Scottish Premiership games between Aberdeen vs Dundee, St Johnstone vs Motherwell and Ross County vs St Mirren off; Arbroath vs Raith Rovers and Greenock Morton vs Inverness Caledonian Thistle in Championship plus Cove Rangers vs Montrose in League One postponed; two League Two games off
Saturday 21 October 2023 09:33, UK
Eight SPFL matches due to be played on Saturday have been postponed due to Storm Babet.
The move comes following conversations between league bosses, clubs and Police Scotland, after the Met Office red weather warning in the Tayside, Angus and Aberdeenshire areas was extended until the end of Saturday.
In the Scottish Premiership, Dundee's trip to Aberdeen at Pittodrie, St Johnstone vs Motherwell in Perth, and Ross County vs St Mirren are off.
Arbroath versus Raith Rovers and Greenock Morton against Inverness Caledonian Thistle in the Championship, plus Cove Rangers against Montrose in League One are also postponed.
Further games in League Two - Forfar Athletic's trip to Elgin City and Stenhousemuir vs Peterhead are also off.
The SPFL will monitor events around all other fixtures - with new dates for those postponed games to be confirmed in due course.
Calum Beattie, SPFL chief operating officer, said: "We have been in close contact with Police Scotland and our clubs and it's clear that we continue to face very severe weather, particularly in the North East, in the coming days.
"We never postpone any matches lightly, but our discussions with the emergency services left us in no doubt that this was the correct decision."
Two people in Scotland have died as a result of the storm, while the Met Office warning of a "danger to life from fast flowing or deep floodwater" in parts of the country, was extended until midnight on Saturday.
It now covers the Grampian and Central, Tayside and Fife regions. It had already been expanded to include Dundee, Perth and Kinross, as well as Angus and Aberdeenshire, where 20ft waves have been spotted on the coastline.
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) has five severe flood warnings, 11 flood alerts and 16 flood warnings in place, with the threat of "unprecedented" levels of rainfall in the northeast of Scotland.
It has warned rivers could rise by as much as five metres, in what has been described as an "extraordinary" weather event.
SEPA flood duty manager Pascal Lardet said: "There is exceptional rainfall forecast for parts of Scotland over the next 24 hours, and this will lead to significant flooding from both surface water and rivers."
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