'No-nonsense Sturgeon shows she's the real boss of Scottish football'
- Published
Aberdeen players 'full of regret' over pub visit - McInnes
We can debate all we like about who the most influential person in Scottish football is right now - Peter Lawwell would top many lists - but it's actually not even a contest. In a few moments in her media briefing, first minister Nicola Sturgeon settled the argument.
In what was akin to one of those scything tackles in the opening seconds of a big game, one that is both venomous and legitimate while leaving you shaken, her takedown of the rule-breakers of Pittodrie left you in no doubt who has all the power in this precarious football world we're living in.
Ms Sturgeon lacerated the players who went to a pub in numbers on Saturday evening thereby shredding the protocols that allowed them to kick a ball - not at all effectively - against Rangers earlier in the day. Two positive coronavirus tests was the outcome with a further six players forced into self-isolation. The Dons have had better days.
A number of things here - why would Aberdeen players with any sense of professional pride want to go drinking in a busy city centre bar having put in such a dismal non-entity of a performance against their biggest rivals? Wouldn't a quiet retreat home have been the order of the day? Did anybody in authority sanction it? Aberdeen say they will have an investigation looking into all of this.
Secondly, and this is the howitzer, did any of them have a think about the bubble they're supposed to be living in and the potential consequences of straying outside that bubble, not just for their club but for the league as a whole? The word is that the importance of caution was stated and restated to all Aberdeen players. How could the penny not have dropped?
The players should take responsibility & apologise
On Wednesday night Aberdeen were under the impression that their game on Saturday was going ahead as planned. They'd be missing eight players but they saw the game - and a likely defeat - as the kind of punishment they deserved. Dave Cormack, the chairman, appeared calm in his video message on Friday morning but in reality he was apoplectic, mortified and weary. He spent much of his time the night before ringing up people and apologising to them for the actions of his players. The man didn't look like he he'd had much sleep.
On Friday, in what is already the runaway contender in the euphemism of the year competition, government 'requested' a change of heart surrounding the St Johnstone versus Aberdeen game. The first minister, you might say, made the SPFL an offer they couldn't refuse.
As it stands, Aberdeen's games against Hamilton on Wednesday and Celtic on Saturday are going ahead "as scheduled" said an SPFL statement. The SPFL will have virtually no say in that. Government is running the show here. If the first minister doesn't like the optics then those games will be postponed and Scottish football will have to live with the consequences. Neil Doncaster, Murdoch MacLennan, Ian Maxwell, all club chairmen, chief executives and managing directors are chasing shadows now.
The Aberdeen players are getting lambasted for their lack of professionalism and rightly so. The way of things nowadays is that sooner or later a justified kicking becomes an unpleasant pile-on and the guilty morph into victims. These Aberdeen players should show a semblance of the kind of responsibility that was missing on Saturday night and issue a statement of apology so everybody can move on and deal with the fallout. Their own fans might take a while to forgive them.
St Johnstone will now be kicking their heels on Saturday. There is an argument that they should be awarded the three points, but the rules don't allow it, it seems. Hamilton and Celtic will also be concerned that their games with Aberdeen will also be pulled by government. That's the kind of uncertainty they could do without. Doncaster was on radio last Saturday pointing out that there is virtually no wriggle room in the calendar for rearranged games. By lowering those pints, the Aberdeen players put a lot of people under the pump.
Cracks appearing in superficially sound relationship
To squeeze the rescheduled St Johnstone versus Aberdeen game into a calendar that is already as tight as a drum, the SPFL have had to move Aberdeen's game with Livingston back a day. The inconvenience to those clubs is nothing compared to what is going in at Holyrood, though.
Scottish football's relationship with government through lockdown has been superficially sound but somewhat tense underneath the surface. As various folk pushed initially for a return to play and then continued pushing for a return of (some) fans in stadiums, the perception of pressure being exerted didn't always go down well. Fans in stadiums seems like an increasingly distant prospect now.
The first minister satisfied herself sufficiently that football had its house in order and closed-doors games could resume, but it was done with the proviso that everything could revert unless protocols were followed to the letter. Just a week into the new season and there is mayhem. When Ms Sturgeon said she was "furious" at the players who "blatantly broke" rules you could picture everybody in the SPFL and the Scottish FA and many people among the 12 Premiership clubs gulping hard at the realpolitik of the moment.
The behaviour of the players had been "completely unacceptable." She didn't say it out loud, but the threat of shutting down Scottish football if that was to happen again was very much in the air. Like a midfield enforcer, Ms Sturgeon is not to be messed with on this one. Football has had its warning. It may be that any more of this and it's off.