Hearts manager Craig Levein has branded the Betfred Cup semi-final schedule the “craziest” decision he has experienced in football.
Levein is furious at the Scottish Professional Football League for setting a 7.45pm kick-off time for their Hampden clash with Celtic on October 28.
The former Scotland boss also understands Aberdeen’s frustration at being told to face Rangers at noon on the same day given the travel problems it poses for Dons fans.
Levein highlighted possible issues for the pitch and the potential for crowd trouble as factors which could tarnish Scottish football’s image.
But he was most frustrated on behalf of the Hearts fans and players.
“It’s the craziest thing I’ve probably experienced in football,” Levein said. “It’s just madness, honestly. There’s so many things that could go wrong.
“The first thing is that we’ve not been to a semi-final for five years. We want to go and play at Hampden and we want our supporters to be there in numbers. That is my priority.
“I want 50 per cent of the tickets. I want to go to Hampden and make it feel like we’ve got a huge Hearts presence there. There’s one thing for certain – we’re not getting that on a Sunday night at 7.45.
“I’ve got players talking to me about how disappointed their families are that they can’t come and watch their dad playing in a semi-final. That’ll go for our supporters and probably Aberdeen’s are the ones that suffer most because of the travel arrangements and the the very nature of when the game is.
“I just don’t understand how they can come to that decision and think it’s all right. That’s the thing with me, it just doesn’t compute with me.
“We need supporters to come to the game to make it what it is. And we’re actually discouraging them from coming to the game. It’s absolute madness.”
Levein believes there is an alternative solution to the problem posed by both Glasgow clubs’ involvement in the Europa League.
“Our biggest advantage against Celtic in this semi-final is Celtic playing on the Thursday evening in Europe,” he said. “In my opinion I would give that up to have 25,000 Hearts supporters at Hampden to help us.
“We play Celtic the following week so why don’t we just cancel that game, reschedule it further down the line and play that day?
“What’s wrong with that? Is that not a better solution?
“If they are saying this is the best solution then they’ve not done their jobs properly, because it is not the best solution. In fact, it could possibly be the worst decision.”
Levein argued it was a mistake to sign a contract which ensured Celtic and Rangers must play semi-finals at Hampden.
Speaking ahead of the Ladbrokes Premiership leaders’ encounter with St Johnstone, he added: “Listen, I’m getting annoyed. But I just don’t understand how you can say this is the best option, and we’ve not really talked about some of the other things that could go wrong – 100,000 supporters of four different clubs in Glasgow and it could be at the same time.
“Why would you tempt fate with so many things that could happen that would tarnish the name of Scottish football. This just defies any sort of logic.
“If it pours with rain then we have a situation that there’s no way they could fix the pitch. There’s no way, it just won’t happen.”
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