, while around half of the Celtic Supporters who attended the semi-final will be denied the opportunity to get a ticket, is that a fair solution to the problem that is Hampden Park, you could have played the Final at Murrayfield, Celtic would still have sold at least 40,000, Aberdeen would probably be around 15,000. Dave Cormack claimed if the semi-final had been at Peterhead they would have sold their 20,000, well let me tell Mr Cormack this, we visit Aberdeen on Wednesday night of May 14th, there will not be 20,000 Aberdeen fans in attendance that night, although he’ll probably pull the stroke of guaranteeing all in attendance a Cup Final Ticket.
Finally, Mr Maxwell your tenure as head of the SFA has been underwhelming to say the least, imagine if the SFA was run as well as Celtic FC, maybe you wouldn’t need to milk the hand that feeds you so regularly. I also wonder if your favourite team that play in Govan had not got put out of the Cup by Queens Park, and were contesting the final, would Aberdeen be receiving 20,000 tickets? I very much doubt it. I won’t be holding my breath, or wasting my valuable time waiting on a reply from you.
Regards,
Joe O’Rourke,
General Secretary,
Celtic Supporters Association.
