Scotland set to follow Uefa lead over season decision
● Euro conference summit tomorrow
Scottish football’s governing bodies are ready to follow guidance from Uefa as they grapple with the thorny issue of determining how the 201920 domestic season is settled amid the coronavirus crisis.
The Joint Response Group of the Scottish FA and Scottish Professional Football
League will meet again today to address the current suspension of all fixtures which they announced last Friday “until further notice”.
There is now no realistic expectation of matches starting again until the summer months at the earliest, leaving uncompleted league and cup competitions all around Europe in a state of flux.
It has been suggested Prime Minister Boris Johnson is poised to declare all leagues in theunitedkingdomasoverfor the season, leaving individual leagues to decide whether title winners and relegated clubs will be determined by current positions in the tables.
But as sport is a devolved issue, it would be the Scottish Government who have the authority to call a halt to the season in Scotland. With First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, pictured, having indicated her administration will seek to take any coronavirus-related decisions “on a consistent UK four-nations basis”, any such lead from Downing Street appears likely to be followed.
As football across Europe tries to come to terms with an unprecedented situation, the Scottish FA and SPFL will take part in a Uefa video conference summit which has been called for tomorrow. European football’s governing body has stated that the discussions will include “all domestic” football under their auspices, as well as the fates of this season’s Champions League, Europa League and the Euro 2020 finals. One option open to Uefa is to advise all of its members to declare their domestic leagues as completed on the basis of how the tables stood prior to fixtures being suspended.
That would be a highly contentious move for many in Scottish football where a number of issues have to be resolved at both ends of all four SPFL divisions.
Celtic feel they would deserve to be declared champions for a ninth consecutive season in
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