• Football

Swearing fans delay Scottish Premiership broadcast

ESPN staff
February 24, 2014
Crowd language at Victoria Park was deemed too colourful for a pre-watershed broadcast © Getty Images
Enlarge

A torrent of foul language from fans at the Scottish Premiership clash between Ross County and St Mirren on Saturday forced a local BBC broadcast of the game to be delayed by over five hours.

The match, which finished 2-1 to Ross County, finished at 5.30pm - the same time the broadcast was supposed to begin 'as live' on BBC Alba.

But producers were concerned by the amount of swearing being picked up on microphones around Ross County's Victoria Park stadium, forcing them to delay the broadcast until after the watershed at 11pm. The delay allowed the radio station to edit out the colourful language in time for the amended broadcast.

Margot McCuaig, the managing director of mneTV who was producing the broadcast, announced the decision on Twitter.

A BBC Alba spokesperson said: "In compliance with the rules set by Ofcom, where no programme that carries offensive language can be broadcast pre-watershed, BBC Alba had no choice but to defer broadcast of today's Ross County v St Mirren match until post-watershed due to bad language picked up from the crowds."

The match was a volatile encounter on the pitch as well as off it, with County boss Derek Adams and his opposite number Danny Lennon both receiving their marching orders after they were held apart during a heated discussion on the touchline.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd
ESPN staff Close

ABOUT COOKIES

To help make this website better, to improve and personalize your experience and for advertising purposes, are you happy to accept cookies and other technologies.

More Info Here Cookie Choices