Disciplinary Outcomes | Scottish Cup Final

[ian1964 10,720]

Wednesday, 28 September 2016

 

A Judicial Panel convened for the purposes of a preliminary hearing on the following Notices of Complaint:

 

Alleged party in breach: Hibernian FC

Match: Hibernian FC v Rangers FC (Scottish Cup Final - Saturday 21st May 2016)

 

Disciplinary rule allegedly breached: Disciplinary Rule 311

 

In that at the above match you failed to adhere to the Cup Competition Rules, specifically Rule 28 of the Rules of The Scottish Cup. That at the above match damage was sustained to Hampden Stadium, being the stadium where the Scottish Cup Final was played, as a consequence of misbehaviour by supporters of your Club. That the misbehaviour by your supporters occurred at the conclusion of the above match, whereby a number of your supporters carried out an incursion onto the pitch, and thereafter remained upon the pitch until cleared by Police Scotland and Stewards. That in the course of this misbehaviour by your supporters damage was sustained to the stadium, as follows:

 

(i) To the surface of the pitch, portions of which were removed; and/or

(ii) To a set of goal posts which were broken and had netting removed; and/or

(iii) To parts of the LED advertising system situated at the perimeter of the pitch, in the vicinity of both the East Stand, and/or the North Stand; and/or

(iv) To advertising hoardings situated at the perimeter of the pitch, in the vicinity of the East Stand.

 

Outcome: The panel dismissed the complaint.

 

 

The Panel Chair's Notes of Reasons can be found here

 

 

Case Two

 

Alleged party in breach: Rangers FC

Match: Hibernian FC v Rangers FC (Scottish Cup Final - Saturday 21st May 2016)

 

Disciplinary rule allegedly breached: Disciplinary Rule 311

 

In that at the above match you failed to adhere to the Cup Competition Rules, specifically Rule 28 of the Rules of The Scottish Cup. That at the above match damage was sustained to Hampden Stadium, being the stadium where the Scottish Cup Final was played, as a consequence of misbehaviour by supporters of your Club. That the misbehaviour by your supporters occurred at the conclusion of the above match whereby, following on from a pitch incursion by supporters of Hibernian FC, a number of your supporters also carried out an incursion onto the pitch. That thereafter supporters of your Club who had engaged in the pitch incursion remained upon the pitch until cleared by Police Scotland and Stewards. That in the course of this misbehaviour by your supporters damage was sustained to the stadium, as follows:

 

(i) To parts of the LED advertising system situated at the perimeter of the pitch, in the vicinity of the North Stand, and /or the West Stand; and/or

(ii) To advertising hoardings situated at the perimeter of the pitch, in the vicinity of the West Stand.

 

Outcome: In light of the Hibernian FC determination, the Complaint against Rangers FC is withdrawn.

 

http://www.scottishfa.co.uk/scottish_fa_news.cfm?page=2566&newsCategoryID=1&newsID=16527

 

PDF - http://www.scottishfa.co.uk/resources/documents/Disciplinary/Decision%20of%20Judicial%20Panel%20-%20Hibernian%20FC.pdf

Edited September 28, 2016 by ian1964

[BEARGER 1,830]

SFA have withdrawn complaints against Rangers and Hibs re SC final!!!!

Edited September 28, 2016 by BEARGER

[Bluedell 5,607]

So a pitch invasion and multiple assaults on players and staff of Rangers are being swept under the carpet?

[BEARGER 1,830]

Assaults were not on the "charge sheet". See other thread further down for copy.

[SteveC 150]

Stunning. Even by recent years' standards (or lack thereof) ....stunning!

[ian1964 10,720]

Can admin merge these threads?

[craig 5,199]

Holy fuck.

 

If ever we knew that the SFA, and Regan in particular, are not fit for purpose then this is it.

 

Absolutely incredible decision. Words simply cannot describe how utterly useless I feel the SFA are.

[ian1964 10,720]

The disciplinary case against Hibernian over the pitch invasion that followed the Scottish Cup final has been dismissed as "irrelevant".

 

And, as a result of the SFA judicial panel decision, the case against Rangers has also been withdrawn.

 

A large-scale invasion by fans at full-time was followed by clashes between supporters from both sides on 21 May.

Meanwhile, Hibs say they have now paid money to the SFA following damage to the pitch at Hampden.

 

Hibs won the match 3-2 to win the Scottish Cup for the first time since 1902.

'Strict liability'

 

Clubs, at an SFA board meeting in 2013, voted against an amendment to the organisation's articles which would have led to strict liability - clubs being held responsible for the behaviour of their supporters.

 

And, on this basis, the judicial panel ruled that Hibs could not be punished following fans' actions in the aftermath of the match.

 

Both clubs were charged by the SFA of breaching disciplinary rule 311.

 

In both cases the following references were made:

 

"damage was sustained to Hampden Stadium...as a consequence of misbehaviour by supporters of your Club"

"the misbehaviour by your supporters occurred at the conclusion of the above match, whereby a number of your supporters carried out an incursion onto the pitch, and thereafter remained upon the pitch until cleared by Police Scotland and Stewards"

"in the course of this misbehaviour by your supporters damage was sustained to the stadium"

 

The panel chair's notes of reason on the decision to dismiss the case against Hibs begins with the statement: "The Panel unanimously dismiss the complaint as irrelevant."

 

The notes continued: "[Compliance officer] Mr [Tony] McGlennan accepted that he is relying on Rule 28 to import strict liability to the club for the actions of the supporters. The panel has to be satisfied that the provisions are clear and unambiguous and do not conflict with requirements of procedural fairness and natural justice before taking that step."

 

And, in closing, the notes of reason state: "It may be thought odd that there is no apparent disciplinary sanction for this event. But that is a matter for the members to deal with, in clear terms, rather than for the Judicial Panel to innovate by a purposive interpretation of the rules. From the information which we have, there is a limited appetite for strict liability within Scottish football."

'Reparation or restitution'

 

The panel also say the "decision is without prejudice to the right of the SFA to seek reparation or restitution".

 

Following the decision, Hibs said in a statement: "Hibernian FC welcomes the decision of the Judicial Panel which has dismissed the complaint raised against the club for the reasons set out in the judgment.

"Receipt of the complaint was the first quantification to the club of the damage to the pitch at Hampden. The club has today paid that sum to the Scottish FA."

 

Following the cup final, the SFA asked Sheriff Principal Edward Bowen to investigate the pitch invasion.

 

Sheriff principal Bowen's independent report said the Scottish government should consider making it a criminal offence to run on to a football pitch and that neither club were to blame for crowd trouble.

 

Later in Hibs' statement on Wednesday, the club's chief executive Leeann Dempster said: "We hope that this now brings an end to the matter and the Scottish FA can concentrate on implementing the recommendations made by the Independent Commissioner, Sheriff Principal Bowen."

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/37500343

[ian1964 10,720]

This puts our board in a bit of a pickle!,our players and staff were assaulted!,wonder what their statement will say?

[boabie 230]

Does anyone think the outcome would have been the same if it was our fans who invaded the park, assaulted players, challenged the opposition fans to fight, ripped up the turf and destroyed a set of goalposts ?

No. I didn't think so.