GLASGOW, Scotland \u2014 Scottish soccer authorities say they \u201cutterly condemn\u201d the field invasion that followed Celtic\u2019s title-sealing goal in its\u00a0thrilling final-round showdown\u00a0with Hearts.<\/p>\n
Callum Osmand\u2019s goal in the eighth and last minute of stoppage time sealed a 3-1 win for Celtic on Saturday and sparked wild celebrations among its fans, with hundreds running onto the pitch and getting close to Hearts\u2019 dejected players.<\/p>\n
Hearts captain Lawrence Shankland was reportedly punched by a Celtic fan as he tried to leave the field, with the game appearing to end before playing the full amount of stoppage time.<\/p>\n
The Hearts delegation quickly left Celtic Park and players were still dressed in game uniforms when they got off the team bus at their Tynecastle Park home. The club said \u201creports of serious physical and verbal abuse towards our players and staff\u201d were \u201cdeeply disturbing\u201d and called for the \u201cstrongest action possible to be taken\u201d by Scotland\u2019s soccer authorities.<\/p>\n
In a statement released Sunday, the Scottish Professional Football League said it was awaiting the report from its match delegate regarding any specific incidents that took place.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut, regardless, supporters entering the field of play in any circumstances is wholly unacceptable,\u201d the body said, \u201cand puts those participating and working at a match at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n
The SPFL felt it necessary to make clear that \u201cprior to awarding the trophy, we were informed by the match referee that the match had ended and had not been abandoned.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYesterday\u2019s match showed off the very best of the Scottish game and the drama and excitement that it is rightly famed for,\u201d the statement added.<\/p>\n
Celtic was crowned champion for the fifth straight year and 14th time in 15 seasons, while Hearts \u2014 the long-time leader \u2014 was denied a first Scottish league title since 1960.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GLASGOW, Scotland \u2014 Scottish soccer authorities say they \u201cutterly condemn\u201d the field invasion that followed Celtic\u2019s title-sealing goal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":675948,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-675947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=675947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/675948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=675947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=675947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=675947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}