Nicola Sturgeon has questioned whether Celtic have complied with elite bubble rules during their training trip to Dubai.

Neil Lennon and his Hoops squad flew out to the Middle East on Saturday for a warm-weather training camp on the back of a damaging derby defeat to Rangers which left them 19 points adrift in the Premiership title race.

The Scottish Government have called for the SFA to look into whether the club had broken special coronavirus exemptions, and Celtic responded on Monday evening to maintain they had done nothing wrong.

Speaking in her daily briefing today, the First Minister said: “As I understand it the Scottish Government gave some advice to the SFA about the rules around elite training camps back in November last year.

“The world around the pandemic has changed quite a bit since November. It is not our role to sign off or to agree or not agree what a football club does in terms of training camps.

“We set out what the rules are. The rules have been, and they may have to change given the changing nature of the pandemic, is that elite sports can go overseas for training camps if that is important for the context of their training for competitions.

“That is what I understand it is what we set out as the rules. For me the question for Celtic, and I will try to be diplomatic here, is not so much are they overseas at a training camp. It may be given the changing circumstances in future that won’t be appropriate.

“That is not really the question. It is what is the purpose of them being there? I have seen a comment from the club that said it is more for R and R than it is for training.

“I have also seen some photographs and I can only comment on what I have seen, I don’t know the full circumstances, that would raise a question in my mind whether all the rules of what elite players within their bubbles, around social distancing, are being complied with.

“I think there are some things there that should be looked into. Elite sport and this is not just Celtic, has been in a privileged position at many points over the last year doing things that the general public can’t do.

“As long as that is the case it is really important that they don’t abuse it and that they use it for the purpose intended and that applies to Celtic as it would anybody else in that position.”