WOS LEAGUE
A long serving manager has backed the decision to suspend lower league football as “absolutely the right thing to do”.
Maybole boss Carlo Walker had earlier urged the West of Scotland League to pause their three conferences in the best interests of overall safety.
But any decision was taken out of the league’s hands by Monday’s announcement that all football below the Scottish Championship was being suspended for three weeks until January 31.
This will then be reviewed on a rolling basis by the SFA Board in partnership with the Scottish Government.
Walker claimed: “This decision takes a lot of pressure off a lot of people including the NHS. It will save thousands of car journeys involving players, training staff, referees and officials.
“As much as a lot of players will be disappointed, it was always a huge possibility that this could happen. If if’s not safe to play then we don’t play.”
A number of top clubs including Auchinleck, Cumnock, Glenafton, Pollok, Kilbirnie and Whitletts had already taken the decision not to play this season and have been idle since the leagues belatedly kicked off in October.
But others opted to soldier on despite no fans being allowed into grounds and no access to changing room facilities for players.
As Covid deaths and infection rates continued to grow, Maybole expressed their fears and said it was time to call a halt.
In an earlier statement issued before last weekend’s entire card was frozen off, Walker wrote: “I have spoken to a few people regarding the current state of the pandemic and we as a club have written to the league secretary to tell them we propose a break until February.
“WOSFL have NOT stopped football, we are only making them aware of OUR decision and what we would like to do at this present time.
“The infection numbers are higher now than in March last year when we were forced to stop and I personally think the break to stay away from each other and other teams is now critical.
“We have suspended all training and we anticipate that Saturday’s match may be off due to weather.
“We are asking the league and all the other teams to back this break from all competitive games until February which we feel will help keep everyone safe and worry not just for our players and staff but their families and friends.
“We hope we can get back to playing and training once we have this short break alongside the lockdown.”