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Daily Record
Daily Record
Sport
Robbie Copeland

David Martindale sides with SPFL amid outbreak rules row as Livingston boss tells clubs 'respect democracy'

Livingston boss David Martindale says SPFL bosses have no right to complain about rules for games going ahead - because they all voted on it in the first place.

Clubs up and down the country have been hit with Covid outbreaks recently as the Omicron variant spreads far and wide and there has been a perceived inconsistency in SPFL decision-making.

While Hibs were granted postponements on request, Dundee and St Mirren were forced to play games against their will despite having heavily depleted squads - with the Dens Park side forced to register assistant Dave Mackay as a player against Aberdeen.

Criticism forced the SPFL to release a statement clarifying the rules for postponing matches. If a club can name 13 players, including 10 over-18s and a goalkeeper, games must go ahead.

They also highlighted that clubs voted those rules in themselves.

And Livingston boss Martindale, one of the first to call for the early winter break, reckons league chiefs are in the right.

He told Sky Sports: "I agree with the SPFL 100 per cent, if I'm honest.

"Every club was involved in these talks at the start of the season and got to put their criteria forward.

"We had a vote and the unanimous decision, the democracy, was that if you had ten players over 18, 13 in total, and one was a goalkeeper, that we were going to fulfil that fixture.

"I knew this was going to happen with teams. I was calling for the winter break to be brought forward a little bit earlier than some clubs because we could see this happening.

"I don't think it's fair on sporting integrity but we've all got to realise we all voted for it at the start of the season.

"I don't think you can then lay the blame at the door of the SPFL."

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