Fans are given no grounds yet for optimism

Scotland’s national clinical director has said it is unlikely Scottish football fans will be allowed into grounds before October.

Celtic have called for test events to be carried out from next month, while Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he expects spectators in stadiums in England from October.

The 2020-21 Scottish Premiership season is due to start on August 1.

Professor Jason Leitch told the BBC: “The Prime Minister announced the next phase of the route map in England.

“He said there were quite a lot of things they were hoping to do in October.

“One of those was live crowds at events. He never specifically set a date or a number.

“It’s broad and allows quite a lot of room for manoeuvre between the middle of July and

“We’re hopeful of running some test events”

beginning of October. We’ve not set a date. We are very hopeful that in the autumn some time we will be able to run some test events and get crowds back, we want to be able to do that.

“If the numbers stay the way they are then that’s the best way of getting there.

“If pubs opening doesn’t give us big numbers then crowds are much more likely.

“Nothing changes our view that on August 1 we can get back to playing. Some things would worry us.

“For example, if there were a lot of positive tests in a team if the bubble had burst.

“But there has been no inference of that.

“There has not been a big increase in community transmission around the country.

“So far everything is pointing in a good direction.”