Stewart Milne cleared over cup final swearing

Stewart Milne: Cleared by Ofcom over post-cup final slip of the tongue. Picture: Robert Perry

Aberdeen FC’s Stewart Milne won over an army of fans after swearing during a radio interview following his team’s League Cup victory against Inverness Caledonian Thistle.

The tightly contested final went down to penalties - but Adam Rooney’s shot sealed the cup - earning the Dons their first piece of silverware in nearly 20 years.

But during the post-match interview the normally reserved Don’s chairman left BBC pundit Chick Young scrambling to apologise after the expletive hit the airwaves.

Asked for his reaction to the win, Mr Milne said: “Fantastic. 19 years, 120 minutes and then f****** penalties.

“Penalties, my apologies. I hope there was no-one listening.”

The radio clip quickly spread like wildfire amongst Aberdeen fans who felt it summed up the feelings of the tens of thousands of fans who had travelled to Celtic Park for the game on March 16.

Over 40,000 Aberdeen fans packed the terraces at the Parkhead stadium only to see the game go to extra time and then a penalty shoot-out.

Mr Milne’s post-match emotional outburst went down in history for many of the fans on the day - and was soon immortalised on t-shirts and phone covers.

But one BBC Radio Scotland listener was not too pleased about the pre-watershed offensive language and complained to broadcasting regulator Ofcom who started an investigation.

The investigation concluded yesterday and cleared all parties involved despite Ofcom ruling that a breach of broadcasting regulations involving protection of children from offensive language had taken place.

The Ofcom report stated: “Given that the post-match interview was broadcast at 5:50pm on a Sunday, the most offensive language was broadcast at a time when children were particularly likely to be listening.

“Ofcom however took into account that this use of the most offensive language was during a live unscripted interview and that the sports presenter promptly intervened and apologised for the inappropriate language used.

“We noted that further apologies followed by Stewart Milne and the studio presenter.

“Ofcom therefore considers the matter resolved.”