Covid call a ‘disgrace’ says Dyer

ALEX DYER last night branded the SPFL tribunal decision to punish Kilmarnock over Covid-19 breaches ‘a joke’ and hit out at those running the game in this country.

The Rugby Park manager is fuming over Thursday’s ruling to award Motherwell a 3-0 win after the sides’ fixture on October 2 was called off when a coronavirus outbreak saw the Ayrshire club’s entire squad forced to self-isolate by health officials.

Killie insist they observed what they saw as Scottish Government guidelines on coach travel and one-metre distancing when players ate together, but that was not

enough to prevent them being forced to forfeit three points and receiving a suspended £40,000 fine.

St Mirren were ordered to forfeit two matches over guideline breaches and were also hit with a suspended £40,000 penalty.

‘It is a disgraceful decision,’ said Dyer. ‘It is a sorry time for football up here. If we got fined, no one would have batted an eyelid.

‘It has not been a good week for the club. The officials have decided to give the opposition three points. It doesn’t make sense to me when we are going through what we are going through.

‘The whole world is going through a pandemic and the league has decided to come out at us a little bit when they should be protecting us. The club spent a lot of money putting in the right measurements and we have been slapped round the face this week.

‘Down south, big games were called off and all they say is they hope everyone gets well and we will rearrange the game. Everything is a drama (here).

‘We have tried our best. First it was one metre then it was two metres. A lot of things have happened behind the scenes, but this inquiry has been a joke. It should never have happened in the first place.

‘They are supposed to look after us and protect us and now they want to punish us, us and St Mirren.

‘We don’t need to go down that route. It is not right.’