There was uproar today after Celtic and Scottish football were denied the opportunity to kickstart supporters coming back into grounds with a test event.
The government had green lit a Rugby test event at Murrayfield which gave plenty of optimism Scottish football would be afforded the same opportunity. Unfortunately, the government have denied the club the chance to pilot the scheme on Sunday.
A spokesperson for the government has now made a statement on the matter and believes the Murrayfield test will suffice and show us the best way to move forward.
“A lot of work has gone on behind the scenes during these past months to create the protocols and testing regimes to allow top-level professional sport in Scotland to resume, without putting the public or others at unnecessary risk.” A government spokesperson told SunSport.
“We recognise there is disappointment that the proposal for a pilot on 30 August has not been approved but we are looking for suitable alternative dates for football pilots.
“We need to allow sufficient time for any test events to be informed by learning from other events – in particular the rugby match at Murrayfield on 28 August.”
There’s no way Celtic would have gone to the government about this without proper consultation and a plan in place. They would have been confident of the move given Rugby’s status but it wasn’t to be.
As it stands, we can start allowing supporters into grounds on September 14 and beyond in small numbers. How that will look is still very much up for debate.
I don’t care who does the test event and it makes sense only to have one. This is peoples lives for goodness sake. If it is the rugby match so be it. No point putting more lives at risk than necessary. Let’s stop squabbling and wish the test event a success so we can all enjoy live football, rugby or whatever sport you follow.
To be frank a Celtic player and 8 Aberdeen players probably put paid to football having the test event. Actions, I’m afraid, have consequences.