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Daily Record
Daily Record
Sport
Gavin Berry

Celtic and Inverness Scottish Cup Final TV shunt fear sets punters off as Manchester Derby holds the cards

Armchair fans will face a delay to Scottish Cup final coverage on BBC One Scotland if the FA Cup final in England goes into extra time, adding to fans fury over the controversy surrounding the showpiece.

Supporters north of the border have been angered at the switch from the traditional 3pm kick off time at Hampden over fears a clash with the Wembley showpiece could impact on audience figures for the match that will be screened by the national broadcaster and Viaplay. That has resulted in Scotrail putting on extra trains to help Inverness fans making the trip home from Glasgow after the clash with Celtic.

And if the FA Cup final - where Manchester City and Manchester United will battle it out in London - goes to extra-time and penalties, the Scottish Cup will start on BBC Scotland and move to BBC One Scotland when the former is finished.

Some fans are outraged by this, taking to social media to vent their anger. One wrote: "Why are heads not rolling over this? It's pathetic." Another added: "Defeating the whole purpose of moving it away from 3pm in the first first place." Another said: "Those in charge are running the game into the ground. This is embarrassing."

SFA chief executive Ian Maxwell has come under fire after saying they "took the decision that the best thing was to delay the kick-off time to 5.30pm to give it the best opportunity to be seen across the UK" only for it to later emerge that the Scottish Cup final will NOT be beamed to a UK-wide audience, with BBC One in England showing Garden Rescue.

Maxwell previously said: "The Scottish FA's preference was for three o'clock on a Saturday. There are obviously external factors that play a part in any decision about kick-off times and kick-off times have changed. No longer is every game kick-off at three o'clock, there are games played at various times.

"It's the end of our Week of Football, it's very much a flagship competition for us. It signals the end of the Scottish season. We want to give it as much airtime in its own space as possible.

"The English FA Cup Final is on at three o'clock, the Women's Champions League Final is at three o'clock. So you have a decision to make: do you go up against them and diminish the competition and reduce the viewership that you could get across the UK or do you move it and try and give it its own breathing space? That's what we decided to do."

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