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Scottish lower league football locked down for 3 weeks


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It does seem rather arbitrary and I am very disappointed. I do not know if the SFA have been put under pressure to do this because of "elite" sport, particularly Celtic  being such a focus of attention.

I realise this is being done to reduce social interactions and travel but it makes very little sense in terms of being a commensurate response to the threat posed. 

The number of people involved in putting on games in Leagues One and Two is surely tiny, compared to the numbers involved in other permitted workplaces. Set this against the positive impact for fans of lower league teams of having football games to watch and I am struggling to see much justification for this.

Edited by Brummo
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Presumably players will not be able to continue with normal training either, after 3 weeks off & no training it will be like another close season difficult to see how season can be completed under these restrictions
They will just have to climb the school gates and kick a baw against a waw like the rest of us [emoji1787][emoji1787][emoji1787]
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I don't really have too many problems with the call tbh, but I find it a bit strange that some football is allowed to continue. The government either class football as an essential service during the pandemic or they don't. Celtic could technically have brought a new strain of the virus into the country after a trip to Dubai yet they're apparently about to play Hibs this afternoon with half the squad in isolation? Bit of a joke. It should be all football off or allow it to continue.

The one plus out of this is I might not need to watch Robert Jones in a Sons shirt again. 

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I'm more of a reader of posts than a contributor but this fuckin stinks. Yet again, and I'd be saying this if we were not in div 1, our league's are being used as a scapegoat to appease government.

Premier has had far more covid issues and yet they are allowed to carry on. Fucking hypocrisy. Yet another example to add to their collective list of shame.

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Can’t see our season restarting and it being declared null and void. Frustrating as that would be it’s probably the right outcome given where we are and where we’re headed (Devi Sridhar suggesting today that the current lockdown may have to last for 12 weeks). Whether the top 2 leagues will continue much longer is anyone’s guess but there will be a lot of pressure from the obvious clubs to play enough games to “call” those leagues.

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6 minutes ago, The Moonster said:

I don't really have too many problems with the call tbh, but I find it a bit strange that some football is allowed to continue. The government either class football as an essential service during the pandemic or they don't. Celtic could technically have brought a new strain of the virus into the country after a trip to Dubai yet they're apparently about to play Hibs this afternoon with half the squad in isolation? Bit of a joke. It should be all football off or allow it to continue.

The one plus out of this is I might not need to watch Robert Jones in a Sons shirt again. 

It doesn't seem to be  government call, as such. SFA JRG, so I suppose some Governmental involvement I guess. Seems to be a consensus position vis a vis the predominantly part time nature of our leagues and I suppose part time players are at greater risk of catching and spreading than full-time players. 

Kick in the soul, regardless. But here we are. 

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1 minute ago, notsofedupendie said:

Can’t see our season restarting and it being declared null and void. Frustrating as that would be it’s probably the right outcome given where we are and where we’re headed (Devi Sridhar suggesting today that the current lockdown may have to last for 12 weeks). Whether the top 2 leagues will continue much longer is anyone’s guess but there will be a lot of pressure from the obvious clubs to play enough games to “call” those leagues.

You can already see the OF uproar if Rangers weren't to be awarded the title and thus, Celtic had a "second go" at 10 in a row 🙄

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10 minutes ago, The Moonster said:

I don't really have too many problems with the call tbh, but I find it a bit strange that some football is allowed to continue. The government either class football as an essential service during the pandemic or they don't. Celtic could technically have brought a new strain of the virus into the country after a trip to Dubai yet they're apparently about to play Hibs this afternoon with half the squad in isolation? Bit of a joke. It should be all football off or allow it to continue.

The one plus out of this is I might not need to watch Robert Jones in a Sons shirt again. 

Don't forget they will be kecking it with regard to upsetting anyone wedded to the 10-in-a-row scenario. It will be like a scene from dad's army if they have to take a decision on that. 

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15 minutes ago, The Moonster said:

I don't really have too many problems with the call tbh, but I find it a bit strange that some football is allowed to continue. The government either class football as an essential service during the pandemic or they don't. Celtic could technically have brought a new strain of the virus into the country after a trip to Dubai yet they're apparently about to play Hibs this afternoon with half the squad in isolation? Bit of a joke. It should be all football off or allow it to continue.

The one plus out of this is I might not need to watch Robert Jones in a Sons shirt again. 

The clear distinction is between full-time professional players who are testing regularly, and part-time players who are not. Obviously there are a couple of part-time clubs in the Championship and a few full-time ones in the lower leagues, but on the whole that's where the boundary lies.

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It's been a weary inevitability for a while. The government are damned if they do, and damned if they don't.

This new strain seems horrendous in terms of its infectiousness and if getting on top of it means the season is paused for a few weeks I don't see the problem.

Yes, it is galling that Celtic's dumbfuck dash to Dubai- as though the virus can be ignored like the SFA- has in part caused this. But it is the right decision I think as it was becoming increasingly difficult to justify football continuing when so much of the rest of our lives are banned / forbidden / postponed indefinitely.

However if this new strain persists into March then football once again faces a very difficult set of problems. The SFA have been absolutely terrible throughout this crisis and I have no confidence that they have the shoes for the big puddle of shit football is currently in.

In the longer term we have to find a way of living with this as the virus will not be going away. Lower league football has no long term future without crowds. If in a year's time the majority of us are vaccinated but still living in tier 2 style restrictions then crowds of some kind have to be allowed back in. I do think the Scottish government has been indifferent, rigid and inflexible on this.

Such a nightmare and no sign it will ever end.

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Posted this in the championship forum so apologies for the copy paste but it is relevant here. My thoughts, for what they are worth!

 

There may be a lot of flaws in this thinking, but my initial reaction is that the leagues have a decent chance of finishing. Championship clubs have been given huge grants which will enable testing and fixtures will continue, mostly, for now. It may be that late March/April/May is very busy, with midweek/weekend fixtures running for that entire time. 

That 'cramming' in is also the strategy that will be needed for further down,. Spring will bring reductions in transmissions and vaccinations will be well under way, especially of the most vulnerable. But there will be a much greater backlog so it may be very difficult. 

For L1 and L2. If starting on Tuesday 23rd of March you have 10 midweeks and 10 Saturdays. 20 'match days'. This means that completing the season is just about doable (1 leg play offs required - neutral venue or coin toss for home advantage). If there are further postponements it would mean a few Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday weeks of fixtures. Not ideal, but it would be games replacing training sessions. But it would allow that season to. 

One spanner in the works is the SC. Either scrap it or (obscenely unfair I know), remove teams below the Championship if, by a certain date - say March 1st, football is still suspended below the Championship. That will allow teams to concentrate on finishing the league and unlock the prize money and prevent all the fuckaboutery of last season. 

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The league's finishing is entirely down to the UK/Scottish governments vaccination strategy. They're hoping the vulnerable/old yins will be done by mid February, I would hope at that stage they start to open things up again but the noises don't seem too positive on that front, especially given that it'll only mean those folk have had jab numero uno. 

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1 hour ago, BallochSonsFan said:

How many lower league players have tested positive?

How many lower league players have had to self-isolate?

Top flight - a load of positive cases and self-isolating players and yet it continues unaffected. Either suspend all football or none. It's ok for Killie to travel to Aberdeen - 2 teams who have had Covid issues this season - but not for Dumbarton to travel to Montrose?

Are you trying to say that players out with the premiership have immunity to covid? 

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3 minutes ago, craigkillie said:

The clear distinction is between full-time professional players who are testing regularly, and part-time players who are not. Obviously there are a couple of part-time clubs in the Championship and a few full-time ones in the lower leagues, but on the whole that's where the boundary lies.

I get that but if the justification for stopping football is the national situation then it doesn't make sense for any football to be played right now. I suspect the Premiership is allowed to continue for sponsorship reasons more than anything else.

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11 minutes ago, HIT THE CHANNEL said:

Posted this in the championship forum so apologies for the copy paste but it is relevant here. My thoughts, for what they are worth!

 

There may be a lot of flaws in this thinking, but my initial reaction is that the leagues have a decent chance of finishing. Championship clubs have been given huge grants which will enable testing and fixtures will continue, mostly, for now. It may be that late March/April/May is very busy, with midweek/weekend fixtures running for that entire time. 

That 'cramming' in is also the strategy that will be needed for further down,. Spring will bring reductions in transmissions and vaccinations will be well under way, especially of the most vulnerable. But there will be a much greater backlog so it may be very difficult. 

For L1 and L2. If starting on Tuesday 23rd of March you have 10 midweeks and 10 Saturdays. 20 'match days'. This means that completing the season is just about doable (1 leg play offs required - neutral venue or coin toss for home advantage). If there are further postponements it would mean a few Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday weeks of fixtures. Not ideal, but it would be games replacing training sessions. But it would allow that season to. 

One spanner in the works is the SC. Either scrap it or (obscenely unfair I know), remove teams below the Championship if, by a certain date - say March 1st, football is still suspended below the Championship. That will allow teams to concentrate on finishing the league and unlock the prize money and prevent all the fuckaboutery of last season. 

Don’t see this happening at all, that would only work if every club managed to go through the rest of the season with no covid issues, weather didn’t put any games off. 
 

We haven’t played anywhere near enough games to justify promotion and relegation. Only option I see is void the season, furlough players as long as possible, use government cash for costs and restart in august when we should have had the majority vaccinated, crowds back as well. 

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7 minutes ago, Rugster said:

Are you trying to say that players out with the premiership have immunity to covid? 

Not at all.

Only that players outside of the premiership appear to follow the guidance more strictly. Possibly because of a concern for their employment outside of football. Given the disruption to the top flight caused by actual infections and isolating requirements then there are no grounds to treat the lower leagues differently from the top flight. The top flight have had far more confirmed cases of the virus and have had far more players self isolating.

If Covid was running rampant in the lower leagues to the extent where football had to be suspended then there's no evidence of it. There is no evidence of players testing positive via the NHS testing service or clubs having to isolate in significant numbers under test and trace. If the lower leagues need to be suspended then the same should apply to the top 2 divisions. 

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6 minutes ago, SLClyde said:

Don’t see this happening at all, that would only work if every club managed to go through the rest of the season with no covid issues, weather didn’t put any games off. 
 

We haven’t played anywhere near enough games to justify promotion and relegation. Only option I see is void the season, furlough players as long as possible, use government cash for costs and restart in august when we should have had the majority vaccinated, crowds back as well. 

Aye, I agree its difficult. The Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday would open up '30 match days' which would be plenty, even if there was Covid issues, I think. If the leagues started before late March, more match days would open. Again, very tough, but not impossible. It really does depend on how early permission is granted to start playing, though. 

Edited by HIT THE CHANNEL
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23 minutes ago, craigkillie said:

The clear distinction is between full-time professional players who are testing regularly, and part-time players who are not. Obviously there are a couple of part-time clubs in the Championship and a few full-time ones in the lower leagues, but on the whole that's where the boundary lies.

Top flight players may be tested regularly.

Unless you believe that lower league players get only asymptomatic infections or that they routinely hide their symptoms then any lower league player with suspected covid would be picked up via NHS testing.

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Just now, BallochSonsFan said:

Not at all.

Only that players outside of the premiership appear to follow the guidance more strictly. Possibly because of a concern for their employment outside of football. Given the disruption to the top flight caused by actual infections and isolating requirements then there are no grounds to treat the lower leagues differently from the top flight. The top flight have had far more confirmed cases of the virus and have had far more players self isolating.

If Covid was running rampant in the lower leagues to the extent where football had to be suspended then there's no evidence of it. There is no evidence of players testing positive via the NHS testing service or clubs having to isolate in significant numbers under test and trace. If the lower leagues need to be suspended then the same should apply to the top 2 divisions. 

It’s because they are not being tested. Falkirk had to test everyone before playing Rangers and lo and behold two tested positive. These are fit guys, more likely to be asymptomatic hence lower NHS testing and positives. 

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1 minute ago, Rugster said:

It’s because they are not being tested. Falkirk had to test everyone before playing Rangers and lo and behold two tested positive. These are fit guys, more likely to be asymptomatic hence lower NHS testing and positives. 

More likely to be asymptomatic than the rest of the population? More likely to be asymptomatic than premier division players?

Not buying it. Even fit players would potentially develop symptoms such as a persistent cough or loss of taste even if they didnt become breathless.

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