The Scottish Government has rejected the proposal from Celtic to allow a restricted number of supporters to attend the Scottish Premiership match at Celtic Park on Sunday against Motherwell. Celtic had proposed allowing up to 1000 supporters to attend the game as a test for the new protocols that will be implemented when restricted numbers are allowed back into grounds from the middle of next month.
The BBC’s Chief Sports Reporter Chris McLaughlin has just tweeted the news.
“The Scottish Government has knocked back a proposal from Celtic to use this weekend’s league match against Motherwell as a test event with limited fans.”
Scottish Rugby has already been given permission to stage a similar test event and will host the return of 700 fans to Murrayfield Stadium on Friday for a Pro14 match between Edinburgh and Glasgow Warriors.
How can it possibly be 'unsafe' to allow less than 1000 fans into a 60000 seat outdoor stadium when there are literally thousands of places accessible with very little social distancing in them.
— Andrew 9️⃣🏆🍀 (@Hullbhoy) August 26, 2020
Celtic’s case was probably not aided by the recent antics of Belgian defender Boli Bolingoli which resulted (along with the Aberdeen players breaches) in Scottish football receiving a yellow card from First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. Both Celtic and Aberdeen were forced to postpone matches as a result of these breaches.
Some will argue that rugby has been given preferential treatment but it is hard to argue that Bolingoli and the Aberdeen players have done the the Scottish Premiership damage as a result of their irresponsible behaviour.
Celtic’s internal investigation into Bolingoli’s trip to Spain after the Hamilton game continues.
.@scotgov has knocked back a proposal from @CelticFC to use this weekend’s league match against @MotherwellFC as a test event with limited fans. pic.twitter.com/p0QGeNxauO
— Chris McLaughlin (@BBCchrismclaug) August 26, 2020
I’m absolutely shocked to hear that the Scottish authorities are granting rugby fans privileges that they don’t deem football fans to be worth of. Shocked I tell you… https://t.co/btFEPMmenZ
— Stefan Bienkowski (@SBienkowski) August 26, 2020
