Hearts have condemned the “shameful” scenes that followed Celtic dramatically clinching the Scottish Premiership title in Glasgow on Saturday, and confirmed they are in dialogue with the police as the club investigates “reports of serious physical and verbal abuse towards our players and staff.”
The team made a hasty exit from Celtic Park after their Scottish Premiership dream ended in acrimonious fashion, with some of their players appearing to have been hurt as Celtic supporters spilled on to the pitch.
Immediately after Callum Osmand made it 3-1 deep into stoppage time of their title decider, thousands ran on to the playing surface to celebrate even though the full-time whistle had not been heard.
Several confronted the crestfallen Hearts players, who were ushered down the tunnel by club officials concerned for their safety, and the match — approaching the end of the indicated eight minutes of added time — did not restart.
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“Heart of Midlothian utterly condemns the shameful scenes at Celtic Park this afternoon which have, once again, embarrassed Scottish football,” the Edinburgh club said in a statement on Saturday.
“Reports 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.”
With Celtic’s players and supporters still inside the ground waiting to lift the trophy, the Hearts team bus left Parkhead with players still in their match kits within 20 minutes of the full-time whistle and did not carry out their post-match media duties.
“The pitch invasion caused a chaotic end and nobody seemed to know whether or not the match had been brought to a finish.
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“Our players were then denied the opportunity to thank our magnificent fans — sensational to a person — for their backing this afternoon and all season long.
“We 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.”
Celtic boss Martin O’Neill said: “If some Hearts players have been accosted, then that’s just not right at all.
“I genuinely didn’t see the scenes at the end because I thought the game wasn’t over, so I’m trying to push some of our fans off the pitch again to play whatever’s left.
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“Obviously, at 3-1, I think that the fourth official had said to me, there was like a minute to go when we scored the goal, so with the best will in the world, they’re not going to get two goals in that time.
“Obviously, there’s a lot of commotion in the tunnel, so I don’t know, but getting back to the point, if Hearts players have been accosted by some of our fans, that’s pretty serious. Honestly, I’m not pushing it to the side, it’ll be something that the officials or people will have to look at.”
Information from ESPN’s Rob Dawson contributed to this story.
