Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
BIG BOYS HIT SMALL CLUBS
Gartcairn paying for sins of Celtic and Dons
Gartcairn gaffer Willie Kinniburgh has blasted a decision to prevent lower league teams from training until August 24 – saying it’s because Premiership ‘ big boys’ didn’t want to follow the rules.
The now-infamous ‘Aberdeen 8’ and Celtic star Boli Bolingoli are in the process of being punished for breaching coronavirus rules, but Kinniburgh says everybody else is also paying the price.
The Scottish FA’s Joint Response Group announced last Thursday that, with the agreement of the Scottish Government, clubs below the top flight would be unable to train until August 24 at the earliest in light of recent breaches.
The West of Scotland League side are in limbo over exactly when they can start training.
And Kinniburgh said: “I thought it was coming, having heard from a few League One managers and stuff like that, but you need to just deal with it – all the teams in the lower leagues are suffering because a couple of the big boys don’t fancy playing by the rules.
“We were going to start on Monday, but hopefully it’s just a week’s postponement – any more than that is going to have an impact into what we’re trying to do, but I just hope nothing else changes.
“I think t h e r e ’s an announcement from the First Minister on Thursday, and fingers crossed she doesn’t change anything, that it is the 24th, and we can just deal with that and then crack on from there, but who knows, it’s strange times.
“I feel that because some of the big boys did something silly we’re all being punished, massively.”
A number of clubs in the West of Scotland League had returned to some form of light pre-season work, but were forced back into hibernation by the surprise announcement.
Kinniburgh added: “We’re in a fortunate position where it’s not the players’ livelihoods that are at stake, everybody works and playing football is a sort of hobby. It is taken very seriously, but it is second to your job.
“I feel for the guys in the Championship where it is their livelihood and it’s getting put off and put off.
“It’s really poor, and they’re talking about testing twice a week and things like that, and that’s great if you’re a club that brings in tens of millions every year, but if you’re a smaller club and every penny is a prisoner it’s very difficult.”