It has been great to see the Bhoys return back to action over the last few days, the Adidas kits look great, some of the players have come back looking sharp and some that we didn’t anticipate playing a role in the side like Patryk Klimala, have come back a totally different player.

One thing that just doesn’t seem right is that we are now two weeks away from the start of the season and we, as of writing this, have no plans for fans to return to football. Down south, Boris Johnson has already outlined plans for certain sporting events to return in a phased approach with limited amounts of fans, starting later this month. Peter Lawwell has championed this for Scotland for weeks now, for Celtic Park to be used as a host for trial events but yet, still, nothing is in place.

Celtic had hoped that this Saturday’s friendly with Dundalk would be used for two things, to trial the new “Pass to Paradise” virtual season ticket and also to trial having a limited number of fans in the ground. However, Jason Leitch and the Scottish Government have not given the approval for this to go ahead, instead thousands of fans will sit inside pubs, socially 1m distance away from each other. 

Yes, we understand that the hospitality sector is a massive part of the Scottish economy and it was important as part of the road map out of lockdown for dates to be made for pubs, restaurants, hotels and cafes to reopen, but what about sport? Where are the indicative dates for sport and live events and how exactly can it be that an outdoor stadium is less safe than a pub?

Inside pubs, now, we are becoming used to temperature checks, giving our names and addresses, using hand sanitiser and wearing masks where required. In the Veoila trophy over the last few days, we seen almost 5,000 fans in the ground, socially distant with most sticking to the requirement to wear masks and at least all of them bringing a mask to the ground.

A study by the Fraser of Allander Institute released in April this year, showed that the SPFL alone is responsible for somewhere in the region of £220-440m of Scotland’s GDP or the equivalent of 9,300 full time jobs, this is a sector which right now is being left behind. Yes, the clubs have received support from the Government furlough scheme, but as of August 1st, clubs will be asked to pay towards that scheme, without the guarantee of a start date as to when fans can return back into the grounds. In the Premiership alone, 43 percent of club’s revenue comes from ticket revenues.

Peter Lawwell will have his doubters from not only the Celtic support but from other teams’ fans who claim he runs Scottish football. But his statement on Friday was completely spot on. Now is the time for the Scottish Government to look ahead, to start now to lay out a road map for the return of fans to the grounds and not just continue to brush off the suggestion by being vague.

“Autumn” is not a road map, it is a vague time range, don’t leave Scottish fans and clubs behind, because a failure to support the clubs now could end up in heading the responsibility when some of these clubs go bust.