Motherwell fans took aim at Premier Sports at Fir Park over the weekend protesting the decision to have Celtic’s Quarter Final tie kicking off at 6:15pm on a Wednesday night. The ‘Well Bois” hoisted the explicit banner during their defeat to Hearts on Sunday, criticising the decision to have the game at an extremely inconvenient time for supporters. The game will take place hours before Rangers host Dundee at Ibrox but it will severely impact upon those hoping to get to the game or even watch it.
Earlier this month, Motherwell CEO Alan Burrows said that the clubs had asked the broadcasters to consider alternatives but they were told no, stating that there were contractual obligations elsewhere to satisfy.
Celtic (and Motherwell) fans, both attending the match and hoping to watch it on TV, are being sacrificed for the sake of the broadcaster. It is particularly shocking that the clubs have raised these concerns and they’ve been ignored due to have contractual obligations elsewhere. Rather than having Celtic on the Tuesday, they’ve decided to shoehorn both games in – likely for marketing purposes. It is not the first time that they have tried to do this – they tried to play two games at Hampden on the same day.