THE Scottish FA have warned Premiership clubs they risk losing the right to play if they fail to adhere to strict Covid-19 testing procedures.
The pre-season friendly between Rangers and Motherwell at Ibrox on Wednesday night was pushed back by two hours after both Premiership clubs failed to receive their results on time.
The Hibernian match against Ross County at their Ormiston training ground on Saturday was also called off little over an hour before the planned kick-off because the Easter Road club hadn't got their results back.
The Dingwall club had travelled as far as Perth before being informed of the decision and their top flight opponents issued them with a public apology.
The Scottish government has given the SPFL the go-ahead to get the Premiership underway behind closed doors on Saturday, August 1.
However, the SFA have written to top flight clubs ahead of the start of the 2020/21 campaign stressing they are in danger of permission being revoked if they don’t follow the rules.
"Any failure to adhere to the agreed testing protocol will risk removal by the SG [Scottish government] of the approval for the dispensation given to Premiership clubs compared to the general public in Scotland," the letter said.
"Continued positive relations with SG are particularly important as the JRG [Joint Response group] works to progress plans with SG to permit spectators to attend matches."
Motherwell’s players were tested before training on Monday morning and Fir Park officials were astonished they hadn’t received the results in time for the 6pm kick-off at Ibrox on Wednesday.
The SFA have stressed that clubs must test their players at least once every seven days and results must be submitted no later than 24 hours before a match.
A Scottish government spokesman said: "These tests are not carried out by the Scottish government but by private laboratories contracted by the clubs.
"We are aware of some issues with delays on test results. Although unfortunate, it is encouraging that clubs have taken the appropriate action in cancelling or postponing matches when the necessary tests haven't been cleared."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel