John Robertson slams SFA as Inverness manager accuses governing bodies of putting profit before players

John Robertson has slammed Scotland’s football authorities for placing TV cash and commercial interests above the safety of players and families during a worsening pandemic.

The Caley Thistle manager and Hearts legend was reacting to Monday’s announcement by the SFA and SPFL that all leagues below the Championship would be suspended for three weeks.

Angered by statements from both bodies indicating that broadcasting income was central to the move, Robertson raised serious misgivings about the risk to lives.

He said: “There is a line in the statement saying it was to protect the commercial and media contracts in place.

“From a humane perspective, I’m perplexed. We’ve had more deaths than we’ve ever had, yet football has been asked to carry on.”

When it was announced the previously non-Covid testing second tier would play on, SFA president Rod Petrie stressed “the risk of transmission remains manageably low” in the mostly full-time Championship.

An SFA statement made it clear commercial contracts were key, saying it was “safeguarding commercial broadcasting contracts that sustain the professional game”.

SPFL chief executive Neil Doncaster supported the response as proportionate, adding it ensured “the top two divisions, which provide the overwhelming bulk of the income which supports the wider game, are able to be maintained for the good of the entire sport.”

But Robertson felt a distinction should have been made between the Premiership and its well-established testing protocols, and the Championship where clubs were left “scuttling about” to establish testing routines.

He said: “The Championship, without any real warning, has just been thrown into it.

“It doesn’t make any sense.

“While I’m delighted from a football perspective, what really annoyed me - and made me fearful - was the SFA and SPFL’s statement.

“If you look at it, they wanted to continue to protect their TV and commercial contracts.

“That was a strange thing to put out there.

“It made me think the Championship and Premiership were only playing on because of the TV deals, which is wrong.

“I’m sorry but if they’re putting TV deals before players’ welfare and lives, as well as the huge support staff behind clubs, and everyone’s families, then that can’t be right.

“We’re hearing it is worse now, in terms of cases and deaths, than it has ever been.

“They say watching football is good for the country’s well-being and keeps spirits up, which is great.

“But from a humane perspective, why should football players be the guinea pigs?

“Why should we have to travel all over the country at a time when a very quick-spreading and easily spreading virus is at large?”

Crossing the country when most individuals and professions were told it was unsafe to do so was what most concerned the 56-year-old.

Robertson added: “As a manager, I’m worried about 26 players under my charge, my coaches and non-football staff. I’m worried about their wives and partners, their kids.

“I’m worried about their mums and dads, if someone here catches it and takes it home to them.

“There has been a sudden surge of Covid in the Highlands now as well and I worry about taking it home to my wife.

“Most of the players will just get on with it, but one or two are asking - and their wives and partners are asking - why they have to go to work when much of the country doesn’t.”

Robertson also stressed the Championship received next to nothing - barely £50,000 per club per season - in TV money, adding: “It looks like we’re playing on simply because there is a TV contract to show games on a Friday.”

Meanwhile, Robertson has laid bare the extreme toll the Covid-19 crisis has taken on his mental health.