The club-by-club consequence if the league programme goes ahead behind closed doors:
Livingston will lose two home games, against Dundee and St Johnstone. Ross County will lose two, against Aberdeen and Motherwell. Although financially, Livi are on the brink, I’m not convinced the net result of their or Ross County’s games being postponed will be particularly damaging to either club.
Hibs will lose a lucrative derby game against Hearts, lots of away ticket revenue and hospitality refunds on the line. The same is true for Dundee, who have a derby game against United. Both should want fixtures postponed.
Aberdeen would have to refund thousands of Newco fans, an expense they could well do without. They would also have to refund some hundreds of Dundee fans. They should also want fixtures postponed.
Hearts have St Johnstone, who take few fans, the only real cost here would be their (valuable) hospitality sales. They also have the incentive of playing at an Empty Easter Road. They are also Hearts….. could go either way.
Dundee United have St Mirren, which is likely to be cancelled anyway, and Hibs. Like Hearts, they have the incentive of playing away to a rival in an empty stadium. Could go either way.
St Mirren today requested the postponement of tomorrow’s game against Celtic and Sunday’s game against Newco. This request will be upheld, no matter what happens to the rest of the fixtures, but, surely, suffering as they are, they will support postponement?
Newco would be unaffected by Ms Sturgeon’s decision. Celtic stand to lose two gates, against Hibs and Newco. It would cost a substantial amount of money and affect the club more than any other.
Celtic’s request to postpone fixtures is unarguable, but we know how Scotland works; anything could happen.
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Refugees are welcome racism has no place at Celtic
HH
Commonsense will prevail and the winter shutdown will be brought forward ….
St Mirren’s money-spinning clash with Celtic has been dramatically axed as covid chaos rained down on the embattled club.
They’d hoped to limp into tomorrow night’s match in Paisley and bank an estimated £55,000 windfall from 4,000 Celtic fans.
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St Mirren should play or forfeit tomorrow.
Simple
D :)
Headline from an Evening Times article tonight………
“John Swinney fears Celtic-Hibs clash could have been Covid super spreader event”.
What planet is he on. The Sevco game the day before saw Omincron taking the day off, did it ??
At what level of absence does the match become non viable?
I think it best to consider postponement from a safety perspective
I’m sure this will be the approach Celtic continue with.
Player absence, not spectator absence. Sorry. 🙄
EXCLUSIVE! St Mirren told Celtic and Rangers games must go ahead as SPFL boots out postponement request
Pure bigotry from Swinney
DR reporting St Mirren postponment request has been turned down. Our game goes ahead tomorrow night.
I think we’ll almost certainly see the games go ahead behind closed doors.
It’s absolute bollix.
If 02 January game goes ahead …
Announce beforehand that, to honour the memory of Desmond White, Celtic will pay tribute by using his attendance calculation methodology for this match.
Open the turnstiles to 60,000 people.
Announce the official attendance …
… as 500 !
🤭
Did Blackford not tweet about the league cup final on Saturday while ignoring Ibrox ?
There seems to be a pattern.
Fact
The Scottish entertainment/event hosting organisation which will be impacted greatest?
Restricted to 0.8% of venue capacity?
Step forward Celtic Football Club.
So a venue (with an outdated configuration) …
…. which hosted the biggest crowd of the weekend in Scotland
Did not rate a mention by the Scorrish Government?
Read into that what you will.
Nightclubs remain open.
Absolute joke.
The decision to limit close social contact, crowding on public transport, and raucous occasions where booze is heavily consumed are definitely factors that need to be considered in any attempt to influence social behaviour to slow down the spread of this virus and its variants.
The preference for an Ibrox club over a Parkhead club does not sit at the forefront of this decision.These decisions have been taken simultaneously by a Welsh Labour government and a Scottish SNP one. I expect the Westminster Tory one will just be later to the starting blocks but may surprise us by being more balanced in their approach ( a long shot, I admit, given their previous record and their preference for being governed by money)
The science of virology and physiology have had welcome input to this decision but a far greater input into the decision making here has come from the dismal science of economics and its even more dismal sisters Political Science and Behavioural Psychology.
There are two factors wrong with the balance between risks and safety that the governments have made:-
1) They have underplayed the risks involved in keeping pubs and restaurants open with a fairly loosely policed one metre distance expectation. This has been done for economic benefit because these industries are in dire financial straits. Following the hard sciences should have seen more restrictive measures there. They want to be seen to say that you can stay open ad make money but we urge the public to not visit you on health grounds. It is classic buck passing.
2) They have overplayed the risks of gathering at football matches by using an arbitrary and flat limit of 500 regardless of stadium size. This has been implemented for reasons of Behavioural Psychology i.e. It will be hard to persuade the populace of the need to behave better indoor in shops, bars and restaurants, where infection spread is much much more likely, if they see football fans enjoying greater levels of freedom because they are not under a roof. I would assert yet again that 5 to 10k could easily be accomodated with distancing of two metres plus in a wide open space like Celtic Park. And I will assert, though I have no definitive proof, just supportive evidence, that this would not aid the spread of the virus, if properly policed.
Both of these mistakes have probably been made because the Governments all mishandled the use of lockdown and, particularly, the timetable for departing from lockdown in the last lockdown. We had a very short interval from a near total lockdown to re-establishing almost complete absence of restrictions. Everyone, in Scotland as in England, except for the severely compromised and elderly, treated this as VC (victory over Covid) Day and behaved as though restrictions were gone and would never more be necessary. Football crowds, who had observed the rules for distancing, mask wearing and regular sanitising, impeccably, during the trial periods, dropped all pretence of following these requirements and reverted quickly and irrevocably to past football behaviours.
And that genie cannot be put back into the bottle quickly. We messed up a big chance to influence thinking in the way we presented and interpreted Freedom Day. So all of us who did not mask wear, who did not regularly sanitise and who shook hands, cuddled and huddled through this Lower Risk (not Covid free) Period are partially responsible for these 2 bad decisions
The arbitrary non-scientific plucking of the 500 figure ( for all grounds)
AND
The decision to minimlly restrict pubs and restaurants and shops, where Omicron will still take grip, transmit, and rapidly multiply.
Some will applaud because their politics are in allegiance with the decision makers and some will applaud merely because action, however wrong headed, is taking place as opposed to Westminster, or more accurately, Downing Street and Matthew Parker Street, bumbling.
But let no-one convince you that this is hard and fast scientific reasoning at work. it is some science, some guesswork, and a huge load of political calculation by all Governments, devolved or not.
I’d say we deserve better but we voted for them.
P.S. For any hard of thinking- this is NOT an anti-SNP post but I am damned if I will applaud everything they do.
St Mirren should field 11,and have no subs on the bench, to send out a message
Why should Celtic players be put at risk and by extension their families by having to play against a club whose players have a very high incidence of Covid, it isnt just a case of no players for them what if it spreads onto ours, testing is a narrow windo however incubation could be taking place in others.
Would any of us visit a house where a high percentage of the inhabitants are positive for Covid?
Common sense will prevail.
Celtic led the way, and the rest of Scottish football will eventually join in as soon as politicians wh lose the notion that there was only just one game with a big crowd at the last weekend. It matters not to Sky moguls whether there are supporters or not, they’re televising the game and have made their money regardless.
St Mirren game will be called off probably tomorrow. Rainjurz no doubt want closed door resumption to add to their 55 and their ‘lead’ at the top.
Who joins Celtic publicly or otherwise, know it makes sense.
So either the treatment works or it doesn’t?
If it works why would you need to concern yourself about what others do?
How can it be claimed to work when trials don’t end until 2023?
If your educated by media then who the fk are you to cast judgements on others who refuse to be fooled by said media, a media who are 100% proven liars on every subject on every occasion?
If you give money to a Celtic executive who’s main objective is to keep Rangers and the oldfirm games alive, then who the fk are you to sit in judgement of anybody?
If you vote for a political party that hates Catholics, Celtic, Irish descendants, immigrants who are used for grandstanding purposes, women, children, Jesus, the sick, the poor, the working classes, trade unions, Christmas, St Patrick’s day, and yet you are arrogant, conceited, entitled, and hunlike enough to think you can judge folk who stand their ground and simply refuse to believe a single word that comes out of that “govts” lying deceiving conning mouths or its happy clappy media, and its carefully chosen one narrow view scientists and bellicose “celebrities” and after all of that you still don’t get YOU are the stupid bassa who is to blame for every single bit of this palaver then I’m afraid that only God will have mercy on your lost soul.
looks like tomorrow’s game is back on.
DESSYBHOY on 21ST DECEMBER 2021 7:03 PM
A very good point . And if Celtic were than forced to play the St Johnstone and Hibs games with a decimated squad that would surely be in no ones interest .
Oh no ……wait a minute ………
That awkward moment when John Swinney forgets his team blagged three points last weekend.
JIMMYNOTPAUL on 21ST DECEMBER 2021 6:46 PM
SFTB/David 6.32.
If public transport is such an issue, as I pointed out earlier, why have Scot Gov not reintroduced restrictions on public transport?
There are currently no Covid capacity limits or social distancing requirements on public transport.
WE HAVE REQUESTED POSTPONEMENTS OF MATCHES AGAINST CELTIC AND THE RANGERS
Club News
21 December 2021
St Mirren Football Club can confirm that it has requested postponements of our upcoming cinch Premiership matches against Celtic and Rangers following further positive covid tests.
We have tried our utmost to fulfil the fixture, however, following further positive covid cases this morning we are unable to field a team for either match with a significant number of first-team players and staff unavailable.
The health and wellbeing of our players and staff remains our utmost priority and we will continue to take every precaution necessary.
We are in continued discussions with the SPFL and we will keep supporters updated as we look for a resolution to this matter.
SFTB@6.56
Well written article. However, I strongly disagree that the decision in not a Celtic Rangers thing. Of course it is. Huns can come to us on the 2nd Jan and with no Celtic support it gives us a huge disadvantage and thems a huge lift.
paranoid or what
KINGLuBO
DAVID17 on 21ST DECEMBER 2021 6:27 PM
I did consider the effects of travel but am still left to conclude that 500 going to a 5,800 capacity ground is not compatible with 500 going to a 60,832 capacity gound.
Hope all is well with yourself, big man and also with Big Jimmy.
Cheerio for now.
Us, Motherwell and Hibs are in favour of an earlier winter break according to BBC. Is it 11-1 needed ?
We had our 9th title awarded to us without having to play out the season.
We had more influence on the SPFL and SFA then .
The tide has now turned.
This is one area where PL’s influence is greatly missed.
Our adversaries will claim that we have no right to feel hard done by.
If we have to play Sevco in an empty stadium.
TT
The Swinney remark beggars belief – is he thinking that all those attending Ibrox live in the immediate vicinity and don’t spread….or, is he, and his party, not thinking as usual?
The SNPcult does not have a brain in its collective head. The announcement today was only made because the Welsh made their’s yesterday. The Welsh decision provides cover to the Holyrood mob – when questioned, if anyone ever questions them, they can say “well look at what the Welsh are doing”.
If decisions are to be made scientific advice, then everything stops now – waiting another five days is ludicrous and has no scientific, or, medical basis.
If there is a critical situation then why kick it ‘down the road’. In this medical emergency where heart & cancer patients cannot access treatment because hospitals are filling up with unvaccinated a********, quite frankly football is the least of my worries.
1 team in the SPFL get what they want,the other 11 can Foxtrot Oscar, i hope Celtic come out in some way to support St Mirren, trying to think of another country,sport,that are actually forcing teams to play,Celtic players and staff could get infected tomorrow, and their families, total nonsense.
The huns will get what the huns want and need.
Horrible, horrible people and that includes the one’s who post on here.
I hope they all have a shite Christmas.
I would have worded that Celtic statement a lot stronger.
Sturgeon and her mediocre wee corporatist government aren’t primarily motivated by sticking it to Celtic, it’s just an added bonus and she hasn’t missed a single opportunity to do so during this pandemic. From Boli to Dubai till now.
Not many of us come out of Dreghorn and she certainly ain’t one.
Do we now have posters who believe that Boli was unfairly treated?
What total mince, he put every member of the Celtic squad at risk from
Covid he should have been shown the door immediately.
Rewriting history is a hun thing.
PHILBHOY
Spot on, 100%
Have a good one
KINGLuBO