SPFL hand Aberdeen a lifeline
The actions of eight Dons players has put the health and safety of others at risk, but the SPFL have handed the Dons a get out of jail free card.
With the news breaking this morning that the SPFL have handed Aberdeen a lifeline by postponing their league clash with St.Johnstone, following two of their players testing positive for COVID-19 and six others being told to quarantine for 14 days, question marks arise over why the Dons have been given preferential treatment when they should have had the book thrown at them.
Why should St.Johnstone have to see their game put back because of the selfish needs of the Dons players to go out on the ran dan? Footballers have been given preferential treatment following the lifting of sanctions and while it is a strange time we live in currently - why should the Dons be treated any differently to a club hit with injuries or suspensions?
It wasn’t that long ago that Celtic had to field a makeshift side of fringe players and youth to bolster their team following a spate of injuries - yet where was the preferential treatment then?
Aberdeen have launched an investigation into the events which saw the eight players socialising in a city centre bar - in what was described as a ‘lapse in club protocol’ and vowed to 'educate and remind everyone of what is, and what is not, acceptable in the current climate.'
Despite assurances that they no alcohol was consumed - my arse - the players knowingly and wilfully breached their own club’s guidelines as well as the return to training protocols handed out by the Scottish government. Yet they are now being afforded the luxury of the game being postponed so as the Dons are not ‘unfairly’ or ‘unduly’ hampered by their own players’ inability to follow simple, clear and concise guidelines.
The SPFL and the Scottish FA are once again bottling it big time and this incident comes swiftly on the heels of nine Rangers first team players not receiving their COVID-19 test results before a pre-season friendly game against Dundee United - a clear breach of testing protocols - and days after both Rangers and Motherwell delayed the kick off of their pre-season friendly due to late testing.
And while the Dons fans will be questioning why eight of their players went out on the ran dan after their pitiful showing against Rangers last weekend, fans will now be questioning whether the SPFL will continue to give the Dons a ‘get out of jail free’ card and postpone the midweek clash against Hamilton Accies as well as next weekend’s game against Celtic also?
The SPFL should have used this clear breach of protocol as a precedent for others who think they can do what they want when they want during this time. They should have not only thrown the book at those eight players, but they should have fined the Dons and awarded St.Johnstone a 3-0 win and with it all three points.
That would have sent a clear message to every player and every club in Scotland that if you breach protocol, you are punished for it. That is down to the failure of the SPFL, the failure of the Scottish FA, the pitiful leadership we have at the top of the SPFL and the Scottish FA, and until this is addressed this will almost certainly happen once again.
And the clubs want supporters back into the stadiums as soon as possible?
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