bairn88

What barbers and bartenders are committing to organised weekly testing for their entire workforce? How many bartenders and barbers work outdoors, and only come into contact with an easily traceable group of individuals for an hour and a half once a week? Numerous studies done, mainly in America, about the safety of matches (Nfl, “soccer” etc) due to the fact that the outdoors is simply an atrocious place for the virus to be able to spread.

Seems like a pretty gigantic clanger by the gov this one. 2 main issues 1) rates are lower (and falling) across the country than when we were playing (untested). 2) clubs are willing to put in place the same testing and safety measures premiership and championship clubs have, who are still playing. Thats 2 fairly colossal f**k ups. Moreover, if that SFA statement is all we’re getting, this could get ugly. About 5 sentences, with zero reason or explanation why the decision has been made by gov. It’s like being told “you’re not allowed to do your job, just sit at home for another 3 weeks - don’t ask why”. Mental!

Think they said on or before the 10th in the last update. Hopefully that means clubs and spfl/sfa will have been in constant dialogue since then, and an agreement r.e starting again and when season finishes has been made, not that they’ve been fannying about doing nothing for weeks, not talked since then and talks can now begin on how to restart. I predict being extremely disappointed.

Some of our team claim to be “footballers” but haven’t seen much evidence of it yet.

Don’t think I agree with that. A very average raith look like coasting into the playoffs this season (looks like they’ve recruited pretty well Tbf). The idea that a Partick, falkirk, East fife etc wouldn’t at the very least be competitive is harsh. There isn’t a huge amount between the leagues

Not a surprising decision. Only ray of light was the confirmation that the next communication would be on or before 10 Feb. Still think an 18 game season with promotion and relegation would be more fair than just null and voiding (definitely not ideal), but agreed that any more delays and think they should just pack the whole thing in and go again in July/aug for next season (please, please don’t wait til the middle of October again)

Yeah 27 would be a farce. Any covid call off (would be inevitable given every league has faced them) would mean 2 weeks or so wiped out, meaning you’d have to play 3 times a week at best. Non starter. 7 or 8 games in 2 months give you some leeway

An 18 game season wouldn’t be everyone starting from 0, you know? It would be from where we are now (10/11 games), so only 7 to go - would only need to play on Saturdays, not midweek as well. 2 March - end of April is around 8 weekends.

This is delightful stuff. Had no idea he was at yous.

This may be flawed logic, but haven’t seen it mentioned - could an attributing factor to clubs being able to afford the testing be helped by the fact the entire playing and management staff will have been on furlough at every club since 11 Jan (til mid Feb it seems) - around 5 weeks. Thats 5 weeks where clubs would have otherwise been paying their players, and if they’re aiming to finish the season where it would have finished anyway (possibly a shortened season in number of games), that’s basically just a free 5 weeks for clubs? £15k per month would be easily covered by that furlough time?

2 March, apologies*

That’s 30/40k for rest of the season, and the government grant was 150k, as well as the James Anderson money at the start of the season. Definitely a whack more than I expected but think clubs will be fine with it.

Looks like we’ll be playing again from 2 March. So thats around 8/9 weeks to fit in 16 games or so if they want to do the full 27 games. Wonder if they’ll shorten it to just 18.

Anyone know the rules on transfer window extensions? It’s clear most clubs have (rightly) shut up shop and not done any business. Say it is agreed players can train from mid feb and games from March, is it as easy as SFA/Spfl saying ok you have another month, and that’s that? Or will it be a very contentious issue?

This is why I’m so conflicted in my own mind. I think it’s JUST too soon to think of sacking them - they are after all top of the league, after being about 8 points behind cove at one point. However, draw or defeat v montrose, and that just seems like absolute confirmation that these guys can’t cut it when the chips are down. Can the difference between managers being “ok for the job” and “must be sacked“ be really just 1 game? As Mark Corrigan says, it’s not a no-brainer - it’s a real brainer

Yeah saw that at the time. So it was an SFA/gov decision, which was then communicated to clubs, and the clubs then had a meeting with the SPFL in which their repeated requests to ask questions were denied? What a mess!

Does working in the interests of those clubs mean not giving any prior warning to around half of those clubs that they would no longer be able to play, offering zero communication on if they would be offered additional support for this, giving no indication of when and what criteria there is to be able to play again, and arranging a meeting where member clubs questions were shut down?

Fair enough.

What are your thoughts on how the suspension of football was handled a couple of weeks ago? Clubs given no notice and no say, not allowed to talk on the call despite assurances they could, no clear lines of communication since, no plan to restart football, and has taken all 20 clubs to unanimously write to them to present TO THEM a plan to restart? I’m not sure they have governed that at all well.

I haven’t noticed this “full backing”, although I haven’t seen/heard the McFarlane quote. I have seen deans say they are behind Lee and “Cracks”, but felt it was said in a very non emotive, management speak kind of way. Possibly you know more, but I get the impression the board know they can’t be sacked right now. Can’t sack managers top of the table. But also get the impression they’re not wholly convinced/impressed, and any further slip ups and the board wouldn’t be against cutting ties pretty quickly

Great stuff from all league 1 and league 2 clubs

I’m expecting him to fire up the well oiled twitter propaganda machine very soon - it’s been a quiet year for him

That was heartwarming, even for someone who is a miserable b*****d with zero connection to America like myself What a difference hearing messages of hope, logic, reason and togetherness rather than division, idiocy and untruth.

I have shown you that the top 2 (at least, haven’t bothered checking) leagues in holland are playing . Your statement “the Dutch have completely abandoned their season after originally starting it” is therefore untrue. It doesn’t get much simpler than that, even if you try the sarcy “well done for confirming Ajax are still playing” lol gag.

This doesn’t scream “Dutch league has been completely abandoned“ to me? Oh, maybe you mean the second tier? Nah, that’s still playing too? Onto the “Belgian third tier” - it is an amateur league. The Greek third tier - couldn’t find anything about it online, but I’ll take your word for it that it’s been shutdown. Greece, also, has one of the strictest lockdowns in Europe, with a nightly curfew between 21:00 and 05:00, despite daily deaths of around 50. If that is your sole example that Scotland is not an outlier in Europe, I’m not sure your point has much, if any, weight.