Darryl Broadfoot has claimed that the SFA were working to UEFA protocols rather than the Law of the Land when they retained Bobby Madden and Graeme Stewart for weekend fixtures despite being close contacts of David Roome following their weekend in Athens.
As almost everyone in Scotland knows if a close contact tests positive you self-isolate. Stewart thought differently and took his flag to the Hibs v Hamilton match on Saturday as punters lined up with their 1promo.codes, while the intervention of The Sun halted Madden in his tracks as he headed to Dingwall for a match fee from the Ross County v Celtic match.
Broadfoot makes a weekly appearance on Radio Scotland as a smooth-talking pundit but also earns his commission from the SFA for defending them in his PR role.
Madden, Stewart and Roome are motivated by greed, money means more than public health.
Their lucrative trip to Athens should have been followed by another to Rome on Thursday for a Europa League appointment.
Had they self-isolated after Roome tested positive the Rome trip and fees would have been lost. The officials and the SFA tried to ignore the rules on self-isolation, hoped that no-one would notice and they’d be able to enjoy the financial benefits of a few days in Rome with Roome’s positive test kept conveniently quiet
The Sun reports:
SFA spokesman Darryl Broadfoot told BBC Scotland: “What happened should never have happened. “I presume Crawford Allan (SFA refs’ chief) found out about the positive test last Wednesday.
“It’s OK saying they have complied with Uefa protocol. The difference is as soon as you get a positive test the Scottish Government’s health protection system kicks in. It trumps Uefa’s protocols. I think there was a communication breakdown between the referee ops department and the medics.”
There was no misunderstanding at the SFA in October when Ryan Christie was identified as a close contact of Stuart Armstrong during a Scotland get-together.
Yesterday the SFA revealed that they had launched an investigation into themselves over why Stewart was at the Hibs match on Saturday.
After being informed of Roome’s positive test on Wednesday Head of Refereeing Crawford Allan had three full days to switch officials but chose not to.
