CELTIC WOMEN have been handed a 3-0 win for the game against St Johnstone on Sunday after it emerged the saints could not field a team due to call-offs.
There are new protocols in place that are harsh on clubs with small numbers. St Johnstone have been shown no mercy for the start of the SWPL season and have forfeited the game.
NEWS | SWF have released the following statement regarding the upcoming SWPL Cup match between @CelticFCWomen and @stjwfc.
With St Johnstone unable to fulfil the tie, the match will be awarded as a 3-0 win to Celtic.
Full statement âž¡ https://t.co/k5gq1q0TiV pic.twitter.com/jsVTo5fa12
— Scottish Women’s Football (@ScotWFootball) August 27, 2021
The SWF committee wrote the following:
Scottish Women’s Football (SWF) and the Perform and Win Committee, commonly referred to as the League Management Committee (LMC), have been informed by St Johnstone that they will be unable to fulfil their match against Celtic FC on Sunday 29th August in the Group Stage of the SWPL Cup.
St Johnstone are unable to fulfil the fixture due to a number of injuries and one player testing positive for COVID-19.
While the Perform and Win Committee were sympathetic to St Johnstone’s situation, injuries within a squad are not suitable for postponement requests. With only one player unavailable due to COVID-19, this does not meet the relevant criteria for a game to be postponed.
The Perform and Win Committee have therefore awarded the tie to Celtic FC and it will be marked as a 3-0 win.
Fran Alonso and his team were looking forward to get back to league action this weekend after their disappointing defeats in the Champions League.
However, they’ll now need to wait to get their season underway although they will have three points on the board from the off.
Celtic finished second in the league last season and are now looking to go one better and take on Glasgow City. It’s been a season of upheaval with some stalwarts of the team moving on and new girls coming in.
Scotland opened up a few weeks ago and cases have grown expenentially since then. It’s hard to find a corner of the country that’s not affected by cases.
We hope this isn’t the norm and the league can get most of the games played without too much incident.
