St Johnstone chairman wants lessons learned over League Cup ticket situation

St Johnstone chairman Steve Brown has called for lessons to be learned over the League Cup semi-final ticket "fiasco".

And Brown warned Scottish football risked alienating supporters following an "outrageous" delay in Saints fans discovering they would not get the extra tickets they were initially promised for Saturday's meeting with Hibernian at Tynecastle.

Saints fans were led to believe they would be handed Main Stand tickets once their Roseburn Stand allocation sold out, but the Scottish Professional Football League announced on Monday that the extra 600 briefs would go to Hibs fans amid security concerns.

With the announcement coming 10 weeks after the semi-final draw was made, Brown believes the situation is unacceptable.

In a statement, he said: "The first thing I want to say is that I fully share in the frustration caused by the delay in the announcement not to allocate Main Stand tickets to Saints fans and I can understand the anger and disappointment of ticketless fans.

"I can assure supporters that from the outset these Main Stand tickets were intended for St Johnstone fans.

"However, with increased concerns about access, egress and segregation arrangements in that corner of the ground being raised by safety and security staff at Tynecastle and Police Scotland, the SPFL took the decision that the final approval for the release of these tickets to St Johnstone would be delayed in order to gauge sales of Main Stand tickets by Hibernian FC and maximise the chances of an alternative segregation and operational arrangement within the Main Stand.

"Coming at a time when fan engagement has been recently stated as a key objective for the future of our game I find the timing of this decision - five days before the match - outrageous and I would state that this is totally unacceptable to St Johnstone Football Club.

"I would hope that lessons are learned from this fiasco in order to avoid any repeat of the uncertainty and disillusionment suffered by the people who matter most - the supporters."