Hearts raised concerns after their Scottish Premiership title decider against Celtic ended early following a pitch invasion. The Edinburgh club said it wrote to Scottish football authorities about the circumstances surrounding the premature ending of the match. Celtic’s stoppage-time winner secured a 3-1 win and confirmed the title. After the goal, hundreds of Celtic supporters flooded onto the pitch, forcing Hearts players to leave quickly. Hearts said eight minutes of stoppage time had been indicated, but the match appeared to end before the full period elapsed. The Scottish Professional Football League clarified the referee considered the game finished rather than abandoned. Hearts urged authorities to treat the pitch invasion seriously and criticized comments from former Celtic manager Martin O’Neill.
"Our concern is that a troubling precedent has been set whereby a pitch invasion can effectively determine the duration of a football match, rather than the match officials. We have asked them for a prompt response to the points we have raised."
"Although eight minutes of stoppage time had been indicated, the match appeared to end before the full period had elapsed. The Scottish Professional Football League later clarified that the referee considered the game finished rather than abandoned."
"Moments after the goal, hundreds of Celtic supporters flooded onto the pitch as celebrations erupted, forcing Hearts players to leave the field quickly. Callum Osmand's stoppage-time winner secured Celtic a 3-1 win on Saturday and confirmed the title for the Glasgow club."
"Hearts also urged the authorities to treat the pitch invasion seriously and criticised comments made by former Celtic manager Martin O'Neill earlier this week. Speaking on talkSPORT, O'Neill described suggestions that the scenes embarrassed Scottish football as "nonsense" and claimed there had been "a lot of hyperbole" surrounding the reaction."
Read at 101GREATGOALS.COM
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