The Scottish Football Association has insisted the crowd trouble at this evening’s Aberdeen-Rangers game will not affect their Euro 2008 bid. Rangers beat Aberdeen 1-0 this evening to stay thirteen points behind leaders Celtic. Lorenzo Amoruso clinched the game for Rangers with a stunning strike in the 36th minute.
SFA spokesman Andy Mitchell said the trouble at Pittodrie was an “isolated incident” and would not affect any possible bid. “There are no fears over Euro 2008 at all. For a start, this is an isolated incident and 2008 relates to international football and not club football. The excellent behaviour of Scotland fans abroad counts far more than one isolated incident of crowd misbehaviour.”
The Republic of Ireland's prospects of jointly hosting the 2008 European Championships with Scotland took a blow earlier this week. The Scottish Executive has continued to delay a clarification of backing for £80m-worth of ground improvement plans.
This evening’s game had been disrupted for 17 minutes after Aberdeen's Robbie Winters was hit in the head by a coin thrown from the Rangers section. This led to a charge by Aberdeen fans, and over 50 riot police had to separate the factions by forming a human barrier as referee Mike McCurry led the players from the pitch.
Winters says that the referee was right to stop the game. “I could just see coins flying by my head but the referee stopped it and said to try and get on with it. But one eventually hit the back of my head but it had to be stopped because there was £10 worth of change out there. It was not the sort of thing you want to see in Scottish football. I'm fine. I'm sure a pound coin would have caused a bit more damage but there is just a wee lump at the back of my head.”
Rangers goalscorer Lorenzo Amoruso was disgusted by the behaviour of a minority of the fans inside the ground: “It is a shame when you see something like that. Of course, we can call fans who do these kind of very bad things very rude things. We should never forget that football should be an enjoyment for everybody -players, fans, kids and everybody. Anybody involved in this kind of thing is a very, bad person.”
Earlier today, Celtic survived an early scare to win 2-1 over St Johnstone at Parkhead. Darren Dods stunned the champions with an early goal but Celtic hit back with goals from Alan Thompson and Henrik Larsson to clinch victory.
Elsewhere, third placed Livingston pulled away from fourth-placed Hearts with a 2-0 victory. This win means Livingston move nine clear of the Edinburgh club, thanks to second-half goals by David Bingham and David Fernandez. Alan Maybury had been sent off for Hearts just before the break.
In today’s other games, Dundee United beat city rivals Dundee 1-0 with a last-minute goal by Jim McIntyre, Dunfermline Athletic defeated Motherwell 3-1 and Hibernian drew 2-2 with Kilmarnock.
Filed by Greg McKevitt
