Aberdeen supremo Dave Cormack has confirmed COVID-19 testing could cost his side £100,000 between now and the end of the year - as he admitted the Dons are losing £1m a month during the pandemic.
The Dons are currently in the process of buying testing equipment and it will be in place before Derek McInnes ’ squad return for training next week.
The Aberdeen chairman admitted the cost of purchasing the machine and to meet the stringent testing requirements is likely to hit six figures, but acknowledges no risks can be taken.
Cormack explained: “We will have a testing machine on site. I don’t know what the exact cost will be but we could be £100,000 in testing between now and the end of the year.
“That is part of getting back to playing again and it is the right thing to do. We need to be back training and in full contact training in early to mid-July, with the season hopefully to start in August behind closed doors.
“It all depends on the R rate coming down, so there are no guarantees.”
Cormack hopes part crowds will come into play at the end of the year and then it will be a full return in January or February, providing Coronavirus is under control.
He added: “We have a plan now and that might change but everybody knows it. Once we see the players back training, they will be four to a pitch to start with, so they get a quarter each.
“We will see how that goes. Phase one behind closed doors, phase two is it November or December with limited crowds? "That is what we would hope for given the latest information.
“Then full crowds in January or February would be the hope. Clearly, that depends because you can get second or third waves of this pandemic.”
The Pittodrie hierarchy are now putting another survival plan in place with the prediction now that there will be an £8m or £9m deficit
Cormack revealed: “We assumed we would be back playing no later than September in front of crowds. Two-and-a-half months on, the plan now is to be back playing again in front of crowds.
“We had a £5m hole to September and we are burning £1 million-a-month, then it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out that there is another £3 million loss there.
“A lot of that is down to the fact we can’t host a game at Pittodrie. We are working through this just now.
