Dons and Celts face sanctions over players’ virus breaches
GALGORM Castle managing director Gary Henry hopes that the venue’s staging of the prestigious Irish Open will send out a message that Northern Ireland is still open for business despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The European Tour confirmed yesterday that the event, which was originally to be held at Mount Juliet in Kilkenny in May, will be played at the Co Antrim course from September 24-27.
It won’t just be Galgorm’s increasingly enhanced reputation benefitting, with local hotels set to provide lodging for players, caddies, TV crew and officials coming from around the world for the event, and Henry hopes that will drive further tourism as a result.
“Northern Ireland is open for business, it’s open for people to come to even though there are restrictions,” said Henry. “This is a good reminder that we’ve done reasonably well with regards the coronavirus and hopefully we can stay in a good place where people can continue to come and enjoy it.”
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ABERDEEN and Celtic are facing disciplinary action in addition to their players who broke coronavirus protocols.
The Scottish FA have announced that the eight Aberdeen players who breached guidelines, plus Celtic left-back Boli Bolingoli (below), will face two charges: one of failing to comply with regulations and another of bringing the game into disrepute. Hearings have been set for August 28.
The Scottish Professional Football League have also opened disciplinary proceedings against both clubs for alleged breaches of Covid-19 requirements and testing regulations.
The Scottish football authorities had promised 24 hours earlier to strengthen existing rules to include the provision of sanctions for players who do not adhere to coronavirus-related rules or guidelines. Both the SFA charges are alleged breaches of existing rules while the SPFL have provided few details.
Aberdeen earlier announced they had fined the eight players who breached coronavirus protocols by going on a night out: Jonny Hayes, Scott Mckenna, Sam Cosgrove, Craig Bryson, Bruce Anderson, Dylan Mcgeouch, Northern Ireland’s Matty Kennedy and Michael Devlin.
Two of the players tested positive for Covid-19 and the other six were instructed to self-isolate for 14 days, leading to the postponement of three matches.
Celtic have had two games postponed after Bolingoli travelled to Spain for 24 hours and failed to quarantine himself on his return or tell his club.
He played against Kilmarnock five days later.