ST MIRREN
THE CHARGE
It was alleged that St Mirren breached the SPFL’s Covid-19 rules before Premiership matches against Motherwell on October 17 and Hamilton on October 24.
THE DETAILS
The SPFL’s judgment says St Mirren admitted four breaches of Covid-19 regulations.
1 A bus trip to and from Dumfries, to play Queen of the South FC in the Betfred Cup on October 10, was identified as a clear source of transmitting the virus. A diagram showed that a number of players were not socially distanced. The club have a Covid-19 officer and Covid medical officer, but neither were on the bus to or from Dumfries to ensure the relevant regulations were being followed. The club also failed to consider whether or not they should use buses, or a larger bus, to lower the risk of transmission.
2 The second breach related to a team meal en route to Dumfries for the cup tie. Players were seated at round tables and were not adhering to social-distancing guidelines. Again, the club’s Covid-19 officer and medical officer were not present to ensure the correct guidelines were followed.
3 The third breach related to inadequately spaced facilities used by too many players at the club’s training-ground gym at Ralston. A St Mirren document showed ten names of players sharing an eight-metre bench space. The size of the gym and ventilation and cleaning at the gym were also criticised.
4 The fourth breach saw St Mirren fail to ensure that players minimised the number of people traveling together to training. There were up to four players per car heading into the club’s Ralston facility, in direct breach of well-publicised government guidelines. There was said to be a ‘fair chance’ that where two people in the same vehicle had both been infected, the second had contracted from the first during such a car journey.
THE CONCLUSION
A report by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Public Health Protection Unit into the events at St Mirren stated that ‘better adherence to basic physical-distancing guidance in “off-pitch” parts of the club operations, including transport to and from training and matches, pre-match meal and gym facilities, would likely have limited transmissions within the club, though cannot be guaranteed to have completely prevented it.’