Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Well chief rules out SPFL’s ‘nuts’ option
MOTHERWELL’S chief executive has revealed “a number of scenarios” have been mooted to ensure today’s game between Dundee and the Steelmen goes ahead, if Dens Park fails a pitch inspection.
It was reported on Thursday that the Dark Blues faced potentially moving the clash to an alternative venue should the playing surface at Dens fail to withstand forecast heavy rainfall, with the SPFL concerned about the proximity of the Premiership split and a lack of free dates to reschedule further games.
The Dark Blues branded the reports “very much media speculation” and said huge amounts of work had gone into making the pitch at Dens playable by Thursday afternoon, at which time rain covers were placed over the surface.
Dundee, who have seen four games postponed this season due to rainfall, still aim to play the fixture against Motherwell as scheduled.
But in a video update to fans, new Steelmen CEO Brian Caldwell revealed discussions have been ongoing between Dundee, the SPFL and his club through the week, with several alternative options – including moving the game – mooted as contingencies, should the Dens surface fail an inspection this morning.
However, the Motherwell chief insisted his club will not allow themselves to be pushed into a course of action they do not agree with.
He said: “This has been a bit of a baptism of fire this week to be honest with you, because I’ve spent most of the time on the phone to the SPFL and Dundee about a game in April which, I’ll not go into it, but basically the SPFL are really keen that we play the game this weekend.
“A number of scenarios have been put to us.
“One was, for example, if the game goes off Saturday, we play Sunday. If the game goes off Sunday, we play Monday, which is just not practical for the football side of it.
“One was we play at Airdrie, behind closed doors, which is just nuts, for me.
“We’re a spectator sport. We have to look after our own supporters.
“Our position has been quite clear to the SPFL that this is not our fault. This is nothing to do with this football club, so why should we have the hassle of it all?
“Our position, quite clear, is we play Saturday at Dens or we reschedule the game to another time, and if that means that the post-split fixtures are delayed, then so be it, because playing behind closed doors is just ridiculous.
“If we go down that line and they try to force us into doing that, we will stand firm and not do it.
“I think Scottish football will support us with that because it’s not our problem, but it’s becoming our problem.
“Unfortunately, I’m quite vociferous about that, that this isn’t right. And when something is not right in football, I will say it.”
On the plan for this morning’s pitch inspection, Caldwell said: “Basically they’ve hired covers from Celtic, rain covers.
“They covered the pitch yesterday after the pitch inspection. The pitch was deemed playable yesterday afternoon.
“Their issue is, ideally we would have had another pitch inspection today (Friday), but the issue then is if you take the covers off and it’s raining, the rain potentially gets to the pitch, because it does take a few hours to put pitch covers down and up.
“Then the other issue is if you do it Saturday morning, you don’t want to do it too early, the pitch is playable but then the game goes off because it gets three or four hours of rain on it. I kind of understand their dilemma with that.
“They’ve said the only thing they can really do is start lifting the covers at 9-10 o’clock and do a pitch inspection at 11 o’clock, which, listen, is not really ideal for anybody. The team will be at Dundee by that time. It’s not great for supporters either.”
Caldwell also suggested more needs to be done at governance level to ensure pitches are up to standard in the Scottish game. He said: “It’s frustrating for me. There needs to be maybe a bit more regulation on pitches.”
Dundee offered no comment in response to Caldwell’s interview.