What they said...

PARTICK THISTLE

Club statement

For us as a club, today’s news that all football below the Championship has been shut down is the culmination of a series of circumstances that we, as a board, foretold last April and have fought to avoid ever since.

Once demoted, we fought for a restructure of leagues to allow us, as an ambitious full- time club, to continue playing if football was stopped again. If that had happened, we would still be playing today.

At the season start, the SPFL made it clear that clubs who were unable to play at any point would be penalised. Yet here we are, prepared to play but unable to do so as we are in a league of predominantly part- time clubs. We saw this coming, we raised it – why didn’t the SPFL listen?

We warned last week that the football authorities’ distribution of monies, which penalised Thistle by £ 350k, could come back to bite us if games were stopped. Less than a week later, here we are without the financial cushion other full- time clubs have been given. We are already looking at furloughing staff and players which is an awful step for a professional club to have to take and could impact our ability to compete when football returns.

The SFA President referenced “notable exceptions” by way of acknowledging that today’s decision may suit part- time teams but not the full- time teams in the leagues being shut down. It’s surely not good enough to recognise that unfairness and simply turn away?

The final straw is the impact that this may have during the transfer window. This may be a three week break but that takes us to the end of the window. Players want to play and uncertainty is not the basis for a move. Where’s the sporting integrity if, once the game restarts, we haven’t been able to strengthen the team to help achieve our aim of promotion?

Partick Thistle’s experience should serve as a lesson to clubs who thought we should take a hit for football with the demotion and suck it up. But it’s now gone way beyond that, enough is enough.

IAIN McMENEMY Stenhousemuir chairman

It feels like the Scottish FA has come under pressure from the Scottish Government to take action following the much maligned trip by Celtic to Dubai, and their response has been to offer up lower league clubs as martyrs instead.

I find that approach particularly disappointing.

Back in the summer, the Scottish FA tried to suggest that there could be more cases of COVID in the lower leagues due the players being part- time and having second jobs. They said this would lead to more games at our level being postponed. Neither of these things happened.

When compared to the full- time teams, the COVID spread at all levels of the game has been much the same.

IAN MURRAY Airdrie manager

I think we’ll need more than a week’s training before playing again. I don’t think anybody would be comfortable going into a game after a week. I think every club would want two weeks, minimum, maybe three.

So, you’re probably talking the middle of February until we get our competitive games back, but that will be at a push. Then there will be a lot of fixtures to fit in.

It’s just a very difficult situation for everybody and it’s not ideal, but we always had this fear that it could come.

GEORGE FRASER Lowland League chairman

We want to get back as soon possible but we will continue to follow that advice and will return to playing when they tell us it’s safe to do so.

They’re talking about January 31 and we’re hopeful that in that three- week period the numbers will have fallen enough for them to get comfort from the fact it’s safe to return.

We’re hoping to get back this season, definitely. But we’ll need to look at

[ contingencies]. We’d be naive to think that there won’t be a continuation in the suspension.

We put in place a rule at the start of the season that if 50 per cent of games for all clubs had been played in the league and the season was stopped then those positions would become final.

ROD HOUSTON

Highland League secretary

It’s not an unprecedented scale of catch- up, it’s definitely manageable and doable.

This news really doesn’t come as a surprise, there were increasing signs over the weekend that the game was heading to this conclusion.

I feel it is better that the decision is made at national levels rather than local levels because it takes all the potential elements of selfinterest or differences of opinion within an association out of the equation.