So how did Celtic and Dons get off so lightly?

CELTIC and Aberdeen were treated more leniently for their Covid violations because they were ‘unregulated acts of folly’ as opposed to systematic failures on behalf of the clubs. The Parkhead club were handed a £30,000 fine, with £8,000 going to the SPFL Trust and the rest suspended, after Boli Bolingoli went on a day trip to Spain without telling his employers. He then played against Kilmarnock when he should have been in quarantine. Aberdeen were hit with the same penalty after eight of their players headed to a city-centre restaurant following an opening-day defeat to Rangers. Robert Milligan QC, who represented both St Mirren and Kilmarnock, argued that those previous breaches had been ‘more aggravating by way of offending’ and claimed that the financial penalties imposed should accordingly ‘be significantly lower than those of Aberdeen and Celtic’. However, Rod McKenzie, representing the SPFL at the tribunal, claimed the circumstances ‘were much more serious, particularly due to the postponements of matches, as opposed to the sanctions imposed on Celtic and Aberdeen’. The judgment read: ‘In the Celtic and Aberdeen cases, neither club had requested a postponement. It was due to government intervention that the games involving these two clubs (Celtic and Aberdeen) were postponed.’ The tribunal sided with the league, finding that the cases involving Celtic and Aberdeen were distinct in that players rather the clubs had been at fault.