Fiorentina v Hearts ticket update after away briefs for Florence trip sell out within minutes

Hearts have dismissed hopes of being granted an extra tranche of tickets for next week’s Conference League match away to Fiorentina, despite their initial allocation being snapped up quickly as demand exceeded supply.

Hearts take on Fiorentina at the Stadio Artemio Franchi next week.

Given 2,314 by the Serie A side, the last remaining briefs went on sale to supporters with over 100 loyalty points at 10am on Tuesday, but all 200 were sold out within minutes, leaving hundreds of fans disappointed.

And, the Gorgie club have revealed that, despite appeals for a bigger assignment, there will be no additional sections of the Artemio Franchi Stadium turned over to Scottish supporters.

“We requested more than we got but we were told ‘no’,” said a club spokesperson. “We are only entitled to 5 per cent of the stadium and the amount they gave us is slightly more than 5 per cent so that is it. We are not getting any more.”

That is despite news that home sales have proved sluggish and vast swathes of the stadium could be left unoccupied.

The Italians have had a tough start to the UEFA Conference League group stages, drawing 1-1 with RFS Riga in their opening fixture, in Florence, and then losing 2-0 to Istanbul Başakşehir in Turkey. They currently occupy the bottom spot in Group A.

Their third match is against Hearts, at a sold-out Tynecastle on Thursday night, before the reverse fixture a week later.

But that game has failed to capture the imagination of the disenchanted Viola supporters and, with well over half of the Fiorentina seats in their 43,000-capacity ground still available to buy, several hundred Hearts fans – who are already booked up to travel to Tuscany – are buying up tickets for the areas of the home end nearest the travelling support. They will hope that common sense prevails on the night and they will be able to bypass the stringent Italian security checks to bolster maroon legions inside the ground.

The Edinburgh side started their Conference League campaign with a home defeat to Başakşehir but moved into second place with victory over RFS in Latvia last time out, thanks to goals from Lawrence Shankland and Alan Forrest.

Around 1,000 fans had been expected to travel to Riga for that match but double that number ended up making the trip.