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No vaccine, no sport says Scottish First Minister Sturgeon

Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has warned clubs not to expect to play any matches unti...



No vaccine, no sport says Scot...
Rugby

No vaccine, no sport says Scottish First Minister Sturgeon

Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has warned clubs not to expect to play any matches until there's a vaccine for COVID-19.

Leagues below the Scottish Premiership have already been brought to an early end, but it's hoped the top flight season can still be concluded.

At her daily briefing, Sturgeon warned that sport in Scotland should not expect to resume "any time soon", adding that there are "issues" with playing games behind closed doors.

The first meeting looking at restructuring Scottish Football next season is taking place this afternoon.

Clubs from all four divisions of the SPFL, plus the Highland and Lowland leagues are all taking part.

But Sturgeon told the media that fans should not expect to be filing into Premiership grounds any time soon, "People should not be under the expectation that large-scale mass gatherings will be starting any time soon, because we must make sure that we are doing everything we can to continue to suppress this virus.

The First Minister added that people needed "to have the understanding that some form of social distancing is going to be required perhaps up to the point where a vaccine is available".

Her sentiments echo those of Health Minister Simon Harris who warned on Sunday, "Could you get to a point where you can't have massive GAA matches, but you could have local kids having a kickabout safely, that's the sort of space that we're in, that we need to work our way through."

Sturgeon admitted that she wasn't delivering good news for sports fans, but added, "I would be wrong to try and give false expectation right now about an early resumption of football matches or rugby matches or large-scale sporting events like that."

"In terms of playing behind closed doors," Sturgeon said, "Clearly there are issues there in terms of: does that completely take away the risk of big events if a match is being played behind closed doors but it is still on television?

"The danger is, people will still congregate together in groups to watch that. So these things all have to be very carefully considered."

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