Our game is a laughing stock - Riley

HIBS fans' chief Mike Riley today claimed that the uncertainty hanging over today's SPL fixture list has turned Scottish football into a laughing stock.

There were still doubts as to whether Hibs' game against St Johnstone would go ahead today after Portuguese referee Cosme Machado arrived in the country, only to pull out of the game and head home within hours.

Riley, chairman of the Hibs Supporters' Association, blasted the SFA's handling of the strike by the country's Category 1 referees and believes that the whole situation could have been avoided.

Riley said: "It's an absolute farce, the way that the whole thing has been handled. We have got people from the Borders and Fife who come along to the game, who will have to travel through the bad weather today and there might not even be a game on at the end of the day.

"And it's not just us. The St Johnstone fans are getting just as much of a raw deal as we are because they will have to leave fairly early in the day to get to Edinburgh.

"The SFA have not covered themselves in glory with this whole situation, if there was a chance that our own referees were going to strike then they should have had something in place before now.

"At the end of the day, the SFA should have been stricter with the managers and the clubs over the criticism that they have been handing out - they should have put measures in place before now. I can see why the referees have taken a stand.

"The whole situation is nothing short of a joke and I think that the SFA have made a laughing stock out of Scottish football." And Riley admitted that losing out on a weekend's takings at the Hibs Supporters' Club in Sunnyside would be a massive blow.

He continued: "I am the chairman at Sunnyside and we always look forward to the 3 o'clock kick-off because they don't come around too often these days.

"Our worry is that the majority of our out-of-town members won't know for sure if the game is on in the morning and some of them might not want to risk travelling just incase.

"If the game doesn't go on we will lose a big chunk of our takings for the month and it will be nothing short of a catastrophe for us."