SFA pause lower leagues and Scottish Cup

This does not look good. A three week suspension of football for SPFL League One, SPFL League Two, Scottish Women's Football Premier Leagues 1 & 2, Highland League, Lowland League, East, West & South of Scotland Leagues, Scottish Junior FA Leagues and the North Caledonian League.

The Scottish Cup will also be suspended, with any matches scheduled to be played prior to the 1st February to be rescheduled in due course.

https://www.scottishfa.co.uk/news/sc...hip/?rid=13929

On the other hand I guess the weekend of 30 January now becomes available for some catch-up games.

Hard to argue with tbh.

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Originally Posted by Handsome_Devil

Hard to argue with tbh.

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Only cynical argument would be the football authorities knew the Government were coming after them following the now infamous 'Dubai Debacle'.

So they played this card as a pre-empt !

Given what football in Scotland has let slide since August better late than never.

What Celtic did was wrong and the footballing authorities should not have sanctioned this visit in the first place. However lets not forget the Scottish Government also allowed the visit. Its strnage that a short time after Celtic's return, the Scottish Government introduced quarantining measures for those returning from the UAE. Stable doors and bolted horses come to mind.

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Originally Posted by Wellup4it

What Celtic did was wrong and the footballing authorities should not have sanctioned this visit in the first place. However lets not forget the Scottish Government also allowed the visit. Its strnage that a short time after Celtic's return, the Scottish Government introduced quarantining measures for those returning from the UAE. Stable doors and bolted horses come to mind.

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It was a PR misjudgment on the part of Celtic, and, while two wrongs never yet made a right, there were other players, with the permission of their clubs, there as well. I haven't seen any mention of it on the news. I'm not in any way excusing Celtic; they blundered, but I fear that there's a lot of selective reporting going on.

There's a good article on the BBC quoting Henry McLeish. Irrespective of the logic and merits of suspending the Scottish Cup and lower league games, it turns out that SPFL and clubs affected weren't even consulted or given advance warning by the Government. They learned of it through the media. That shows how poor relationships between the Scottish Government and Scots football are at the moment.

The Scottish government were certainly wrong to give the greenlight as it turns out but they were (supposedly) asked about a training trip which was permitted at the time. You can argue it's not their place to judge how sport professionals should train - ie the madness of squeezing it in between games - only whether the request strictly meets the rules or not.

Celtic, given how things then turned in the couple of months since getting approval, should certainly have had the sense to cancel it.

Not that I believe in the sort of reconstruction that's feasible in Scotland but if ever there was time to consider changes it'd be now - no one is relegated, no one is promoted (the Championship season certainly couldn't be called after less than a dozen games) so there is no perception of doing things to benefit one club or other. Somehow I suspect there will be little interest in doing so!