The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
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Cormack confident Pittodriewill betestvenue
Dons chairman Dave Cormack is confident Pittodrie will be the venue of one of three Scottish Premiership test matches this weekend.
Cormack said he is optimistic the Dons will be granted permission from the SPFL and SFA to host a small crowd at Saturday’s visit of Kilmarnock and the following week’s fixture against Motherwell.
The Dons have played three competitive games at Pittodrie so far this season with an opening day 1-0 defeat by Rangers followed by a 2-1 victory against Livingston and a 6-0 thumping of NSI Runavik.
All three matches were behind closed doors with no fans present but the SPFL and SFA are expected to announce today the three venues where test events will take place this weekend.
Cormack confirmed the news in an update to Aberdeen fans on Twitter on Saturday, saying: “I just spoke with Neil Doncaster at the SPFL and we are hopeful of getting the
green light on Monday to host two test events. The first would be next Saturday against Kilmarnock with 300 fans and the following Saturday against Motherwell, which would be 750 fans.
“I mentioned a couple of months ago that we
were hopeful that we would start to get limited crowds back in September. It is September 5 just now and hopefully with the success of these events we will be able to move rapidly forward and get all of our season-ticket holders in.
“A big thank you to all of the clubs, the SPFL and the SFA for all of their hard work over the last couple of months to get us where we are today.
“Not only have the SPFL and the SFA given Aberdeen huge credit for going above and
beyond with what we have done safety-wise, procedure-wise and process-wise at Cormack Park and Pittodrie, but we had the Europa League game against the Faroese team and that had an inspection prior to it.
“The Uefa inspector
not only said we had gone above and beyond but said that what we had done was outstanding.
“Hopefully that bodes well for us at Aberdeen for getting back sooner rather than later to have all of our season-ticket holders into Pittodrie.”
Ross County chairman Roy MacGregor hopes 300 to 500 fans will be able to attend the Staggies’ home tie against Celtic on Saturday.
“Everything from our end is there to make it happen, so we’re just waiting for the final nod,” said MacGregor. Nothing has been officially confirmed.
“We were hoping to hear on Wednesday or Thursday but the government has had a lot on their plate.
“Hopefully, we will get the call on Monday.
“Just to have some
fans in the ground will be a joy.”
Around 700 fans were allowed to attend the PRO14 rugby match between Edinburgh and Glasgow Warriors on August 28.
Speaking to BBC Sportsound, MacGregor said: “Everything is on
paper at the moment. We need to make sure it all works, from the car park to taking a seat in the stand. It would be great to get three trial runs – take notes, make sure there are no incidents. It’s so important to get it right because we’ve all missed that spark.”
MacGregor added: “I don’t think we’ll see any away fans or walk-ups.
“At two metres (for social distancing), we’ve worked out we could use about 25% of the stadium, which is about 1,600 or 1,700 – and we have more season-ticket holders than that.”