Inverness Caledonian Thistle offered to host Scottish Cup final between Celtic and Hearts
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INVERNESS Caledonian Thistle confirmed they made an offer to host next weekend’s Scottish Cup final between Celtic and Hearts.
But chief executive Scot Gardiner says their offer was politely declined by the Scottish Football Association.
The club made the bid on the strength that the Caledonian Stadium is one of the few grounds in Scotland which can allow fans in due to the Highlands being a tier one region.
Inverness are at present allowed a maximum of 300 fans into the Caledonian Stadium, while Hampden Park isn’t allowed any, with Glasgow set to be in tier three as of tomorrow.
Gardiner says the offer was made in good faith to the SFA, but due to contractual reasons to use Hampden for the cup final, they were knocked back.
“We made an offer and wrote to the SFA a few weeks ago,” confirmed Gardiner.
“As soon as we knew we could get supporters back, we knew we could definitely have 150 Hearts fans and 150 Celtic fans at opposite ends of the ground in separate stands.
“There is a big Celtic support in the Highlands, so being in tier one, we didn’t think that there would be an issue.
“We also know there is a Hearts supporters club in the Highlands, so we made an offer to the SFA.
“They declined the offer for a number of reasons and got back to us politely explaining why they didn’t feel it was practical to play the final in Inverness.
“We made the offer because we thought we can welcome fans in and we could have taken care of the VIP’s and given them hospitality more so than you could in a tier four area that Glasgow was in at the time.
“It was a genuine offer in unusual circumstances.
“If they wanted to host the cup final with fans in the stadium, then we were the ground that was furthest south that would have been suitable to do so.”
Caley Thistle welcomed fans back to the Caledonian Stadium for the first time this season three weeks ago in the 2–0 win over Raith Rovers.
Fans were located in the north stand and south stand of the stadium which was deemed a successful logistical operation.
The Caledonian Stadium is set to welcome up to 300 fans for Saturday’s match against Dundee.
Ross County have also successfully welcomed fans back to the Global Energy Stadium which included last weekend’s Premiership match against Rangers.
Ten clubs in the Highland League, that are based in the Highland and Moray region, are also permitted to invite fans back into their grounds to watch games.
Clachnacuddin and Nairn County will welcome fans back for the first time this weekend in their Scottish Cup matches.
