EUROPEAN CUP/News: Munster will receive their allocation of 4,000 tickets for their Heineken Cup quarter-final match against Leicester Tigers on April 13th.

Following a number of weeks of negotiation between Leicester, Munster and the European Rugby Cup (ERC), Leicester finally issued a statement yesterday stating that Munster's demand for 25 per cent of the capacity of Welford Road would be honoured.

In the end 11,800 Leicester supporters from a possible 13,000 took up their tickets for the match. With Welford Road's capacity set at 16,845, the club have in excess of the 4,000 tickets Munster are seeking under the regulations of the competition's Participation Agreement.

"We have notified the ERC on several occasions that we will be able to comply with the terms of the Participation Agreement," said Leicester managing director David Clayton in a club statement.

"The ERC have advised that Munster require 4,000 tickets, the first time they have put a figure on it. Although it is not our interpretation of the ticket requirements, we have informed the ERC that we will be complying with the Munster request."

It brings to an end what was becoming an unseemly squabble over tickets, although the ERC had consistently backed Munster's interpretation of the competition regulations, which said they were entitled to 25 per cent of the ground's capacity. The ERC were insistent that Leicester comply and had hinted that they were prepared to move the match to a different venue in the UK if the champions did not come up with the 4,000 tickets.

"It is within the rights of the ERC to move the fixture to an alternative venue if the club has not complied with the terms of the Participation Agreement," said ERC Communication Manager Diarmuid Murphy earlier this week. But the issue is likely to arise again with the allocation of tickets for visiting teams needing to be defined more clearly. Had Leicester fans taken up the entire allocation, the interpretation of the Participation Agreement may have come down to a legal dispute between the club and organising body.

Leicester's original view was that visiting teams were entitled to 25 per cent of the tickets available for sale, not 25 per cent of the ground capacity and to that end they issued a statement in February suggesting Munster would not receive the full allocation .

Munster are expected to easily sell the 4,000 tickets.