The SFA have rejected a plan to play the Scottish Cup Final in front of 300 fans a week on Sunday.
For the first time ever there will be no fans watching the final of the ‘showpiece occasion’ of the Scottish season when Celtic and Hearts contest the trophy.
On Friday Glasgow will move into Tier 3 but no crowds are permitted at football matches with March 12 the date when supporters last watch a match in the city.
Inverness Caley Thistle and Ross County are permitted to host crowds of 300 fans due to their Tier 1 location with both clubs lobbying to increase their numbers to 1,000.
The Sun reports:
CALEY THISTLE have failed with an audacious offer to HOST the Scottish Cup final in Inverness on December 20.
SunSport can reveal the Highland club’s chief executive Scot Gardiner contacted SFA counterpart Ian Maxwell proposing the Caledonian Stadium as an alternative venue for the Celtic v Hearts showpiece.
Gardiner’s selling point was their ability to have fans inside the ground — albeit only a Scottish Government-allowed maximum of 300 – due to the region being in Tier 1.
Hampden is within Glasgow City which is currently Tier 4 – the highest – and even though it will drop to Tier 3 on Friday, supporters still won’t be able to attend the final on Sunday week.
SFA sources confirmed that Maxwell had politely knocked back the shock offer. It’s understood he told Gardiner the primary reason was a contractual commitment to use Hampden while it’s also believed broadcasting rights holders BBC Scotland and Premier Sports would not have welcomed the suggested venue change.
Although fans wouldn’t be able to travel from Glasgow and Edinburgh it wouldn’t be difficult to identify 500 fans of each competing club in the Inverness area.
Over the last week English clubs including Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs, West Ham and Brighton have been able to host crowds of 2,000 at their matches.