'Hearts should be embarrassed': Peter Grant lets rip on 'scandalous' Celtic and Rangers ticket allocaton cut

Peter Grant has slammed Hearts’ ‘embarrassing’ decision to cut down on Tynecastle away ticket allocations. The club has slashed numbers for all visiting clubs except Hibs in recent years, which has boiled down to immense frustration among diehard Celtic and Rangers fans.

The Old Firm clubs were previously allocated the entire Roseburn Stand but Celtic ultras have now called for a boycott following their latest visit to Gorgie. The Scottish Premiership leaders were forced to play out their 4-1 win over Hearts in front of an away crowd allocated a little more than 600 spaces.

Bhoys Celtic ultras released a statement airing their disappointment and frustrations, while urging club chiefs to ‘refuse to accept such a small allocation’ at Tynecastle moving forwards until ‘sensible conversations’ can be held.

“For a long time now we've witnessed the hunt for tickets cause unnecessary division and friction amongst our support,” the statement read. “While Hearts [and every other club] are entitled to offer what they like, we again question the logic of allowing hundreds or even thousands of empty seats when there are as many fans willing to pay to fill them.”

Grant has followed up with his view on the matter, slamming both Hearts and Scottish football as a whole in a scathing rant.

Hundreds of empty seats could be seen around the stadium when Hearts hosted Celtic on Saturday. Grant has urged leading broadcasters Sky Sports to intervene and instruct them to ‘sell the tickets fairly’.

While the majority of Hearts fans fully support the club's decision to cut away tickets, there were hundreds of empty seats dotted around the stadium on Saturday night as the Hoops stormed to a 4-1 victory in the capital. Less than 650 Celtic fans were there to witness the second-half demolition, and Parkhead legend Grant believes it's farcial that clubs in Scotland would rather leave seats empty than accomodate more paying customers. And Grant has called on TV bosses at Sky Sports to intervene, claiming it paints a bad picture about our game.

"They [Hearts] should be embarrassed. Scottish football should be embarrassed. Sky should be telling them, if that is who is doing the game they should be saying 'No, no - you sell your tickets fairly'. A friend of mine told me there is two tickets between 11 buses,” he told the Go Radio Football Show (via Football Scotland).

"They will never sell out [Tynecastle], if Celtic or Rangers don't go to these clubs they don't sell out anyway. All the kids that want to go with their fathers that can't get tickets together — it's absolutely scandalous. People are looking and saying they [Celtic fans] don't turn up to games, but no — they don't give us any tickets.

“You continue on and you go through the other stadiums and you see how empty the seats are when Celtic and Rangers are not there. When we have people that are desperate to go to the games and we can't get them through the turnstile it's an absolute joke.

“I understand that Celtic and Rangers have got the problems they have with each other, but at least the stadiums are full for that game, you know? That is the difference. That is ridiculous. All the stadiums you look around — apart from Aberdeen this season, give them their due — but the rest of them should get their finger out.”