No, First Minister
It really has become comedy when the likes of Rod Petrie are showing Sturgeon how to lead
‘IN stage one, we say nothing is going to happen. In stage two, we say something may be going to happen, but we should do nothing about it. In stage three, we say that maybe we should do something about it, but there’s nothing we can do. In stage four, we say maybe there’s something we could have done, but it’s too late now...’
An old online clip of Sir Humphrey Appleby in cahoots with Civil Service crony Sir Richard Wharton from the classic BBC sitcom Yes Minister has gone viral this week.
It perfectly sums up the lamentable leadership of the coronavirus crisis by British politicians.
The SFA and SPFl have their critics and that’s fine. But, after days of banging their heads off a brick wall trying to get answers from a dithering, procrastinating Scottish government over the impact of the virus on large crowds, they’ve taken it upon themselves to take decisive action.
In the face of the gravest health crisis for a generation, football becomes inconsequential.
Suspending the Scottish league season until further notice was the right thing to do.
In contrast, the position of First Minister nicola Sturgeon has been weak and unsustainable on the whole issue.
To suspend gatherings of more than 500 people in public places was right and sensible.
To recommend delaying the move until Monday was a half-hearted cop-out. A dereliction of leadership.
If playing football matches behind closed doors is an appropriate policy from this Monday, then why the hell wouldn’t they just do it today or tomorrow?
Why would they allow tens of thousands of football supporters to pass through turnstiles if they suspected any risk to their health at all?
Italy, Japan, South Korea, Switzerland, Spain and the United States had already suspended their football leagues completely before France and Germany yesterday followed suit.
Poland had moved to play games behind closed doors.
And here in dear old Blighty, the politicians were fiddling as Rome burned. While the shutters came down on world sport, Scottish politicians were happy to keep sending fans along to Fir Park and Easter Road for the good of their health. or not, as the case may be.
Explaining why she planned to delay the action until Monday morning, the First Minister spoke of the need to free up police, doctors, hospitals, care workers and ambulance crews to get on with the jobs that really matter.
But if that was the motivation, it made no sense whatsoever to wave through an old Firm game tomorrow afternoon.
There might be public events which cause more grief to police and hospitals than a meeting of Celtic and Rangers.
off the top of the head, it’s hard to think of one. It always made more sense to curtail large public events before Glasgow’s big two were due to meet. not after.
on Thursday night, Ibrox hosted just under 50,000 fans for the Europa league defeat to Bayer leverkusen. Amongst them were 2,000 supporters from the north Rhine-Westphalia region of Germany, which is badly affected by coronavirus.
Tomorrow, another 50,000 were due to turn up for the most inconsequential game between Rangers and Celtic in living memory.
The science might say that supporters are better off watching football in an outdoor setting than they are viewing on TV in the cramped confines of a pub. But why take the risk?
Across the world, sporting bodies are locking the doors and bolting the windows. They can’t
all be wrong. SPFl chief executive neil doncaster has already warned of ‘dire financial consequences’ for clubs if turnstiles are locked for the rest of the season.
But you can’t place a value on human life. And the issue won’t be unique to Scotland. The world economy is in trouble and football is no exception. If suspending the league season means putting clubs under financial strain? Tough. If it means Rangers and Celtic coming back to play to an empty Ibrox whenever they can? So be it.
With the virus weeks away from reaching its peak, you wouldn’t really bet on this football season coming back at all.
If that’s the case, squabbling and self-serving bickering over who wins the Premiership and who goes down will reach the epidemic phase in no time.
The SPFl have already ruled out rendering the season null and void. And neil lennon fired the first shot across league bows yesterday when he warned that Celtic expect — and deserve — to be crowned champions after 30 games if the league can’t go on.
As this newspaper first revealed, the SFA and SPFl joint-response group are quite prepared to hand the title to the Parkhead club if they have absolutely no alternative.
They’d be equally prepared to call who goes down to the Championship as well. And you can almost hear the Hearts lawyers taking a shot of antibacterial sanitiser and rubbing their hands together in gleeful anticipation of that.
The men in charge of Scottish football are routinely accused of being useless, empty blazers. Yet the decision to suspend the league showed they’re not afraid to make difficult, necessary decisions.
Sometimes they even get them right and that’s more than can be said for a dithering and ineffectual political class in recent days.
If it really is the case that you can tell much about a leader in a time of crisis, then the nation might be in bigger trouble than anyone thinks.
dealing with the greatest public health pandemic of modern times is the responsibility of Boris Johnson and nicola Sturgeon.
When Rod Petrie is showing them how it’s done, these really
are dark and worrying days.