Celtic manager Neil Lennon hit back at pundits and government officials on Monday, accusing them of hypocrisy after his team was criticised for a trip to Dubai which led to two players testing positive for COVID-19.
Upon their return from the warm-weather training camp in Dubai, Lennon and 13 players missed two games after going into isolation following the first positive test that was recorded last week.
Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon questioned whether players had complied with social distancing rules on the trip while pundit Andy Walker had said Celtic were "unbelievably arrogant" for abusing their status as elite sportsmen.
"It has been interesting watching the fallouts, the media and the attacks on the club," Lennon told reporters ahead of Wednesday's trip to Livingston.
"The whole squad is negative bar two players. I think that's remarkable and totally blows out the water the way the trip has been portrayed by certain quarters of the media, by certain pundits and by certain government officials as well.
"We didn't abuse any 'privilege', we did the right things, we were totally professional. We had a little drink in the afternoon on the day off, completely allowed, no law breaking. Yet we come back to this barrage of absolute hypocrisy."
A depleted Celtic drew their last two games and though they have three games in hand, they find themselves 21 points behind league leaders Rangers.
Lennon said Celtic were being held to a "far higher standard" compared to other clubs which had COVID-19 outbreaks.
"Protocols at different clubs are inconsistent. As soon as Celtic are deemed to do something wrong, bang, you're all wanting blood, it's absolutely scandalous. The fallout from this has been way too much," he added.
"Aston Villa have shut down, Raith Rovers... They haven't travelled anywhere. We could easily have stayed here and had an outbreak, but because our protocols are so good, we've been able to quell that."
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
