Aberdeen were today confident the first clash with Rangers at Pittodrie in five years will run smoothly with all matchday preparations going to plan. Pittodrie will be close to a sell-out for the first visit of Gers since a 2-1 loss in October 2011. Rangers will have 2,000 fans travelling to the Granite City for the high stakes clash with both sides level on nine points.
The game has been a flashpoint fixture in the past. However, security measures are now so advanced that the club can monitor every seat in the stadium and are confident in their ability to run a safe and secure game. Pittodrie chiefs are treating Rangers visit like any other fixture.
Games against Celtic, Hearts and Dundee United have passed with no incidents in recent years and event safety officer Roland George views Sunday as no different. George said: We will be fully prepared and ready for anything. Preparations for Rangers will be exactly the same as they were for the St Johnstone Cup game and the recent match with Inverness.
Obviously, this type of game will bring a bigger crowd.
However, the day-to-day tasks, our planning and preparations, are exactly the same.
We always talk to the opposing team and receive updates and intelligence from them regarding their support and plans for attending the match.
That is exactly the same for every club, including Rangers and Celtic.
The build-up to Sunday s game begins a week in advance with representatives from both clubs, the SPFL, our security partners and Police Scotland present.
From that meeting a briefing document is produced which is effectively the matchday operations plan.
As part of our preparations for a matchday we attend a pre-match and pre-ops meeting with all parties involved for the game.
This meeting is always held 48 hours ahead of a matchday, with regular updates right up to kick-off.
Visiting team safety and security officers will be present as will someone from the SPFL, representatives from Police Scotland, Scottish Ambulance and AFC safety and security personnel.
The whole operation will be exactly the same as every home fixture nothing changes for the larger games and we have been doing this successfully for a long time now.
