Plans to have around 100,000 football fans converge on Glasgow for two cup semi-finals on the same day have been branded “absolutely nonsensical”.
The Scottish Professional Football League and Police Scotland announced the unprecedented move to cope with a fixture problem but there are fears over fans’ safety.
The Betfred Cup semi-finals – the traditional League Cup – will see both major matches played on Sunday, October 28.
Semi-finals plan branded “absolutely nonsensical”
Aberdeen will play Rangers at noon with Hearts versus Celtic kicking off at 7.45pm.
The plan is the SPFL’s solution to a problem caused by both Glasgow clubs’ involvement in the Europa League on the previous Thursday night.
This effectively ruled out the normal practice of spreading the two games out over a weekend.
But the plan would see more than 100,000 supporters from four clubs with large supports flooding into Glasgow’s south side.
Crowd safety must be paramount
MSP James Kelly described the decision as “ absolutely nonsensical” and said it must be reconsidered.
He added: “The idea that Hampden is equipped to cope with two 50,000-attendance games in the space of hours is bizarre. There are likely to be serious problems with transport as it takes an age to leave Hampden by public transport as it is, never mind with 100,000 people coming and going.
“Crowd safety must be paramount and the SPFL should review this with full input from the police and other bodies.”
SPFL secretary Iain Blair stressed he and colleagues had to find a solution that gave Celtic and Rangers the “necessary two-day gap between competitive matches”.
Blair said: “Because they both have a UEFA Europa League match on Thursday 25 October, we had to find a solution which gave them the necessary two-day gap between competitive matches.”
Both Hearts and Aberdeen condemned the decision.
Aberdeen said they have repeatedly asked for the authorities to stop giving them “completely unacceptable” kick-off times.
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