Aberdeen, Celtic & Thistle disciplined over pyros

Aberdeen, Celtic and Partick Thistle have been disciplined by the Scottish Professional Football League for their fans ‘ pyrotechnic displays at the end of last season.

The two Premiership clubs will have to close 200 seats if there is a repeat of the “unacceptable conduct”, while Championship outfit Thistle would face the closure of a whole stand after their display was also followed by a pitch invasion.

“All three clubs have been found to have breached SPFL rules in failing to ensure, as far as is reasonably practicable, that their supporters did not engage in” unacceptable conduct “at those matches”, the league said in a statement.

“The clubs were also found to have failed to identify or take proportionate disciplinary measures against the supporters responsible for the pyrotechnic displays and, in Partick Thistle’s case, also against those who carried out the pitch invasion”.

The invasion led to a two-minute delay in the Premiership play-off quarter-final second leg at Somerset Park on 9 May, while a similar delay was caused by Thistle fans using pyrotechnics and throwing them on to the pitch.

The pyrotechnics display by Aberdeen fans during their 14 May match against Celtic led to Sky Sports “having to issue an apology for interruptions to the broadcast following the display, which caused significant smoke clouds to form within the stadium”.

Celtic supporters carried out pyrotechnic displays in the north-east corner of Celtic Park during and prior to the final league game of the season at home to St Mirren on 17 May.

“These incidents caused a health and safety risk to fellow supporters, players and those working at matches, as well as a significant inconvenience to thousands of supporters at the matches and fans watching these games at home”, the SPFL added.

Revealing that their sanction was for “the illegal and unsupervised ignition of at least 14 strobe-effect devices”, Aberdeen warned: “The is the first step on a potential sliding scale of punitive sanctions open to the SPFL, which could get more onerous, resulting in more fans being locked out at games, costing the club significant revenue in the shape of possible fines and/or missed ticketing revenue if there are further incidents of this nature”.