Football fans have welcomed moves to stop two semi-final matches taking place at Hampden on the same day.
Describing the controversial plans as “a shambles” and “ridiculous”, supporters’ groups from the teams involved in the League Cup games described the decision by the SPFL to look to move one of the matches as common sense.
Aberdeen fans, who faced arriving in Glasgow after the midday kick-off due train scheduling, also said they now hoped that their match against Rangers would be moved to allow fans more time to travel.
Chris Strachan, of the Aberdeen fans’ group Blazing Lambs, said: “Hopefully now they have seen sense and listened to the fans and realised that these fixtures simply should never have been allowed.
“How they ever thought that it was acceptable to host the two matches at the same venue on the same day is unbelievable.
“I hope they now move the Aberdeen match to later in the day to allow fans time to travel to the match.”
Derek Ledingham, of the Aberdeen Granite City supporters club, added that the original scheduling of the semi-finals was “just asking for trouble”.
He said: “There was the potential for four different sets of supporters to meet at the train station or around the city and it just takes one or two idiots to start trouble.”
The two matches were scheduled to take place on October 28 - the Aberdeen-Rangers match at midday and the Celtic-Hearts match at 7.45pm.
However, the SPFL released a statement on Tuesday saying it was now looking to move one of the matches to another venue.
Joe O’Rourke, general secretary of Celtic Supporters Association, welcomed the decision, saying: “The whole thing has been a shambles.
“There were big issues with transport - especially for Aberdeen and Hearts, but also for Celtic and Rangers fans trying to move around the city with that many people.
“There were also issues with safety having four sets of fans in the city on the one day, as well as concerns over the state of the pitch for the second match.
“It was always going to be a struggle, surely now they will reschedule one of the matches or move it to Murrayfield.
“That seems to be the sensible way forward, but that also throws up problems for fans who have already booked transport or accommodation.”
The Rangers Supporters Association described the plan to host the two games at Hampden as “ridiculous”, warning of the problems with transport around the stadium.
General Secretary Claire Wallace said: “Trying to get away from Hampden is difficult at the best of times. I’ve done it both on a supporters bus and on public transport and it can be difficult either way, so I can only imagine who bad it would be with four sets of fans on the same day.
“We should never have had to face that situation in the first place.”
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