DAVID MARTINDALE insists ‘football has to take a back seat’ to the pandemic after repeating his calls for Scottish football to shut down early in the face of new coronavirus restrictions.

The Livingston manager has already argued for the Premiership’s winter break to be brought forward following the emergence of the new Omicron variant of Covid-19.

But, after the Scottish Government limited attendances to no more than 500 after the Boxing Day fixtures on Sunday, Martindale is convinced the need for a ‘circuit breaker’ is even greater.

The Lions boss reckons that would help suppress the numbers of positive cases in wider society and give the public an opportunity to be vaccinated.

But, with Livi’s revenue largely dependent on visiting supporters, he also hopes it would mean crowds could return when the fixtures resume.

He said: “I spoke about a circuit breaker and what I said was it would make sense to bring the winter break forward.

“I got battered for that for a full week but if you look at the data it’s telling us we have to.

“If there are no fans in the stadium does it make more sense from a football point of view to try to maybe curtail it for three or four weeks and play these games at a later date with fans in the stadium?

“That would be my preferred option, and that’s what I’ve been speaking about previously.

“Do I want fans in the stadium? One hundred per cent.

“So, if we had a choice and it was behind closed doors, my preferred option would be to try to bring the winter break forward.

“That would hopefully allow us that three or four-week period to try to get the numbers down.

“I would rather play those games in four weeks’ time and bring the winter break forward, if it meant playing in stadiums with no fans.

“The reason why? If we’re trying to reduce the spread of Omicron, it probably makes more sense not to be playing games of football.

“Scientifically. Politically, maybe not, but scientifically it probably makes more sense for us all to be holed up for two weeks or whatever it’s going to be.

“First and foremost, for me, player welfare comes first. Secondly, we’ve got to watch what we’re doing with the NHS; we can’t cripple the NHS and we’ve got to do the right thing.

“Football, for me, has probably got to take a back seat, if that’s what it has to do.

“January 22 is the next fixture and hopefully we’ve managed to decrease the spread of it and we can hopefully bring fans back into the stadiums.

“And it lets us get the booster programme rolled out to everybody that’s over 12, and that’s meant to help make it less transmissible. It helps stop the spread of it and it helps you if you do get it.

“That makes more sense to me.”

With clubs discussing the best way forward, Livingston made their case clear in a statement to back up Martindale’s point of view.

It said: “Livingston Football Club is in favour of bringing the scheduled winter break forward given the current situation with the rapid spread of the Omicron variant.

“We believe that this would give us a necessary time to assess and evaluate the changing situation to make better-informed decisions across the board.

“While we understand the risk associated with this to the fixture calendar, we believe that we need to give ourselves the best possible opportunity to play these games in front of our supporters.

Livi added: “Scottish Football wants to take its responsibilities seriously in helping to curb the transmission of the Omicron variant.

"We believe that by bringing the scheduled winter break forward, we can help in slowing down transmission rates due to no supporters attending stadia, but also with a reduction in the likelihood of supporters gathering in public places, pubs, restaurants and households.

"Furthermore, it takes a lot of pressure away from the players who are extremely concerned that they will be the vehicle for the virus [to get] into the football club.

“Sometimes it’s easy to forget the amount of pressure placed upon the players in this ever-changing environment, who have lives away from football.

“This also allows players, staff and fans a window of opportunity to receive their booster jags, [which] only helps alleviate the current situation with Omicron.

“After all, we want to protect our NHS, protect the wellbeing of our players, staff and supporters, and ensure that we come through this wave of Omicron as best as we can.

“There is no ideal scenario as we have found out on numerous occasions throughout the pandemic. However, we have to be realistic and do everything we can to stop the transmission of this unforgiving virus.”