TOTAL DISASTER
Option One? A restricted fanbase when football returns, says SFA vice-president Mulraney ++ No 2 is campaign behind closed doors ++ Three? That’s what happens if game isn’t back by next season
SFA vice-president Mike Mulraney admits he is planning for a ‘total disaster scenario’ of no Scottish football next season.
The Alloa Athletic owner co-chairs two joint response working groups studying options to get football back up and running after coronavirus cut the season short.
And Mulraney insisted it would be ‘foolhardy’ to expect all clubs to survive a scenario where next season could be wiped out by social-distancing measures in the absence of a vaccine.
Speaking ahead of a Zoom meeting between the SFA, SPFL, SRU and other sporting bodies with Scottish Sports Minister Joe FitzPatrick tomorrow, the Wasps chief admitted clubs have to convince politicians the game can be played safely — or prepare for casualties.
‘Alloa have run what I would call some stark realities which are real, meaningful and probable,’ he told BBC Scotland’s Sportsound. ‘There are three main visions we believe we have to deal with as a club.
‘One being a very restricted fanbase returning to football, which we think is a possibility. And we’re running how that would work in terms of how people would get changed and how people would access the ground. If you can’t
The Premier League will make a desperate plea for unity this week amid claims that the bottom six clubs are sabotaging plans to resume the season.
In another sign of the destructive conflict that has gripped the english top flight, Sportsmail has learned some of the Big Six are lobbying for guarantees that promotion and relegation will still be implemented, even if the season is curtailed.
The dramatic move following last Friday’s shareholders’ meeting represents an attempt by the ePL’s biggest clubs to persuade those in the bottom three to vote for playing on, as it would be their only hope of avoiding relegation.
The split over the merits of Project Restart is largely based on where clubs stand in the table, with an executive at one club telling
Sportsmail yesterday that the objections raised by clubs near the bottom amounted to a deliberate act of sabotage.
‘They are threatening to destroy football just to avoid the risk of relegation,’ is how one executive put it. ‘Their thinking is so short-sighted.’