Scottish Premiership side Aberdeen Chair Stewart Milne warned the club "faces playing European games in Glasgow or Edinburgh in future," according to the BBC. He was talking at a "campaign launch to support a new stadium to replace Pittodrie," which he said will "soon not meet the criteria" to host UEFA games. The £50M ($64.4M) stadium and training facilities would be at Kingsford, close to the Aberdeen bypass, near Westhill. However, "objectors have called for the club to look elsewhere." A decision is due to be taken by councilors in October. Milne said of the "forthcoming" new stadium ruling, "The consequences of a negative decision on this will have massive bearings on the future of this club. At some point we will no longer get dispensation to play European games here" (BBC, 8/15). In London, Ben Palmer reported Aberdeen Manager Derek McInnes said that, despite Aberdeen "being the second best team in the country," it has the "worst facilities" in the Scottish Premiership, and pointed to Heart of Midlothian and Hibernian, which train at their own facilities, at Riccarton and Ormiston, respectively, "as the standard which the Pittodrie side must match." McInnes: "We have got to be up there competing with the top clubs in Scotland and the two Edinburgh clubs. That is who we are seen to be mixing with. In terms of performance, we have been second in the league in recent years. ... But we are down at the very bottom of the Scottish Premiership in terms of facilities. Hibs, Hearts, Celtic and Rangers and others that we are competing against have an advantage on us every day" (LONDON TIMES, 8/16).
