YES It’s a tough PROTOCALL
Should the authorities rewrite the Covid rulebook for our top footballers or treat them exactly the same as anyone else when it comes to self-isolating? Two of our sports writers argue the case for and against...
CORONAVIRUS might not be so smart after all.
It can apparently tell the time, as it likes to strike in pubs after 10pm. It can hear music and sense if someone’s having a bevvy. It can even tell the difference between a shopping centre and a football stadium.
But it can’t seem to work out the difference between a football player and a regular person.
That makes it tricky as the virus is becoming a nuisance when it comes to infecting the guys we need to entertain us by kicking a ball.
The thing is, footballers are not like everyone else – even if the virus and the authorities are treating them like they are.
National clinical director Jason Leitch was yesterday answering questions about the need for Ryan Christie and Kieran Tierney to self-isolate for 14 days after hanging around with Stuart Armstrong, who tested positive.
You could see his point. They were all in the same room on the PlayStation for hours so in the real world the rules state they are in the hoose for a fortnight. But they don’t live in the real world.
Leitch said: “The health protection team in Lothian treats footballers the way it treats workers in call centres, or you in your media job, or me.”
Aye, we get that. But these guys are not call centre workers. These players are operating in elite sporting bubblesbubbles. They are getting tested at least twice a week. Normal people don’t have that luxury.
This isn’t even about whether Christie should be allowed to face Rangers or Tierney taking on Manchester City when the international break is over. It’s about how the game is going to get through a long, hard winter.
Rangers fans can gloat about Odsonne Edouard testing positive and Christie getting snibbed but it could happen to any of their men at any time.
That’s the fear here. Every single club is one bum test away from carnage.
The season is already on a high-wire and the chances of the fixture list surviving is diminishing by the week.
It’s understandable the government is nervous about letting crowds back in. It’s hard to control f low around the grounds, on public transport and in pubs. We get that.
The access and seating is only the last part of the potentially dangerous chain. That’s fair enough. But they need to also undunderstandd this – we will need foofootball more than ever this wiwinter.
We’re headingeading towards more rerestrictionsns and lockdowns ovover the comingoming months and it won’t bee like those sun kikissed daysys of April and MMay, whenn everyone heaheaded outt for their daily walksks and hung out in the back gardens.ns.
It’ll be battenatten down the hatches foror a cold and wet winter and we need somethinghing to keep us entertained.d.
Let’s lookk at the protocols. Iff anyone hasas been in closee contact with a positive casease then keep them out thehe way until they can providerovide two or even three negativeegative tests in a row over a period of days.
We know it’s a gamble and there might be bumps but we’re all trying to wing it through this situation.
Scottish footballootball is not a call centre and if we treat it like one then the game is goingng to be in soapy bubble.le.
SO it all cocomes down to a console.
Ironic that becausebe there’ll be littlee consoling Celtic and Arsenal whenn they are missing key players for twoo of the biggest gamesga of their season.. The fact Ryan Christie and Kieran Tierney are shuttingshu themselves offf from the world for two weeks after getting too closclose to Covid-positivee Stuart ArmstrArmstrong while playing computer gamesgam almost sums up how absurd this situation is. If it wasnwasn’t so serious. Celtic and Arsenal want answers from the Scottish governmgovernment over the 14-day quaranquarantine rule. GiveGiven Christie will miss the Old Firm game and TTierney a trip to face MManchester City despitedes testing negative you can undersunderstand why. This is a mess not of their making. The players insinsist they adhered to all the guidancguidance. It must be particularlypar frustrating given EnglandEngla trio Tammy Abraham, JadoJadon Sancho and Ben ChilwellWILLChilwellWILL beb available for their clubs’ next mmatches despite admitting breakbreaking Covid protocols. But you’d havehav to think the Hoops and Gunners aare whistling in the wind – at a distdistance of two metres, hopefully – if ththey want the guidelineslines relaxed forfo footballers. Rules are rulesrule and never are they more importantimportan when they exist to safeguard the health of a nation.
ThThe 14-14dayd rulel forf anyone whoh iis deemed to have come in contact with a sufferer was established by medical experts best placed to understand the nature of the virus.
This ain’t the place and I’m not the man to go all boffin on you but in a nutshell anyone who has spent 15 minutes or more within two metres of someone who tests positive must isolate for two weeks.
Why? Because symptoms can take 14 days to manifest by which point a carrier could have passed it on to who knows how many team mates.
It’s why Kilmarnock are without an entire team for another week.
Science lesson over. But where does this Covid cluster**** leave the elite end of the game with another round of international fixtures set to follow hard on the heels of the current break?
Players will again leave their club ‘bubbles’ to jump on planes as their employers try to prepare for their next domestic match.
Which for Celtic is a trip to Hibs, with Rangers at home to Aberdeen.
The quarantine rules are not the issue here. They can’t be – not when they th are imposed by scientists with w more letters to their names than th the Bulgarian alphabet.
But what it does throw a light on once again is the necessity of this th congested international football foo calendar.
Nobody N feels the importance of the Euro 2020 play-offs more than thi this died-in-the-wool Scotland supporter.
Not for a minute am I suggesting they should be scrapped.
But the Nations League? That is entirely another matter.
I like it. Scotland have a lot to thank it for. But is it necessary in times of a global pandemic crisis? Absolutely not.
The fact games are being crammed into a calendar already packed with domestic and European fixtures makes it all the more unnecessary and, lets be blunt, dangerous.
The fewer times players leave their club bubbles to jump on a plane the more chance of containing the spread of this killer virus.
In short it’s time to park the Nations League for a year.
Smaller nations may benefit from the TV money it brings in but is that really worth the potential consequences?
Bring the four play-off finals forward to next week. Finalise the line-up for next summer’s Euro Finals. Then we can all forget about international football until the world is a safer place.