Chairman fears that inaugural West of Scotland Football Leagues could be wiped out by Covid-19

Chairman Dave McKenna thinks that a delayed October start is the best case scenario for the leagues featuring 67 clubs including local sides Carluke Rovers, Lanark United, Lesmahagow Juniors and Forth Wanderers who are in conferences at tier seven of the Scottish football pyramid.

“If everything goes well and we don’t get any setbacks then my personal opinion is that the games could be starting by October at the earliest,” Dave told the Carluke and Lanark Gazette.

“But if something goes wrong with a reinfection – which we obviously hope doesn’t happen – the whole season might get wiped out.

“You can’t rule that out, absolutely not.

“I think people are a wee bit blinkered looking at this through football lenses.

“This isn’t a football issue, this is a public health issue.

“And we will need to be – and we will be – governed by the rules that are put in place at any point in time.”

With First Minister Nicola Sturgeon set to announce the implementation of Phase Two of coronavirus lockdown easing measures tomorrow (Thursday), Dave said that this may give the green light for WoS League clubs to resume limited training imminently.

“It’s not just as simple as clubs adhering to social distancing to start training,” he said. “There’s four inches deep of paperwork that needs to be put in place so we’ve got a plan.

“It’s very similar to what’s been put in place for the top clubs.

“Things like when players come to training they don’t go to the dressing room, they come dressed to train and they go home, they don’t shower at the facility and they’ve got to put a questionnaire in before every training session to confirm they don’t have any symptoms.

“There’s a whole legal requirement because it’s government legislation that we will be re-enacting here.

“I’m not naive enough to think that everybody’s going to sit down and go through all the paperwork and do it all right.

“I know some people might choose not to do that.

“But if they do they’re running a great risk, not only against their club, but against the whole point of a shutdown.”

Dave stressed that, at West of Scotland League level, there would be no requirement on clubs to adhere to arranging compulsory coronavirus tests for players and coaches due to the high costs involved.