Poor sales force replay re-think

There will be several empty seats for the semi-final replay

Tickets are to be made available at Hampden Park on Tuesday evening after only 5,000 advance tickets were sold for the Scottish Cup semi-final.

The decision to hold the replay between Dunfermline Athletic and Hibernian at the national stadium has been criticised by some within both clubs.

And the SFA had originally intended to have no tickets on sale on the night.

But a spokesman said that the change came "in the light of slower than expected sales by the clubs".

Hibs manager John Collins suggested that Tynecastle Stadium would have been a better replay venue.

And Pars chairman John Yorkston claimed that his club had been told the match would be at Hampden and that there had been no consultation.

The SFA insisted that the clubs had ample time to make objections but that none had been forthcoming.

It said planning meetings involving them, the clubs and police had came up with no alternative grounds to host a replay.

The SFA had also claimed that police advice ruled against ticket sales as it would take too long to sell them on the evening and there could be a delay to kick-off.

But Strathclyde Police had told BBC Sport that, due to the low crowd expected, they had no objection to sales at the ground.

The SFA predicted that 15,000, 4,000 of them from Dunfermline, would attend the replay.

Both clubs criticised original indications that the replay, which will be shown live on television, would be all-ticket.

The SFA had been urged to announce sooner that tickets would be available but decided to wait for the weekend response to ticket sales.

Their first game at Hampden on 13 April, which ended in a 0-0 draw, was watched by 25,336.

For the replay at the 52,000-capacity national stadium, the east and west stands will be closed, with Hibs being allocated the north stand and half of the south stand.

Dunfermline fans will also be in the south stand.