League start in doubt as club hit by Covid
++St Mirren in virus lockdown as seven staff test positive ++Hampden chiefs quiz Rangers on B-team getting all-clear
PLANS for the start of the Scottish football season have potentially been dealt a blow following a major coronavirus outbreak at St Mirren.
Seven members of staff at the Paisley club have tested positive for Covid-19 nine days before the Scottish Premiership is due to start. St Mirren said no players had tested positive.
The Scottish Government has been informed of the cases.
Players have now been given new safety guidelines to follow as the club shut down for further testing. The club’s pre-season friendly against St Johnstone tomorrow has been postponed.
Clubs had been ordered to test their players once a week in the run-up to the start of the season next weekend.
But following news of the outbreak, football authorities have said that clubs will now revert to twice-weekly testing. Any players who tests positive will have to isolate from the rest of their team.
St Mirren are set to start their league campaign on August 1 against Livingston. The match could still go ahead if no players are infected and tests before the match come back negative.
A statement from the league and governing body read: ‘The Joint Response Group has been notified that St Mirren Football Club has returned seven positive tests for Covid-19. We immediately contacted the
Scottish Government and the office of the clinical director for Scotland to relay this information. As a consequence, St Mirren’s planned friendly match at home to St Johnstone, scheduled to take place on Saturday 25 July, has been cancelled.
‘In light of this and other recent events, the JRG hereby notifies Scottish Premiership clubs that with immediate effect they must revert to twice-weekly testing protocols until further notice.’
ST MIRREN are at the centre of a coronavirus lockdown just a week before the new Premiership season kicks off.
Their weekend friendly with St Johnstone is off — and ALL Premiership players have been forced to revert to twice-weekly testing — after seven members of the Paisley side’s backroom staff provided positive tests.
The Scottish Government were informed by the SFA/SPFL Joint Response Group yesterday morning and the seven staff members involved sent into quarantine.
Last night, St Mirren confirmed that ‘several members of our coaching staff have tested positive for Covid-19. We immediately contacted the health authorities, the SPFL, the SFA have also been informed. No members of the playing staff have tested positive.’
The club’s Simple Digital Arena will now be closed down and deep cleaned in a quest to prevent a damaging spread. And, while the Scottish Government has given the go-ahead for the new Premiership season to start next weekend,
SCOTTISH football’s Joint Response Group has written to Rangers seeking answers on whether a B squad beaten by Dundee United had been given the all-clear for Covid-19. The Ibrox club’s midweek friendly win over Motherwell at Ibrox on Wednesday was pushed back two hours to await the outcome of coronavirus test results for first-team players. As part of the Return to Football strategy presented to the Scottish Government by the Joint Response Group (JRG) clubs are required to ensure all players are tested with a negative result in the seven days before every game. And Hampden powerbrokers now want to know why test results for some Rangers and Motherwell players only