Almost 24 hours after an announcement from the Joint Response Group of sanctions being introduced football clubs are still waiting to hear from the SFA and SPFL.
Neither organisation is especially known for communication skills or forward thinking with their handling of the new football season highlighting both issues.
After months preparing for the 2020/21 season, getting used to ‘bio-bubbles’ and other protocols it seems that they forgot to include and sanctions or punishments for anyone failing to comply.
The Aberdeen Eight and Boli Bolingoli’s trip to Spain forced intervention from the Scottish Government, on Thursday afternoon the Joint Response Group announced:
The JRG has worked to ensure that existing rules will be strengthened to include the provision of sanctions for players who do not adhere to specific football protocols or government public health guidelines. This will encompass recent breaches and further details will be provided tomorrow.
The final line is the one that jumps out, in effect retrospective punishments.
There is no area in the country that allows for retrospective punishment. The SFA/SPFL can bring in the most draconian punishments that they like from today but they can’t start applying them backwards to a favoured date.
Last month one club went ahead and used nine players with out of date test results in a friendly match. The club knew what they were doing but the SFA accepted it as an understanding.
Further challenges from clubs should be the last thing that Scottish football wants but you can never quite be sure of what motivates and drives on the decision makers inside Scottish football.