Friendlies in balance as government stand firm
SCOTTISH football’s hopes of getting up and running behind closed doors as soon as this weekend were left hanging in the balance again last night.
Record Sport understands a number of pre-season friendlies have been arranged between top flight clubs – with Rangers hoping to host Hamilton at their Auchenhowie training base on Friday.
New Dundee United gaffer Micky
Mellon is also scheduled to begin his reign at Tannadice with a bounce game against Motherwell on Saturday.
But those plans remained up in the air last night as the SPFL continued to wait for government approval for matches to recommence.
Celtic have escaped over the border to set up a training base at Loughborough University.
But, along with Old Firm rivals Rangers, they are also waiting for the First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to give the go ahead for international travel which would allow both clubs to travel to France to take part in a mini tournament with Lyon and Nice without having to place players in a period of self isolation.
Neil Lennon’s men are also set to face PSG at the Parc des Princes on July 21 but that is due to be played behind closed doors.
However, that will all hinge on the First Minister aligning Scotland with Downing Street’s plans to introducing air bridges with a number of specified countries across Europe.
Sturgeon insisted at yesterday’s daily briefing that she will not simply rubber-stamp UK government proposals to allow quarantine-free travel.
It is widely expected that she will give travel to and from France the all clear tomorrow when she announces a further relaxation to the coronavirus lockdown.
And that would allow Glasgow’s big two to get back down to business across the Channel.
But the rest of Scotland’s top flight is still waiting to be told when they will be allowed to get the ball out again after another day of deadlock yesterday. It had been expected that football would be given the green light to return behind closed doors after further talks between Holyrood and the game’s authorities.
But, after no agreement was reached, clubs have been left sweating over whether or not they’ll be able to press ahead with their pre-season plans this weekend.
One top flight club told us last night: “The clock is ticking and we are all looking for a bit of clarity.
“The season is supposed to begin in just over three weeks from now but that’s still to be given the government’s blessing.
“And there are friendly games planned for this weekend but we don’t know if they can go ahead or not, even though they’ll be behind closed doors and the testing regime has been rigorous.
“It’s a shambles but we’ll just have to keep our fingers crossed for some positive news.”
Ironically, while Celtic and the Scottish Rugby Union are waiting for approval to stage ‘test events’ in front of limited crowds over the next two months, Lyon do plan to let 4500 of their own supporters into the 60,000 capacity Groupama Stadium for the matches against Glasgow’s big two as an experiment ahead of the new Ligue 1 season.