Transmission of football match delayed because fans were swearing too much

A BBC television channel delayed transmission of a Scottish Premiership football match until after the watershed because of the amount of swearing that could be heard from fans. Ross County's match with St Mirren was supposed to have been broadcast "as live" by BBC Alba at 5:30pm on Saturday. But the transmission was delayed until 10:55pm.



The channel had been concerned the amount of bad language would have breached Ofcom guidelines. BBC Alba, which is the BBC's Scottish Gaelic language channel, had been scheduled to broadcast the match in its entirety shortly after the final whistle. But it decided to delay the transmission after realising that bad language could clearly be heard on its microphones, which were placed around the ground.

A tweet by Margot McCuaig, managing director of mneTV, which was producing the broadcast for BBC Alba, said: "Unfortunately @TheStaggies v @saintmirrenfc won't transmit on #BBCALBA at 5.30pm due to bad language from crowd. Will be on at 11pm. Sorry!" A spokeswoman for BBC Alba later said the delay to the transmission had allowed producers to edit out the bad language.



BBC Scotland sports reporter Jim Spence later tweeted: "Bad language delays transmission of BBC Alba Ross Co v St Mirren game tonight. that's ###@@@€€€€#### ridiculous". More than 3,000 fans attended the game at the Global Energy Stadium in Dingwall, which Ross County won 2-1. Ross County manager Derek Adams and his St Mirren counterpart Danny Lennon had to be pulled apart after confronting each other on the touchline as tempers frayed during the match. They were both sent to the stand by referee Willie Collum.