Hibs manager Jack Ross has blasted the SPFL’s decision to hand his side 17,500 tickets for next month’s League Cup Final against Celtic at Hampden – branding it “baffling” that Celtic will have almost twice as many fans inside the national stadium.
After seeing off Rangers in the semis thanks to Martin Boyle’s stunning hat-trick, the Hibees will return to Hampden on December 19 as they look to get their hands on the trophy for the first time since the 2006/07 final.
(Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
Ross thinks arguments that Hibs’ semi-final attendance should limit what they get for the final are nonsense as he confessed the decision to not even give the Cabbage the chance to sell out half the ground is “quite astonishing.”
“Naturally you want as many of your own supporters in the stadium for a cup final, and also historically we have taken massive crowds to cup finals in recent times,” Ross said.
“The counter-argument to that is the semi-final attendance. I find that a really strange thing to take into account because the League Cup has never been one that attracted big crowds in semi-finals.
“It’s baffling that we do not get that opportunity to take that allocation and Hampden never looks like a difficult stadium to segregate.
“I find it quite astonishing but it’s about using it as a positive to galvanise us. And one thing I would say about Sunday is the 10,000 we had there made enough noise for 40,000 and we will hope that just under 20,000 people at the final will do the same.”
NTOF now offers a YouTube channel featuring exclusive interviews, post-match discussion, in-depth debate, and much more – LIKE and SUBSCRIBE and don’t miss any of our videos.