{"id":452859,"date":"2026-05-17T02:48:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T02:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/452859\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T02:48:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T02:48:14","slug":"hearts-contact-police-and-condemn-shameful-abuse-of-players-and-staff-after-celtic-defeat-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/452859\/","title":{"rendered":"Hearts contact police and condemn \u2018shameful\u2019 abuse of players and staff after Celtic defeat \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hearts have issued a statement castigating the \u201cshameful\u201d and \u201cdisgraceful\u201d scenes which marred the conclusion to the Scottish Premiership\u2019s title race at Celtic Park. The Edinburgh club has emphasised \u201cdeeply disturbing\u201d treatment of players and staff. Celtic\u2019s<\/a> last-day victory had secured their fifth title in succession.<\/p>\n

Callum Osmand\u2019s goal for Celtic, the third in a 3-1 win, fuelled a mass pitch invasion which saw Hearts players antagonised and confronted. Those who entered the pitch were audibly booed by those in the stands.<\/p>\n

The Hearts squad duly left the pitch, before the end of stoppage time, with the game never restarted. They headed immediately back to Tynecastle Park under police escort.<\/p>\n

\u201cHeart of Midlothian utterly condemns the shameful scenes at Celtic Park this afternoon which have, once again, embarrassed Scottish football,\u201d said a club statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cReports of serious physical and verbal abuse towards our players and staff, both on the pitch and elsewhere, are deeply disturbing. We are investigating this fully and are in dialogue with Police Scotland. We will make no further comment at this time other than to say that it is completely unacceptable that our players and staff were put in that situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the menacing and threatening atmosphere inside the stadium, our entire staff had no alternative but to leave immediately, without undertaking post-match media duties. To our media partners, we apologise but the safety of our staff was our prime focus during these unacceptable scenes. The pitch invasion caused a chaotic end and nobody seemed to know whether or not the match had been brought to a finish.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CelticCeltic manager Martin O’Neill lifts the Scottish Premier League trophy at Celtic Park. Photograph: Andrew Milligan\/PA Wire <\/p>\n

These words came almost five hours after the match finished. Celtic and the Scottish Professional Football League were yet to say anything on the situation at that point. Callum McGregor, the Celtic captain, shrugged off the pitch invasion while the title-winning manager Martin O\u2019Neill said he was unaware of Hearts players being targeted.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not pleading the fifth amendment, I don\u2019t know at the end of the day but if some Hearts players have been accosted then it\u2019s just not right at all,\u201d O\u2019Neill said. \u201cI thought the game wasn\u2019t over so I was trying to push some of our fans off the pitch. There was a lot of commotion in the tunnel. I\u2019m not pushing it to the side, it is something people will have to look at.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neill explained the fourth official had told him there remained a minute to play but that when the Hearts manager Derek McInnes shook his hand and offered congratulations, he assumed the match was finished.<\/p>\n

Back in Edinburgh, Hearts players were afforded a rousing reception from supporters having come agonisingly close to a first title since 1960. There has been no Scottish champion other than Celtic or Rangers since 1985.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur players were denied the opportunity to thank our magnificent fans \u2013 sensational to a person \u2013 for their backing this afternoon and all season long,\u201d Hearts added. \u201cWe expect the strongest action possible to be taken by the footballing authorities in the interests of protecting the safety of players and supporters, and the integrity of our game.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis season has seen Hearts capture the imagination of football fans, not only in Scotland, but the world over. We pay tribute to Derek McInnes, his staff, the first team and the supporters, who have done the club proud this season. None of them deserved the disgraceful scenes that unfolded.\u201d \u2013 Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hearts have issued a statement castigating the \u201cshameful\u201d and \u201cdisgraceful\u201d scenes which marred the conclusion to the Scottish…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452860,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2675,61,60,112],"class_list":["post-452859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-celtic","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}