HEARTS captain Craig Gordon has called on UEFA to crack down on missile throwing in football after being struck on the head in the Europa League play-off against Zurich.
Gordon looked shaken and hurt after being pelted by objects hurled by the Swiss champions’ supporters in the second-half of the second leg match at Tynecastle on Thursday night.
The vastly-experienced Scotland internationalist took some time to restart play in a match which the Gorgie club eventually lost 1-0.
The 39-year-old was disappointed the encounter between Robbie Neilson’s side and Franco Foda’s team was marred by such an ugly incident.
The goalkeeper admitted that he is regularly targeted by yobs and urged European football’s governing body to examine what can be done to address the problem.
“I was hit on the back of the head by something, I don’t know exactly what it was,” he said. “There was a few coins lying about. It might have been one of them, it might have been something else, I don’t know.
“Yeah, I felt whatever it was hit the back of my head and it was sore for a bit. That’s not something you should have to face at a football match. There is no reason for it, absolutely no excuse for chucking stuff at the players.
“It was a good game with both teams giving absolutely everything to try and get to the next round of the competition. There is absolutely no excuse for chucking stuff at the players, no need.”
Gordon added: “It's not as unusual as you might think. It’s unusual to get hit, they normally miss. It was a direct hit last night. That hasn’t happened too often.
“Sometimes it can be a food item or a drink, but they aren’t as sore as whatever hit me last night, that was quite hard. It is something that I have had before, but last night was a bit different.
“A hit to the head was not something that you expect. But it is not something I can do in that instant other than get on with the game and hope everybody else can sort that out.
“But it’s difficult. How do you stop somebody that has decided to do that. We don’t want to have big fences and glass partitions around the stadium, we don’t want to see that. We want to see fans close to the pitch and enjoying the action.
“But with that comes a bit of responsibility and if the fans don’t take that on the board then maybe the authorities have to have a look at what they can do. But I don’t have any suggestions for how to improve that in the short-term.”
