PREPARATIONS for Tuesday's World Cup qualifier between Scotland and Spain at Hampden have been disrupted by an unexpected stand-off between the players and the Scottish FA.

In an unusually strongly-worded statement issued yesterday, the players were urged to “refocus” by the governing body.

The trigger for the fall-out was a message on social media, sent out at exactly the same time on Tuesday night by captain Rachel Corsie and multiple Scotland players. It included a diagram and criticised the SFA for only opening a “fraction” of the national stadium for the match between the top two teams in Group B.

“How are we expected to grow the game when only limited tickets are available for our supporters? Come on @ScotlandNT we can do better,” the message concluded.

There had earlier been a reference to recent record attendances at women's matches, with last week's Champions League quarter-final second leg between Barcelona and Real Madrid at the Camp Nou attracting a crowd of 91,533. The majority of the Spanish squad for Hampden play for these two clubs.

Far from appeasing the players, the SFA issued a stinging response across a number of fronts.

“The ticketing process used at Hampden Park is identical to most across Scottish football, with tickets sold in blocks, in line with ongoing demand,” the statement said. “The procedure is long-established for all events within our stadium – including the recent men's UNICEF friendly against Poland – to optimise the atmosphere for each event.

“The Scottish FA was therefore surprised by the flurry of identical social media posts from members of the Scotland Women's National Team under the misapprehension that insufficient tickets are being sold. Every seat in Hampden Park will be made available should the demand require it – and we urge football fans across the country to do their bit to support Pedro Martinez Losa and his team.”

The final sentence was just about the only conciliatory part of the statement, with the players being criticised for sending out the message during a women's Euro Under-19 group game between Scotland and Kazakhstan, which the young Scots won 3-0.

It also referred to staff working on promoting the match being “hugely disappointed by the post, especially when the question could have been answered easily, and without negative headlines and ill-informed sharing.”

Spain, who will qualify for next year's World Cup as group winners if they win at Hampden, are in action tomorrow when they play Brazil in a friendly.