(Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)
Scotland’s national clinical director Jason Leitch has admitted there is no scientific basis for the cap of 500 fans on Scottish football games but insists “you have to draw the line somewhere” when it comes to deciding a number.
While clubs in the top two tiers of the SPFL look at a massive loss of income over the coming weeks, Leitch confirmed there “isn’t a particular public health route” that influenced the supporter lockout.
Three top-flight games are set to take place tonight with full capacity allowed, leaving many confused, and Leitch will have done little to convince fans of clubs across the country that it’s the right move.
“Of course you have to draw the line somewhere, we’ve drawn it at a variety of points over the last little while,” Leitch said while taking questions from the public on BBC Radio Scotland.
“It’s very difficult to choose a number, you can either choose zero, 10,000 or somewhere in between.
“It’s a judgement, it’s of course based on trying to keep the risk as low as you possibly can but the alternative is just to close them down completely.
“So you’re absolutely right: it’s just a judgement.
“There isn’t a particular public health route that takes you to 500 people.
“Let’s remember the overall advice here, forget the numbers. The overall advice is to reduce your contact with other people as much as you can because that will reduce your risk of catching this disease until we get through this wave of this virus.
“Then our advice will be to remove these measures as quickly as you possibly can. We don’t like them, we don’t want them, but we’re doing them to protect those who are going to die of this disease. That’s the blunt truth.
“We have people in hospital, on ventilators, in intensive care TODAY who will die of this virus. Therefore we’ve got to try and protect the population from it and we’ve got to keep the health service open for all the other diseases.
“All the cancer, the strokes and the operations. The more Covid we have, the less of them we can do.”
Fresh from confusing SPFL clubs with the recent change to guidelines on when someone needs to isolate, the decision-making behind allowing as many fans into Hampden as are allowed in to Forthbank is the latest in a string of clear-as-mud decisions from Holyrood.
Nobody is expecting them to get everything right all of the time but effectively admitting that you’re just guessing and making it up as you go along is helping nobody.
Even the difference from last week when Leitch claimed the League Cup final would be an environment the virus doesn’t like to deputy First Minister John Swinney claiming yesterday it could be a ‘super spreader’ event is ridiculous.
With crisis talks ongoing with the SPFL and clubs, this latest nonsense interview from Leitch is sure to leave many within Scottish football furious
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