Broadcast of Ross County v St Mirren game delayed by more than five hours as fans' swearing edited from recording

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

Football fans watching a match on television wouldn't necessarily be surprised to hear the odd blue phrase – but the swearing picked up by BBC microphones all over the pitch at a match in Scotland on Saturday was so relentless that transmission was put back until well after the watershed.

The premiership match at the Ross County ground in Dingwall was due for broadcast as live immediately after the match at 5.30pm on BBC Alba, the Gaelic language channel.

When it was discovered just how much swearing could clearly be heard, transmission was delayed by more than five hours to clean up the recording.

Although it tends to be players' or managers' colourful language that makes the headlines – last year the Blackpool manager Paul Ince got a five match stadium ban for a rant at officials – in Dingwall the offenders were the 3,000 fans in the stands.

A BBC Scotland sports reporter, Jim Spence, tweeted: "Bad language delays transmission of BBC Alba Ross Co v St Mirren game tonight. that's ###@@@€€€€#### ridiculous."

A BBC spokeswoman said the channel had no choice but to delay the broadcast, "in compliance with the rules set by Ofcom, where no programme that carries offensive language can be broadcast pre-watershed".

When the match eventually went out, viewers saw the Ross County and St Mirren managers, Derek Adams and Danny Lennon, being dragged apart after a confrontation on the touchline: both were ordered back to the stands by referee Willie Collum. Ross County won 2-1.