Hearts informed Scottish Premiership title loss at Celtic ended after fan pitch invasion

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ended following a pitch invasion by the home side’s fans. There were still 40 seconds left of stoppage time when Callum Osmand scored Celtic’s third goal in the 97th minute — along with stoppages that happened within the minimum added time of eight minutes — when thousands of Celtic fans broke onto the pitch. Hearts players subsequently were ushered off the field of play, but several appeared to be confronted by Celtic fans who had entered into the area. It is anticipated that the Edinburgh-based club will ask questions relating to the security situation and the safety of its players during the game. There had been a lack of clarity on whether referee Don Robertson had blown the full-time whistle to signal the official ending of the match, with failing to do so opening the possibility of a match postponement and the game not formally being concluded. Hearts players did not re-enter the pitch, with it taking several minutes for the fans to be cleared from the playing areas. Both Hearts and the SPFL have been informed that the officials had formally concluded the game following the incident. The International Football Association Board (IFAB) laws of the game state that the referee has the power to stop, suspend or abandon a game because of outside interference, such as spectator behaviour. The laws also state that an abandoned match is replayed unless the competition rules or organisers determine otherwise. IFAB’s rules also saw that the result of the match is the decision of the referee, and must be considered as the final decision. There were similar scenes after Celtic’s late winner at Motherwell on Wednesday and after the Scottish Cup quarter-final victory over Old Firm rivals Rangers when both sets of fans entered the field after the penalty shoot-out. A similar scenario unfolded in Czech Republic earlier this month when fans of Slavia Prague, leading 3-2 against their city rivals and title challengers Sparta Prague, ran onto the pitch while the game was still ongoing in the late stages of stoppage time, to celebrate the title win. Sparta were awarded a 3-0 victory and Slavia were banned from having home fans for four matches.  It only delayed Slavia’s title crowning by a week, however, as they have an unassailable lead of seven points over Sparta with two games remaining. The Edinburgh club had been on course to win the league for the first time since 1960 going into the final-day fixture at Celtic, where a draw would have secured the title, but the home side scored twice in the closing stages to win 3-1 and secure their 13th title in 14 seasons. Having led the league for 226 days, the final day defeat to Celtic saw Hearts lose out on the title by two points. Hearts were aggrieved at two officiating decisions that left them needing to avoid defeat at Celtic Park to become champions. Manager Derek McInnes says that head of refereeing Willie Collum accepted they should have been awarded a penalty in the 1-1 draw with Motherwell last weekend and called the stoppage-time penalty that saw Celtic beat Motherwell 3-2 in midweek “disgusting”. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms