Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
We’ll get kitted out at home to get a game
PAUL THOMSON
Willie Kinniburgh reckons players arriving to games in full kit and team talks on the pitch could help the lower leagues resume soon.
The Gartcairn gaffer is desperate for football to return from the Covid-19 shutdown and fellow West of Scotland League outfits looked on with envy this week as the nation’s top flight sides trained for the first time in three months.
Games in the Scottish Premiership are set to kick- off on August 1, but it could be 2021 before teams at Gartcairn’s level pull on their boots again.
Costly testing and a range of safety procedures are required for teams to get back on the pitch, pricing out the vast majority of clubs in Scotland.
But Kinniburgh, the former Motherwell and Partick Thistle defender, hopes clubs can find a way.
Kinniburgh said: “I’m sure there’s ways around it.
“I’m sure if we put it out to everyone that boys turned up in their gear, we get a team-talk out on the pitch and then you play, they’d all be up for it because everybody wants football back.
”I just hope they don’t condemn it until 2021 because I could see a lot of teams and a lot of players suffering from it. Not just financially, but physically and emotionally because it’s a release for a lot of players and a lot of fans as well.”
The uncertainty surrounding a return date has made it difficult for some clubs to attract players and Kinniburgh says his side are no different.
He added: “It’s been horrendous. They all ask the same questions and they want you to tell them it’s going to be this date or that date - when I know as much as everyone else.
“It’s really tough, but I understand. ” I don’t see players committing when they don’t know when we’ll be back. It could be September, it could be January, you just don’t know.
“You also don’t know what’s going to happen to teams financially.
“Teams in [SPFL] League One and Two rely on sponsors and gate receipts and if you aren’t getting people through the gate, they don’t know their budget.
“We are lucky at our level because you are not dealing with hundreds of thousands of pounds.
“Your budget is what it is. We’ve got an excellent committee that really looks after the club and it helps me massively.
“I know what I’ve got for next season. There are a few clubs like that, but I can’t see there being many.”