Threat of European expulsion for Celtic premature and wishful thinking from the usual suspects
Celtic's Champions League qualifier against KR Reykjavik is not under threat of being forfeited, despite Celtic's two domestic games being postponed.
Despite some wishful thinking from those from across the city and the usual doom mongers among the Celtic support, the Scottish champions WILL NOT see their first qualifying round tie against KR Reykjavik forfeited despite the breach of government restrictions by full back Boli Bolingoli.
UEFA have already set a precedence with Atletico Madrid who had two of their players testing positive for coronavirus before their quarter final clash with RB Leipzig in Portugal.
Following the two positive tests, a further round of testing was carried out among Madrid’s first team and back room staff travelling to the game and the results did not throw up any further positive results. Which then meant that UEFA’s own medical protocols kicked in - indicating as long as there are 13 available players from the A list, the match will take place.
Despite Bolingoli breaching Scottish Government guidelines and the club’s own orders, he has not returned a positive result in two tests that took place last week ahead of the Kilmarnock tie. Even with Bolingoli missing from the European squad list - which is inevitable with a potential sacking on the horizon - Celtic have more than enough players to cover the UEFA requirements of a minimum of 13 players.
While Celtic’s European campaign is not under threat, the threat to their 10th successive league title is a real possibility after the Scottish Government advised the Scottish FA and SPFL to postpone Aberdeen and Celtic’s matches in the Scottish Premiership over the next week.
The Coronavirus Joint Response Group, chaired by Scottish FA President Rod Petrie, confirmed that both teams’ respective fixtures against Hamilton and St.Mirren on Wednesday, as well the match against one another on Saturday, will now not go ahead.
It means that once Celtic return to action against Dundee United on the 22nd August, they could ultimately be 11 points behind current league leaders Hibernian - if the Easter Road win their games against Dundee United and Motherwell - putting immense pressure on the players and management to secure the 10, which will not be helped by performances like that from Sunday.
Scottish Football at risk of suspension
Meanwhile, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has issued a clear and stark warning to Scottish football, that if further breaches occur then they will be left with no other choice than to suspend the league season.
Sturgeon said: “Consider today the yellow card, the next time it will be the red card because you will leave us with absolutely no choice.
“This is just not acceptable. Every day I stand here and ask members of the public to make huge sacrifices in how they live their lives and the vast majority of members of the public are doing that and it’s not easy.
“We can’t have privileged football players just deciding they’re not going to bother. This can’t go on.
“I want to get to a situation here where clubs and players live up to their responsibilities.
“I don’t want the price of this to be paid by fans who want to watch football, even though they can’t go as normal to spectate in stadiums, and I don’t want the price of this to be paid by football players and clubs who are living up to their responsibilities.”
During today’s press conference at Lennoxtown, Lennon blasted Bolingoli, he said: "It will be very difficult to imagine him (Bolingoli) being welcomed back into the dressing room in the future.
"This is a rogue who has gone off tangent and has done something very very selfish. We have been completely oblivious to this. I’m absolutely livid it’s a total betrayal of our trust.
“We gave players a couple of days off after Hamilton. We made it clear to players they were not to leave Glasgow. Boli took flight to Spain on Monday and kept it to himself.
“We have been bitterly let down by an individual. I didn’t want to hear his excuse. He has blatantly disregarded our instructions.
“There’s anger and disappointment from the squad. It’s just simply not good enough and it’s disrupted our plans.”
A Clear & Present Danger to Celtic
Celtic have an easy decision to make given the additional information released by Lennon today.
Bolingoli clearly breached club orders to leave Glasgow to fly to Spain - whether it was for rumoured signing talks or not - he clearly breached government guidelines. He failed to notify anyone at Celtic of what he had done until he was caught red handed. He put his own team mates, back room staff at Celtic as well as those at Kilmarnock at risk over his flagrant dishonesty and misconduct.
I am under no illusions that this is a sackable offence and Celtic MUST hit Bolingoli with gross misconduct charges this week. Get him off our books and then put this whole sorry mess behind us and move on to focus on the Reykjavik game.
They must not drag it out as that would do more damage to the club off the field, as well as the morale within the camp. Bolingoli must be sacked with immediate effect.
As ever, the biggest threat to Celtic winning 10-in-a-row is Celtic themselves.
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