Red-faced Aberdeen are looking into claims Rangers fans purchased tickets in their end for the ViaPlay Cup Final.
According the likes of BBC Sport, Aberdeen are “investigating” amid claims from Rangers fans that they purchased part of the club’s allocation for the December 17th show piece.
This comes after the club’s new Chief Executive Alan Burrows apologised to “frustrated Dandies” on the club’s loyalty scheme who missed out on briefs.
It is now being probed as to whether Rangers fans, or an increase from one ticket to four tickets per buyer on the general sale, has had the impact of selling the initial 17000k ViaPlay Cup Final allocation..
“I understand that from the tweets and replies, we’ve a lot of frustrated Dandies posting about ViaPlay Cup Final tickets,” said Burrows via X.
We have, at the moment, sold out our INITIAL allocation. We have been given up to 19,500 tickets – the first lot of circa 17,000 have gone almost immediately.
“The ticket office set a threshold at 200 points to buy one ticket each then, this afternoon at 5pm, the remainder went on full general sale.
“Although it was for for the right reasons, in hindsight, this was an error on our part. We should’ve had a second sales period for lesser points before – I.e. 100-199, before full general sale, ensuring there was more control
That’s a lesson we’ll learn. I take responsibility for that and I am very sorry to those who are currently feeling frustrated.
According to Dons chief exec Burrows, the situation is proof that Aberdeen should’ve got a high allocation for the match at Hampden.
Talking about the sale of 17k tickets, Burrows said: “This does bring into sharp focus our plea to have been given the opportunity to sell out Hampden on a 50/50 split.
“Given we’ve sold 17,000 tickets in just a few short days, I think it’s fair to say there is a high probability we could’ve sold out a 50% share had we been given the chance.
The Dons courted controversy this week when the club’s new Chief Executive Alan Burrows put the bulk of their initial 17k allocation up for general sale.
This came amongst a growing argument around the decision to grant the Ibrox club 25k tickets for the match and Aberdeen 19.5k amid suggestions of “inherent bias”.
These figures are planned ahead of time by the SPFL based on turnout at previous finals, season ticket holders and the likelihood of Aberdeen filling the stand.
But with Aberdeen, and several of Scottish football’s pundits, outraged about the situation the Dons appear to have taken a big risk to try to prove a point we all know anyway.
A total of 25k tickets is massively ambitious and if Aberdeen fill the 19.5k they’ll have done extremely well.
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