COVID CATCH-22
Lower leagues in peril due to testing inconsistencies, claims Robertson
JOHN ROBERTSON has outlined the catch-22 Covid scenario he fears could derail the upcoming lower-league season.
Speaking as he gears up for the start of the Betfred Cup and Championship campaigns, the Inverness Caley Thistle manager admits he has reservations around testing protocol.
While Premiership clubs are currently required to test once per week for coronavirus, there is no instruction for Championship, League One and League Two sides to do likewise when the lower divisions kick off on October 17.
The exception will come in the Betfred Cup when, if one team tests in the build-up, the other will be required to do the same.
Both league and cup competitions will see part-time players, working day jobs in addition to their football commitments, come into contact with full-time players, some operating in carefully-monitored
‘bubble’ conditions. The potential for spread is real but with lower-league clubs unable to finance a thorough testing programme — estimated at around £1,500 per game — Robertson struggles to see a risk-free solution. He said: ‘I think testing kills the season. It’s far too expensive for clubs in the Championship, Leagues One and Two. But by not testing, I worry about health. I genuinely do.
‘My main concern is that if we are not all testing, how do you know if someone has Covid-19? If you are not testing at Championship level down, how are you possibly to know if a player has it and it spreads?
‘This is not having a go at part-time teams. Players are still catching it despite being tested at Premiership level. But part-time players are exposed to their working day, maybe the general public, so how do we police that?’
As the most remote club in the Championship, Robertson is also grappling with the practicalities of approaching a new season staged in unprecedented circumstances. He continued: ‘We have to travel to Dumfries and Ayr. Say we’re temperature testing at the ground and one of the players is 38.5°C. We know he can’t play but does that mean the others can’t play either having sat in a bus with him for three hours?
‘We’re also hearing that not all Championship clubs can provide showers for the away games. Really? Are we supposed to travel to Ayr, when it’s pouring with rain in December, towel ourselves dry and then get on a bus for four hours? Because that is a health hazard waiting to happen.
‘These are the things that worry me. The other thing is that the Premiership clubs can lose two or three players through isolation and still put out a team. We’d struggle.’ Back in June, the SPFL balloted League One and League Two clubs on the possibility of hibernating for a year rather than committing to a season in which there was no guarantee of gate revenue.
To the surprise of SPFL bosses, not a single club took up the option.
Robertson fears the collective decision was not based on confidence that the storm could be ridden out. He added: ‘I’m sure there are clubs who aren’t convinced they can get through but are maybe reluctant to say so in case there is a punishment coming behind it.
‘If one chairman had looked at it and saw no gate money, no advertising and decided his club was not playing, it might have had a domino effect.
‘I think a lot of other chairman would then say: “Thank God, because we didn’t want to be the first one to say we can’t play”.’
Caley Thistle chief executive Scot Gardiner would echo those concerns. Although impressed with the optimism of the lower-league clubs, he is fearful of the future.
He said: ‘Speaking to guys from League One and League Two, they are going in with a very can-do attitude. They deserve credit for thinking they can do this — but I’m not sure.
‘I wasn’t aware of the storm of regulation that’s coming at us. And we are a full-time team.
‘We are talking about making a business biosecure, phrases you never thought you would use in your life.
‘I have assured the board we will get through this but we need things to fall for us.
‘I am confident that if we don’t have to test and we can get fans in before Christmas, we will be fine.
‘After that, it gets vague.
If there are no fans and then testing is brought in, I think it’s very hard for any of us to look at that.
‘We’ve lost two concerts. We had a 23,000 sell-out for Westlife and Tom Jones was selling well, too. That’s the best part of £200,000, boom and gone.’
Gardiner found himself at the heart of the SPFL vote controversy when he made public the details of a WhatsApp conversation between Championship club officials detailing the timeline behind Dundee’s so-called missing ballot.
Strongly opposed to the resolution that saw Hearts, Partick Thistle and Stranraer demoted after an incomplete season, he has no regrets over his radio appearance and insists he remains in regular contact with his boardroom counterparts.
‘We did what we did and everybody else did what they did,’ he said. ‘We are all grown adults and we have been on Zoom calls all the time.
‘I never went for a pint with any of them before, so it’s not like we’ve lost that. We were honest and true. Not before, during or since then have I criticised another club for an opinion.’ During that radio interview Gardiner (left) insisted his team had ‘one knee on the ground’ in its fight to stay afloat. His view now is less dramatic but he still harbours concerns.
He added: ‘It has been so stressful. Taking away all the nonsense of the summer, I have never worked so hard in my life.
‘We are better. We have one knee on the ground with a hand up. We are not in peril but it’s still a tooth and claw fight.’