MARTIN HANNAN
first and foremost, and frankly that is what they may have to do. Like any other business at this time, the SRU must do what it can to preserve the jobs of its employees and I am sorry but I cannot see anything other than a number of redundancies coming down the way.
What Barr and Rigby and the Council must do is to fight for ordinary clubs to get some share of whatever is left.
That’s where innovation comes in, and maybe the new president and vice president should push for an ad hoc committee to consider any and every idea that could keep the grassroots growing, or at the very least still above ground level.
I liked Barr’s tone in his first statements after taking on the presidency. He was open and candid about the re-start date for the majority of clubs, supposedly October 31.
As he said: “The 31st October, when it was announced, we were supposed 1999 Nineteen-year-old
Robbie Keane became the then most expensive teenager in British football, completing a £6million move from Wolves to Coventry.
2014 Scottish Lowland League side Stirling University made to be in Phase 4 (of the Scottish Government’s route-map for the easing of lockdown), but we’re still in what we class as Phase 3.
“So, will it happen on 31st October? I think we’ve all got our fingers crossed for that but I think the realisation is there that while we target for that date, it could disappear as we get closer to it.
“We’ve all seen what has happened in New Zealand this weekend, from full houses to no spectators and a game cancelled because of lockdown. So, we know how fragile the situation is globally, but be reassured there are a lot of people working very hard to try to make the best out of this situation.”
Barr will have to be equally transparent about every step along the way from now on, especially about the governance issues he has promised to tackle, but I think he’s made a good start and
I’m backing him to make a difference.
history by appointing Shelley Kerr as their manager. The club from the league just below the Scottish Professional Football League became the first at their level in Britain to appoint a female manager.