The Murrayfield DAFS 4th XI playing against Stewart’s Melville at Roseburn on Saturday was forced to abandon the match because of incidents of alleged abuse and physical assault by football supporters headed to Scottish Gas Murrayfield.
The Rangers v Manchester United football friendly was played at Scottish Gas Murrayfield on Saturday afternoon with kick off initially due to take place at 4.00pm. Play began at the delayed time of 4.15 to allow fans to “enter the ground safely” according to Rangers FC.
As the fans passed the cricket pitch in the public park, which DAFS rent from Edinburgh Leisure on behalf of The City of Edinburgh Council, the club alleges there were incidents of sexist, homophobic and racist abuse made against the cricketers. On X the club also said that police standing only 50 yards away did nothing to assist – and refused to help. As a result the club abandoned the match and players left the field.
A spokesman for the cricket club told The Edinburgh Reporter that the matter has been reported to Police Scotland.
A Police Scotland spokesperson told us: “Officers are carrying out enquiries after reports of abuse being directed towards players during a cricket match at Roseburn Park, Edinburgh on Saturday, 20 July 2024.”
Stewart’s Melville Cricket Club said that they were very disappointed about the experience of their 4th team at Roseburn Park.
A spokesperson for Stewart’s Melville said: “The treatment suffered by both teams in our 4th XI match against Murrayfield DAFs at Roseburn Park was completely unacceptable. All the players involved deserve credit for the manner in which they handled the situation. The club will be happy to assist the relevant authorities with anything required”.
All other organisations with an interest in the matter including local politicians have been contacted for comment.
Edinburgh Live reported on Saturday that “balaclava wearing football fans” caused police to halt traffic on Slateford Road around 3pm.
Rangers FC reported that 56,574 people attended the match at Murrayfield – less than the 73,000 strong audience who came to the ground to see megastar Taylor Swift last month. The match could not be played at Ibrox due to work being carried out there this summer meaning it will be unavailable for around two months while 600 extra seats are added. Many other Rangers pre-season fixtures will be played in England.
At the time Scottish Rugby’s Director of Stadium and Development Operations, Mark Laidlaw, said that the Taylor Swift concert “was a huge achievement” and evidenced the cross organisation work involved in staging events at Murrayfield.
He continued: “Not just for everyone from Scottish Rugby who worked on making this event happen, but also for all partners that we have worked with since the tour was announced last year. We work closely with Edinburgh City Council, the emergency services and local travel providers for all of our events and I would like to thank them all for their support, both for the recent concerts and for other such events.”
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