Levein slams SPL's 'lack of compassion' over match at Pittodrie

STUART BATHGATE

CRAIG Levein yesterday slammed the Scottish Premierleague for their insistence that Hearts’ match against Aberdeen should go ahead tomorrow.

The Tynecastle club will hold their annual Remembrance Day Service at the Haymarket war memorial before travelling north for the 4pm kick-off at Pittodrie, but the Hearts coach insisted that the inconvenience was less important than the insensitivity shown by the SPL.

Hearts have held an annual service since shortly after the First World War to commemorate their players who died in the conflict.

Thirteen professionals became the first recruits to the 16th Battalion of the Royal Scots, and many were either killed or wounded at the Somme.

Almost a century on, the event remains one of the most important in the club’s calendar, and a fund-raising drive is currently under way to erect a memorial near the battlefield.

Given this background, Levein believes that the players and officials should not have been forced to rush off from Edinburgh around midday to take part in a mere football match.

"I’m distressed a wee bit by the SPL decision," he said yesterday. "I don’t know if they’re aware of the proud and tragic history of Hearts attached to Remembrance Sunday.

"I’d like there to have been an element of compassion befitting to what Remembrance Sunday means to the club.

"Every year for as long as I can remember the players have attended the service. I was there every year when I was a Hearts player. It’s a very solemn occasion. It’s not just playing the match, it’s playing after the service that’s a problem. I’d have liked the game postponed by at least a day."

The match was in fact originally postponed from the Saturday to be shown live on BBC Scotland. Hearts were then allowed to revert to the Saturday to avoid a clash with the service, but when it became known they would be in UEFA Cup action on the Thursday night the tie was moved back to the Sunday, with the delaying of the kick-off to 4pm the only concession the SPL would make.

"We would have been quite happy to have played on any other Sunday," Levein added. "I don’t want to make a big thing about having to rush. We’ll still attend the service, stop off in Dundee for lunch, and hopefully get to Pittodrie about 3pm.

"It does upset our preparations, but that’s not my main concern. I don’t understand the desperate need to play the game this Sunday.

Taken from the Scotsman