Livingston boss David Martindale has revealed that five of the club's players have tested positive for Covid since the return of pre-season and believes Scottish football could become a farce if rules around self-isolation protocols are not changed.
The gaffer says he believes clubs will be unable to fulfil fixtures on a regular basis under the current rules and says he was forced to shutdown training yesterday and today as a result of a positive case at the club this week.
Livi are also set to scrap team buses for away trips, including tomorrow's Premier Sports Cup clash at Alloa Athletic.
The 47-year-old believes that as more of society begins to open up, more players will either contract the virus or be subject to self-isolation rules through Track and Trace and calls on the Scottish Government and Joint Response Group to change the rules for those who test negative but had been deemed close contacts.
He commented: "We need to change the isolation rules, if not then it’s going to have a massive impact on football.
"You can’t afford to keep isolating. There are players I know of that have isolated for 20 days and still not had Covid.
“I worked it out that in our squad, including staff, roughly 55 per cent of them have had Covid. We can’t keep saying to people who haven’t got it that they have to isolate themselves for ten days.
"I completely understand people who had Covid have to isolate, but every club will be impacted by it. Already this season Ross County had to shut down because society is open. Wives and girlfriends are back at work, kids are at summer camps and things like that.
“We are losing players and it is impacting them and the team. Three games were scrapped because of Covid last week and I have shut the ground on Thursday and Friday this week. The boys aren’t in training.
"We had a vomiting bug and we have had a staff member and one player test positive for Covid. We've had five positive players since coming back. Training is becoming a nightmare. I don’t even know if I want the boys to shower."
He added: "I don’t think we’re in a privileged position anymore. Go to grassroots football, go to junior football - are they testing?
“Someone said clubs should just get a bigger squad to deal with Covid but we haven’t had crowds for a year. I’m lucky my budget has stayed the same as last year. All the clubs are trying to do is get money back in right now."
Martindale, however, says that talks are ongoing between the Scottish Government and the Joint Response Group with a view to potentially amending the rules. Any changes, though, could come too late he says.
"We need to look at it very quickly but I do believe the JRG and the Scottish Government are looking at it but I think it needs to happen sooner rather than later.
“I think what they’re talking about is that if someone gets Covid, if the close contact goes and gets a PCR and it’s a negative then you would do a LFT. That’s the change in the protocols we’re looking at but they might not come in for four, five, six, seven weeks.
"That could be seven weeks too late, I could have lost nine points in seven weeks because of a lack of squad.
"If you can’t field a team in the cup you forfeit the game. What is going to happen when you can’t field a team in the league? It’s going to happen if track and trace and isolation remains the same.
"Everyone is testing far more and society is open so it’s obvious that the rates are going to go up."
He added: "We have to deal with it and we are an industry that regularly tests.
“You don’t mind if a player is positive, but surely for the other boys on Track and Trace who aren’t positive it doesn’t make any sense to me they have to isolate.
"It’s maybe not the Scottish government’s priority but I think it needs to be Scottish football’s priority as I think it’s going to really hamper us going forward in the next six weeks."
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