Dave Cormack has revealed that plans to have 1,000 fans at Sunday’s Aberdeen v Celtic match have been rejected with the Dons chief promising to share the information that has been rejected by the Scottish Government.
On September 12 Pittodrie hosted a test event with 300 fans watching the 1-0 win over Aberdeen with no positive test results on the back of the fixture.
The test events were intended to be a step by step route to getting increased numbers back inside football grounds but it appears that the Scottish Government had no real plan to allow an important industry to get back on its feet.
On the same day as the Pittodrie event 300 fans also watched Celtic win away to Ross County but since then no further fixtures with fans have been permitted.
Having 1,000 fans at Sunday’s match would only be 5% of the stadium capacity which would make the stadium safer than most other venues in the city but it seems like there is little enthusiasm within the Scottish Government to allow the national sport to move back towards some sort of normality.
In June Peter Lawwell spoke to the Daily Record about his hopes for the phased return of supporters:
Nearly half of the nations in Europe are back playing with crowds so it’s a much more positive situation than it was just three or four weeks ago.
We’re now seeing grounds in Denmark operating at 50 per cent capacity, Finland are up at 50 per cent and Holland hope to start on the first of September with 25 per cent. On the same day Denmark hope to get up to 100 per cent.
These are all great signs of the progress being made around Europe and, here in Scotland, we have been working with the SRU to show that we can do something similar.
We thank them for their help and we are working towards hosting a test event in a pre-season friendly towards the end of July. We hope we can work in collaboration with the SRU and the Government to get it up and running.
There has been no further public comment from Lawwell on the issue, Cormack appears to have run out of patience with the Scottish Government, explaining the situation on Twitter with further details to be revealed in the week ahead.
Supported by Aberdeen City Council we applied for a second test event versus Celtic to include 1,000 fans, just 5% capacity, out in the open fresh air. Got a polite “no” from @scotgov @jasonleitch stating our first test was a success & latest plan was robust & in excellent shape.
— Dave Cormack (@CormackDavie) October 18, 2020
2/ @jasonleitch told SPFL execs that outdoor events like football were much more palatable than indoor events. Meanwhile flights are at 100% capacity with recycled air & no social distancing. Hundreds of thousands of fans eagerly await Clubs & @scotgov coming up with a real plan.
— Dave Cormack (@CormackDavie) October 18, 2020
3/ We plan to share these robust test regulations with our fans later this week. Not one single positive case has emerged from the 300 who attended our first test. We are NOT asking for carte blanche… these are “Test Events”… NOT a commitment for multiple games!
— Dave Cormack (@CormackDavie) October 18, 2020