FOOTBALL MELTDOWN
13 Celtic players and boss Neil Lennon forced to self-isolate after Dubai trip Exasperated Sturgeon slams club and claims they are ‘abusing their privilege’ SPFL season on brink as lower leagues and Scottish Cup are suspended
NICOLA Sturgeon yesterday criticised Celtic for “abusing their privilege” with a lockdown trip to Dubai which has rocked Scottish football.
Manager Neil Lennon and several key players have been forced to self-isolate after a player tested positive on his return from the controversial training camp.
It meant they missed the league clash against Hibs at Parkhead last night, which came at the end of a day when:
The First Minister questioned whether the Dubai trip was really “essential”;
She called for elite sports stars to show “respect” to the rest of the population;
And Scottish football below Championship level was suspended for three weeks from midnight.
There were further questions over Celtic’s Dubai trip yesterday after it emerged Christopher Jullien tested positive for Covid-19 on his return.
A total of 16 players and staff – including Lennon – were identified as close contacts of the defender.
Th e scandal erupted just as Dubai was placed on Scotland’s quarantine l ist for travel.
In a highly critical reaction at her dai l y briefing, Sturgeon said: “I can’t tell you how disappointed and frustrated I am to be facing another briefing that may be dominated by football.
“Football, and elite sport more generally, enjoys a number of privileges right now that the rest of us do not have. These privileges include the right to go to overseas training camps and be exempt from quarantine on return. “It is really vital, also for public health reasons but I think out of respect for the rest of the population living under really heavy restrictions, that these privileges are not abused. I do have doubts, based on how the club itself described it, about whether Celtic’s trip to Dubai was really essential.
“I have doubts based on some pictures I’ve seen whether adherence to bubble rules was strict enough.
“As with any situation like this, it’s for the football authorities to decide if any further action is required and they should consider that carefully.”
The Parkhead club defended the decision to jet out to the Middle East, insisting Jullien could have caught the virus in Scotland.
A club statement added: “The reality is that a case could well have
occurred had the team remained in Scotland, as other cases have done in Scottish football and across UK sport in the past week.
“Celtic has done everything it can to ensure we have in place the very best procedures and protocols.
“From the outset of the pandemic, Celtic has worked closely with the Scottish Government and Scottish football and we will continue to do so.”
Sturgeon also claimed the Government understood Celtic had originally been planning to go to a different country. She said: “As I understand it, I think at the time when that clarity of the rules was given it was another country that they were planning on going to rather than Dubai – and also that was back in November.
“The world and the situation with Covid has changed quite a lot since then and the club itself described the trip to Dubai as R&R.”
Amid a second wave of the Covid crisis, mainland Scotland is in the highest tier of lockdown restrictions, which prevent all but essential exercise.
Yesterday, Sturgeon said the general public should not be making “day trips” to the beach.
Turning to Celtic, whose players were pictured enjoying the beach in Dubai, she added: “Fans of football clubs right now, Celtic fans, aren’t able to travel freely, we are all under the stay at home restrictions.
“So if you have privileges then you shouldn’t be abusing those.”
Earlier yesterday, the SFA announced a three- week suspension of football for all teams below the SPFL Championship as cases of coronavirus continue to rise.