World Cup in Qatar should have given us blueprint for restart

Former SFA chief executive Stewart Regan reckons the 2022 World Cup in Qatar should’ve been a blueprint to help football find a way to play the current season to a finish.

With the Premiership expected to be called by the SPFL this week and other countries curtailing their campaigns due to the coronavirus pandemic, Regan believes not enough “creative thinking” has been applied to the sporting problem.

TV deals, player contracts, transfer windows, qualification for European competitions and not impacting on next term’s dates have all been cited as issues preventing nations from waiting too long to conclude their 2019-20 fixture lists.

But Regan (below) insists the next World Cup taking place in November and December in two years’ time provided governing bodies with a way of redrawing the coming seasons to allow the current one to be finished whenever it was safe.

He said: “We can move the World Cup from the summer to the winter and the rest of the world has to fit in and restructure their season, which affected a three-year period, in order to accommodate that.

“So, why can’t we have some creative thinking in football and say, ‘Why does the season need to finish (this summer)?’

“Why not play the matches when it’s safe to do so, when people are well enough, and you actually play the season out to a finish?

“You have a small break and then you start again. Then you have a small break again, and you try over a period of time to catch your games back up again.

“Now, it might be we need teams for Europe, we need player contracts to be sorted out. All of those can be resolved with a bit of collaboration with PFA, with FIFA and various stakeholders. “It is a solution that needs creative thinking, not just black and white, ‘let’s kill it and cause civil war’.”