Nicola Sturgeon has claimed that Celtic originally intended going to a country other than Dubai for a stint of warm weather training.
Over the last week the decision of Celtic to spend six days training in Dubai has been in the headlines and a regular discussion point during the media conferences staged by the First Minister.
Last Monday the Scottish Government issued a statement about quizzing the SFA on the trip with a couple of pictures suggesting that it wasn’t solely down as a training camp. Celtic promptly tweeted that the trip had been approved by the Scottish Government on November 12.
On Tuesday Sturgeon picked up on a quote from Celtic about R & R (rest and recuperation) but over the last 24 hours the issue has escalated with one positive test, 13 players self isolating as well as Neil Lennon and John Kennedy.
News of the players and management self isolating broke just before today’s First Minister’s media conference with The Sun reporting the latest twist on Celtic’s disastrous start to 2021.
On the point about Celtic. As I set out I think last week, my understanding is we gave the footballing authority for Celtic clarity on what the rules were and are and training camps for elite sport are permitted if it is in relation to performance or competition.
We set out the rules, it is not the role of the Scottish Government. We are not formally on the Joint Response Group. It is not our role to give approval or not give approval to what a football team is doing.
As I understand it, I think at the time when that clarity of the rules was given it was another country that they were planning on going to rather than Dubai and also, that was back in November.
The world and the situation with the pandemic has changed quite a lot since then and the club itself described the trip to Dubai as R&R. I know they are saying it was about performance but I do think there is doubt as to whether it was really a necessary thing for the club to have done but that is for the club to reflect on.
Celtic issued a lunchtime statement defending their Dubai trip but haven’t yet responded to the claim that approval was given for a training trip to a different country.
