Scottish Football Authorities Need To Sort Out Own Problems Not Scottish Government

Date: 15th February 2021

We’ve seen new media reports that suggest some Rangers players have broken Covid rules by attending a house party over the weekend. 

While I believe clubs and individuals deserve to be reprimanded and punished for breaches, it should be done so by the right authorities. 

That means that if they’re caught by the police and it’s unlawful then those individuals should get fined like the rest of us. The clubs should then investigate their employees and take disciplinary action if needed. Then the likes of The SFA and The SPFL should also look into matters and dish out fines and/or suspensions to clubs/players if they are merited. 

I have no issues with journalists doing their jobs in reporting the breaking of lockdown rules, footballers shouldn’t be seen as being special compared to the rest of us. What they shouldn’t do is then run to our country’s First Minister and ask what she thinks about the latest protocol breaches regarding Scottish football. 

Why are so many within our media frothing at the mouth to see our game being suspended? 

Why doesn’t Rugby get the same coverage? Quite frankly the only other group of people that seem to be held to the same scrutiny as footballers are politicians! It’s simply baffling.  

Nicola Sturgeon should rightly being focusing on plans to get us out of lockdown, lifting restrictions on care homes if possible and overseeing continued success in the vaccination roll out. She shouldn’t be getting bogged down by issues within Scottish football and nor should the press demand that she give answers regarding these issues every time someone gets caught up in breaking a rule. 

I understand why the Scottish government looked at the first breaches earlier in the season. That was a chance to show everyone that football had to be on it’s best behaviour this season. In the main part I think it’s worked. Yes we’ve had a few breaches and some positive cases but most of these have been isolated cases and they’ve been sufficiently punished for any indiscretions. 

While so many of our teams and players have done marvellous jobs since the start of this pandemic, some in the media seem determined to just focus on those that haven’t stuck to the rules and then demand a stern punishment from our top politician. 

We have to trust that The SFA and The SPFL as well as the clubs can crack down on any of those individuals that break the rules. 

By Scott Johnston (@TheFootyblog.net)

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