THE First Minister has set out a warning to Scottish football after a Celtic player travelled to Spain and failed to self-isolate upon his return.
Boli Bolingoli played in his team’s game against Kilmarnock despite the requirement for anyone returning to Scotland from Spain to quarantine for two weeks.
Celtic has launched an investigation into the matter and the player has apologised, but the Justice Secretary warned this morning that the Scottish Government had been left “with little choice” other than to consider a pause on the sport.
The news comes days after Nicola Sturgeon said she was "furious" with eight Aberdeen players who gathered together in a pub, following which two of the players tested positive for coronavirus and the group had to self-isolate.
READ MORE: Humza Yousaf slams Boli Bolingoli for failure to self-isolate
Speaking at the daily briefing this afternoon Sturgeon said football would not be suspended yet, but today should be considered a “yellow card”.
Asked if matches would be suspended, Sturgeon said: “When I stood here on Friday I think my frustration about the Aberdeen football club’s situation was pretty palpable.
“One of the things we decided to do as a result of that and I talked about this on Friday, was dispatch Jason to talk to all of the managers and all of the captains of our football clubs, to reinforce the importance of the guidance that is in place.
“And when that meeting was taking place yesterday the news came through of the Celtic player who had decided to go to Spain, come home, not quarantine and play part of a match – in other words flagrantly breached the guidelines.”
The First Minister said “this is just not acceptable”.
She went on: “Every day I stand here and ask members of the public to make huge sacrifices about how they live their lives. And the vast majority of members of the public are doing that. And it’s not easy. We can’t have privileged football players just deciding that they’re not going to bother. “
Sturgeon stressed that she did not want football fans, or clubs who are living up their responsibilities, to pay the price for the actions of a minority.
However, she did add that: “You should not be expecting to see Aberdeen or Celtic play over the coming week.”
“Consider today the yellow card,” Sturgeon told the briefing. “The next time will be the red card.”
More to follow.
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