Rangers’ hopes of getting supporters back into Ibrox in the short-term have surely been dealt a hammer blow as First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced plans for increased lockdown restrictions.
The comments from the leader of the Scottish Parliament also came after Westminster had hosted an earlier press conference about rising Covid-19 levels in a jarring day for the country’s perspective on the landscape surrounding the virus.
Speaking to the press, Nicola Sturgeon suggested that new lockdown restrictions would be in place across the country within the next 48 hours.
“I need to be absolutely straight with people across Scotland that additional restrictions will almost certainly be put in place in Scotland over the next couple of days,” said Sturgeon [Daily Record].
“If we move sharply now to get the virus back under control, we can minimise the time we all spend under any new restrictions.
“If we wait, it will take longer – potentially a lot longer – to come out of the other side.
“For that reason, as I indicated on Friday, we are preparing to introduce a package of additional measures with the intention of bringing the R number back below 1.”
Scottish football had previously seen trials of 300 supporters attend matches at Aberdeen’s Pittodrie and Ross County’s Victoria Park but pilot events were halted last weekend.
Matches across Europe have continued in front of increasing crowds – Feyenoord have played matches in front of 13,000 people this season – but the picture in Britain looks increasingly bleak.
There is no official suggestion of what will happen in the coming weeks with regards football and other sports but Scotland and the UK have generally taken a hard-line approach to crowds.
Rangers have previously spoken about holding a continuing dialogue with the Scottish government over the safe return of fans as season tickets sold out for a third year in a row.
“Rangers can confirm that we are in regular dialogue with the Scottish Government in relation to the return of fans to Ibrox stadium when it is safe to do so,” reads a club statement.
With new measures to be introduced and with the threat of them being in place until next year, could it be 2021 before the club’s fans are back in Ibrox?
