Celtic’s hopes of staging a trial match allowing 700 fans to watch the match against Livingston on September 19 look set to be ditched.
Following a localised spike in positive cases new restrictions were put in place at midnight on Monday covering Glasgow and the neighbouring council areas of East Renfrewshire and West Dunbartonshire.
The restrictions will last for a fortnight and although they will be reviewed on Monday it seems highly unlikely that a trial match at Ibrox on September 12 or the following week will go ahead while there are greater restrictions across Glasgow than elsewhere in the country.
Rangers and Celtic blocked from testing the return of fans to stadiums until virus restrictions on Glasgow are lifted.https://t.co/vb7mtAHcx2 via @MailSport
— stephen.mcgowan (@mcgowan_stephen) September 3, 2020
The Daily Mail reports:
A Scottish Government spokesman said on Wednesday night: ‘We are engaged with representatives from a range of sporting bodies for a small number of pilot events to examine the feasibility of having spectators in stadia and planning has been underway for a number of months to allow this to happen.
“Discussions are still underway and further updates will be provided to stakeholders in due course but we are clear no proposed test events will take place within the three council areas for the duration of the restrictions.”
Last Friday the SRU staged a trial match at Murrayfield between the clubs in Edinburgh and Glasgow with 700 fans watching.
Celtic had hoped to stage a similar event two days later against Motherwell but that was rejected by the Scottish Government. Ross County are hoping to get the green light to have 700 fans watch their game against Celtic on September 12.
Today’s @ScotMailSport back page… pic.twitter.com/vap6Ae6zJo
— Sportsmail (@ScotMailSport) September 3, 2020