CELTIC look to have beaten the Scottish Cup semi-final signing deadline with a swoop for Aston Villa forward Tommy Johnson.
The Parkhead club moved yesterday for the Villa Park forward in a reputed £2.3 million deal.
And now they are expected to complete the 26-year-old’s signing in time for him to be eligible to face Falkirk in the semi-final at Ibrox on Saturday, April 12.
Any new player must be registered with the Scottish Football Association 14 days before a cup tie.
The English authorities are closed today, which threatened to wreck Celtic’s chances of registering Johnson in time until the FA Premier League agreed it is good to talk.
“We are closed tomorrow for the Easter holiday,” said Premier League secretary Adrian Cook.
“However, I will speak to the Scottish League tomorrow at some stage and the Johnson deal will go through.”
That will be a huge relief to Celtic after they were scuppered by registration red tape last season. Celtic had Portuguese striker Jorge Cadete ruled ineligible for the Scottish Cup semi-final against Rangers at Hampden as, according to the SFA, he was not registered in time.
IIIIIIIIIIIOOOOOIIIIIIIIIII
THE amateur boxing international in Dublin contains quite a few Ulster officials but not a single boxer from the province that lifted seven national titles a fortnight ago.
“What the heck is happening to the guys from the north?” asked a leading Irish official last night as an under-strength national team prepared to do battle against Italy.
There are many and varied answers to that question. For light heavy Stephen Kirk (Cairn Lodge) and middleweight Brian Magee (Holy Trinity), the failure of the Italians to field boxers in these divisions ruled them out of the international automatically.
Ulster’s five other Irish champions, Jim Rooney (Star), Liam Cunningham (Saints), Pat O’Donnell (Dockers), Damaen Kelly (Holy Trinity) and Glenn McLarnon (Holy Family/GG) called off for reasons ranging from injury to work commitments.
Beaten Irish finalist – conqueror of Atlanta Olympian Francis Barrett en route – Billy Cowan (Monkstown) had to forego his first Irish vest when he was laid low with tonsillitis.
IIIIIIIIIIIOOOOOIIIIIIIIIII
CLIFTONVILLE fans could boycott the Irish Cup semi-final against Loughgall at Windsor Park on April 12.
A number of irate supporters contacted the Irish News yesterday to say they would not attend the game after the RUC restricted the club’s ticket allocation for the match to 1500.
They said they would encourage a boycott of the semi-final because, as one fan put it, “the Cliftonville board was allowing itself to be dictated to.”
Reds chairman Jim Boyce appealed to the fans not to boycott.
“A protest of this kind would only harm Cliftonville FC. We have 1500 tickets for the game and the club will ensure that season tickets holders and those who are supporters’ club members, will get tickets.”
The RUC had initially requested that the game be brought forward to a noon kick-off without ticket restriction. At a meeting yesterday morning the IFA demanded that the game remained a 3pm kick-off. This demand was met.
