Former Aberdeen favourite Robbie Winters reckons the Dons are well within their rights to ask for a 50-50 split of Betfred Cup semi-final tickets.
Echoing the calls of the club’s chief executive Duncan Fraser, who said on Monday that is what the Dons would be pushing for, Winters sees no reason why they should not be listened to.
The Dons will now kick-off at 4.30pm at Hampden Park on October 28, with the other semi-final between Celtic and Hearts moved to Murrayfield with a 1.30pm start. It comes a week after the SPFL originally announced that both games would be played on the same day at Hampden, with Aberdeen furious at being handed a noon kick-off against the Gers.
Winters, who famously went in goal after an injury to Jim Leighton in the 2000 Scottish Cup final, hopes to see the Dons well represented when the last-four contest finally gets played.
He said: “The way Aberdeen are playing just now, they have got a great support who want to come and see them. They’ve been doing well, getting into semi-finals and finals, and fans want to come in their thousands. They’re quite right to ask for a 50-50 split. Why not? If you don’t ask, you don’t get.
“As a player, it’s not something that’s really on your mind. You’re focused on the job at hand. No matter what happens (with tickets), there’s always some atmosphere in semi-finals and they’re great games to play in.”
The 2000 final saw the Dons awarded just under 7,000 tickets less than their opponents Rangers and two appeals for a 50-50 split were rejected by the Scottish FA.
It prompted an independent supporters’ group to take legal action, in a bid to stop the tickets being distributed. Clubs were due to find out their allocations earlier this week, however the changes in the semi-final arrangements have meant a delay.
Winters, who scored in a League Cup semi-final for Dundee United against Aberdeen in 1997, was pleased to see common sense prevail and the original “Super Sunday” proposals scrapped.
He added: “It does make much more sense. There’s so many more complications for fans, police and traffic to have it one day. It was ridiculous to think they could have done it.
“From a health and safety perspective, you don’t want four sets of fans congregating in the same place. You want families and children to come in their thousands at a full stadium.”