Some Celtic fans may have been left a little perplexed after it emerged that St. Mirren would still be playing this weekend despite one of their players testing positive for COVID-19.
It is not so long since the Hoops sat out two matches following Boli Bolingoli’s jaunt to Spain.
However, Celtic’s time-out occurred despite the club producing no positive tests.
What St. Mirren had to say
The Buddies updated everyone on the situation at their club on Thursday morning, via a club statement.
They said: “Following our recent round of testing, St Mirren Football Club can confirm that a member of the first-team has tested positive for COVID-19.
“The player is currently self-isolating in line with government guidance and, as a result, will be unavailable for our match against Hibernian.”
So the player will sit the match out. But why are the SPFL even allowing the match to go ahead?
Was Nicola Sturgeon just trying to punish Celtic?
Back in August, just after Boli-gate, it was First Minister Nicola Sturgeon herself who told Celtic (and Aberdeen) to spend some time on the naughty step.
As per Sky Sports, she said: “We’ll set out the conclusion of the talks later today but as a minimum, you should not expect to see Aberdeen or Celtic play over the course of the coming week.”
The reasoning was clear: Bolingoli was well inside his incubation period, and could still test positive at a later date.
Very few Celtic fans disagreed with that call. It was tough, but we took our medicine and moved on.
But when actual positive tests are being produced at other clubs, and games are still happening despite them, we have a case to feel a little bit mystified.
Perhaps Sturgeon’s decision was to punish us for Bolingoli’s behaviour, rather than actually keep the virus safe.
That’s one conclusion we can draw from the fact St. Mirren’s game is still taking place this weekend.
In other news, Celtic have put a £15million valuation on Kristoffer Ajer
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