PFA Scotland to shelve Player of the Year prize for first time

FOOTBALLERS’ union PFA Scotland has decided to withhold its Players’ Player of the Year award for the first time in 42 years.

Having already cancelled its annual awards dinner in the wake of the coronavirus crisis, the union believes it would be inappropriate to stage a vote on individual honours at a time when its membership faces an uncertain future.

Speaking last night, PFA Scotland’s chief executive Fraser Wishart confirmed there will be no 2020 successor to last year’s winner James Forrest.

He said: ‘We discussed this with our management committee and we decided it would not be appropriate to go ahead with the award this year.

‘There is so much uncertainty around our members — many are on furlough, many are out of contract and we don’t know when football is going to restart.

‘We don’t know if there are going to be jobs for these guys.

‘We’re dealing with these concerns every day, so it would seem wrong to then ask: “By the way, who’s your Player of the Year?”.

‘We could do it, just as we held a recent poll on reconstruction. But we just felt it wouldn’t sit right.’

The players’ award was first won by Derek Johnstone of Rangers in 1978 and was most recently claimed by Celtic winger Forrest. Completing the 2019 list of winners were Rangers’ Ryan Kent who claimed the young-player crown, while Steve Clarke was named manager of the year for his work at Kilmarnock.

Celtic’s duo of Odsonne Edouard and Callum McGregor would have been front-runners to land the prestigious award.

The Scottish Football Writers’ Association, which crowned Billy McNeill its first winner in 1965, has also postponed its annual dinner but has yet to make a decision on prize giving.

Technically, the Scottish season remains ongoing but the SPFL has already decided to terminate the current campaign in the Championship, League One and League Two, with the Premiership expected to follow suit.