Scottish lower league football locked down for 3 weeks

[Rugster 14,259]

Just now, BallochSonsFan said:

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.

Ok. Carry on with your conspiracy theories then. 

[Gordon EF 6,767]

1 hour ago, R&Y99 said:

What’s the opinions, will the season will be null and voided? 
Pushed back?
Points per game? 

Whatever happens it will likely be messy.

Relative weighted points per game. That puts us second.

[Grangemouth Bairn 3,803]

What’s the thinking in allowing Brora Rangers to travel to Denny to play their match vs Camelon tonight ?

Seems crazy on the back of today’s announcement.

If I didn’t know any better I’d think the SFA and Sports Minister are fucking idiots.

[Brummo 452]

From the BBC website: "SPFL chief executive Neil Doncaster said his organisation "supports the Scottish FA's proportionate and appropriate response to the worsening situation across the country".

Oh well, must have been the right decision then!

 

Edited January 11 by Brummo
Two thens

[AlbionMan 173]

7 minutes ago, Gordon EF said:

Relative weighted points per game. That puts us second.

Insufficient number of games played to go that route.games

[Gordon EF 6,767]

2 minutes ago, AlbionMan said:

Insufficient number of games played to go that route.games

Shame. I was being absolutely serious as well.

[Jack Burton 1,110]

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.

There has been plenty of players in the lower league test positive. It just very rarely gets any attention. Have a read through the various league forums and you'll see it popping up all the time.

Clyde and Albion Rovers have had to postpone games due to Covid. Clyde have also had two other players test positive at separate times.

I'm not surprised that they've called a halt. The new strain of Covid is much easier to catch and it's not affordable to regularly test players at our level and below.

Would expect that it will be longer than a 3 week break which would either mean needing to extend the season into the summer or have another farce of a vote like last time.

[craigkillie 14,779]

8 minutes ago, Grangemouth Bairn said:

What’s the thinking in allowing Brora Rangers to travel to Denny to play their match vs Camelon tonight ?

Seems crazy on the back of today’s announcement.

If I didn’t know any better I’d think the SFA and Sports Minister are fucking idiots.

They'd probably already have near enough set off by the time this was announced.

[Gordon EF 6,767]

Just now, craigkillie said:

They'd probably already have near enough set off by the time this was announced.

Confirmed - the pack mules had already been fed and loaded up.

[Jack Burton 1,110]

What’s the thinking in allowing Brora Rangers to travel to Denny to play their match vs Camelon tonight ?
Seems crazy on the back of today’s announcement.
If I didn’t know any better I’d think the SFA and Sports Minister are fucking idiots.

Keith v Clyde has been postponed tonight so assume the Brora game will be too.

[SLClyde 709]

Just now, Jack Burton said:

10 minutes ago, Grangemouth Bairn said:

What’s the thinking in allowing Brora Rangers to travel to Denny to play their match vs Camelon tonight ?
Seems crazy on the back of today’s announcement.
If I didn’t know any better I’d think the SFA and Sports Minister are fucking idiots.

Keith v Clyde has been postponed tonight so assume the Brora game will be too.

Our game was meant to be tomorrow, camelon v Brora going ahead. 

[Grangemouth Bairn 3,803]

2 minutes ago, craigkillie said:

They'd probably already have near enough set off by the time this was announced.

Maybe Denny is on the same permitted list as Dubai ??

[craigkillie 14,779]

Just now, Jack Burton said:

There has been plenty of players in the lower league test positive. It just very rarely gets any attention. Have a read through the various league forums and you'll see it popping up all the time.

Clyde and Albion Rovers have had to postpone games due to Covid. Clyde have also had two other players test positive at separate times.

I'm not surprised that they've called a halt. The new strain of Covid is much easier to catch and it's not affordable to regularly test players at our level and below.

Would expect that it will be longer than a 3 week break which would either mean needing to extend the season into the summer or have another farce of a vote like last time.

I don't see how the season can be extended into the summer unless the play-offs are scrapped. The Premiership has to be done by the end of May to comply with UEFA regulations. That means the Premiership play-off likely has to be in May too, which means the Championship has to be done by May. Obviously this is fine as it stands because both leagues are still playing.

However, if League 1 carries on into the summer, then you can't expect the 9th placed Championship club to wait around for a month or more, possibly extending their players' contracts and so on.

[STUL 11]

Make no mistake, this decision is purely because the SFA/SPFL had to do something. They obviously can’t do anything that hurts the greedy, so a pointless gesture was required. If you watch the Peter Cook and Dudley Moore sketch where Pete tells Duds to fly over to Germany and not come back because they needed a futile gesture at that time, will get the point.

[notsofedupendie 184]

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. 

This succinctly summarises where I suspect we’ll end up.

[bernardblack 1,632]

Can the players still train?

[yakcam 0]

6 minutes ago, bernardblack said:

Can the players still train?

NO

[Hedgecutter 8,403]

For me it seems to be a relatively simple case of the government's "only leave if it's essential for work" policy, hence why the full-time leagues are seen as tenable. 

Players in the seaside leagues on the other hand largely treat this as a hobby and get little other than a nice-to-have, but crucially non-essential top-up wage.  There may indeed be some who rely on that top-up wage on top of their normal wage for whatever reason, but I would imagine that these folk will be in the great minority.  On the other hand, the vast majority of players in the Championship will see this as essential for their main line of work.

Obviously Falkirk and perhaps QP are the anomalies, but you can't seriously expect the officials to keep both Leagues 1 & 2 going simply to appease two diddy clubs who chose to be full-time teams in part-time leagues.   What they've done is the simplest solution to the problem.

Edited January 11 by Hedgecutter

[O'Kelly Isley III 3,098]

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 

Actually that could be a perfect outcome for OF haters. Celtic were well ahead last season whilst Rangers are streets ahead this term. Were this season to be aborted fans of the bigot sisters would blow their brain cells for eternity agonising over the what-ifs, in the knowledge that the other mob will never accept their version of events. Make it happen.

[Jacky1990 1,159]

Players and staff shouldnt need to put their health, or the health of their families, at risk just for our entertainment. As much as we might all claim otherwise, football isnt essential.

The difference between the two leagues that are able to continue is the requirement for testing, something which most teams in League One and below cant afford to do. Premiership and Championship teams will therefore be able to isolate accordingly to limit the spread, the rest of the teams cant. Most players in those leagues are part time as well, so unless they are furloughed or able to work from home in their other jobs, part time players are at increased risk of spreading outside their football bubble.

It is utter shite its been stopped, of course it is. But there are things in life far more important than a game on a Saturday. If this decision helps even a little in controlling the spread of covid and prevents a player, staff member or any of their family members getting ill, then it is the right decision that should probably have been taken last week with the rest of the country.