Rangers fans and the rest of Scottish football have been dealt a blow regarding the potential return of crowds after comments from deputy first minister John Swinney.
Football supporters have been left feeling like the game has been used to make an example amid the ongoing Omicron wave of Covid-19 with stadium capacities reduced to 500.
Despite a lack of evidence of community transmission inside stadiums, it hasn’t stopped the authorities introducing new measures that directly impact the freedoms of clubs and fans.
This has had a huge knock-on effect with Scottish Premiership clubs voting to kick the ball up the park and move the winter break forward one week.
This has resulted in two fixtures being rearranged – in Rangers’ case visits to Aberdeen and Celtic – and put sizeable pressure on the fixture calendar.
There’s some suspicion that much of this may have concerned Covid-19 ravaged squads and injuries over fan concerns but even with little under three weeks to go, the return of fans at the end of the winter break seems fanciful.
Jason Leitch essentially said as much earlier in the week and John Swinney pretty much did the same again as he discussed the situation surrounding football.
Namely, Swinney cast doubts on the suggestion the Old Firm derby at Celtic Park on February 2nd could be played in front of a full house.
John Swinney gives no guarantee Rangers will play in front of full Celtic Park
“You can see already in the space of about a week or so we’ve gone from having an average daily case level in Scotland of about just over 5,000 to around about 10,000 over the course of the last few days,” said John Swinney, on BBC’s Good Morning Scotland show.
“So people can see with their own eyes the galloping pace at which Omicron is moving through Scotland.
“Well that’s a long way off, the 2nd of February, so we’ll take that as it comes.
“What I would say is that the government doesn’t want to have these restrictions in place a moment longer than they are necessary.”
Football stadium closures more about “clarity of messaging” than science
These comments come after the SNP MSP also took the opportunity to – quite remarkably – confirm that reduction in crowd sizes was about optics more than it was about science last week.
“I think the key point here is that we’ve got to take decisions based on making sure such judgments are effective,” said Swinney [Daily Record].
“For example we have a multiple range of options about outside venues, let’s for example, take the model Mr Mason has put to me of a variation reflecting stadium size and stadium facility.
“I think we lose clarity of messaging, which is a blunt one.
“I make no apology for being so blunt, we need to quite simply reduce the degree to which people are interacting.
“A total of 500 as a maximum for outdoor events gives a very clear signal to people in the country that we have to reduce that interaction.
“So for example a crowd of 500 at a Rangers game compared to a crowd of 50,000 which would normally be of that order makes a very, very clear significant point that we have to reduce dramatically the level of social interaction.
“There’s a simple clarity that is necessary in that respect.”
It all sounds like they’re very much making it up as they go along, eh?
Maybe it’ll take the return of Scottish rugby – and not Scottish football – to twist this lot’s arm into returning the freedoms of fans left increasingly frustrated by governmental decision-making.
