Right move but we need more clarity

Q: What will be the financial impact on clubs?

At the moment, it’s really difficult for clubs to properly gauge and accurately estimate how deep the financial impact is going to be. There are so many variables in this and different things to be sorted out in the days and weeks to come, which will obviously have an impact on clubs’ finances. At this stage, we don’t have real clarity. That will only come as the situation develops. We’re in a wait-and-see stage right now — but I think it was the right decision to postpone this weekend’s games.

Q: What are Motherwell’s contingency plans?

We’ve had a contingency plan in place for a couple of days. As well as reminding players and staff of the medical advice from the various government agencies, we had also put plans in place before the Aberdeen game if it had gone ahead. We had drawn up some guidelines around the players’ interactions with fans and mascots. We had installed up to 40 hand sanitisers. Things like that. We have carried out a risk assessment designed to minimise the number of staff having to gather around the same place or office. Those are things we will continue to do over the next few days. It’s the weekend now, so players and staff will be off, but what happens next will frame our approach. The pace of this is moving quickly and, hopefully, we have information about what’s happening around the games next week, even as early as Monday. Who knows what will happen. This has moved at a massive rate of knots. But what happens with the fixtures will determine what we have to do as a club. If there is a game on next Saturday — and we don’t know for sure if there will or won’t be — then that impacts on who needs to be at Fir Park and what they’re doing. You’ve got the players, their support staff and people like the chefs and other staff who are required to get a game on.

Q: How concerned are the clubs and what happens next?

I think it’s a concern for all. The biggest one — and this is no one’s fault — is the lack of real clarity at the moment. We got some today from the SFA and SPFL regarding this weekend’s games and that was welcome. But what clubs need now is even more clarity about what happens next — as quickly as possible. With that, comes the ability to make decisions to try to mitigate as much as possible against anything negative happening to the business. The worst thing, by far, is not knowing what’s around the corner and being left in a state of flux. For everybody’s sake, and without short circuiting the process, I think we need some clear decisions on things like dates and any legislation so that clubs can start to manage the situation. That needs to be the priority over the next few days. No matter the size of club, I don’t think there are any in Scotland who don’t agree that this won’t be an easy time.