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As Celtic Stars Return From International Duty, The SFA Has Big Questions To Answer.

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Our players are all back from international duty, and Neil Lennon has decent selection options available for the game at the weekend, as long as everyone passes their health checks, and I don’t mean the standard ones for torn thigh muscles and general fitness.

Today, the Czech Republic has reported a record number of daily cases.

It’s a horrendous time across Europe as things go from bad to worse.

The numbers over there have been going up and up for weeks now and the country is on the UK watch-list.

Members of the Czech team tested positive for this.

They were in contact with other people in the Czech Republic party. There is no question that our players travelling over there represented a huge risk. No question whatsoever. If any doubt remained it was erased the moment the chairman and chief executive of the SFA decided not to travel.

If we’re all very lucky nobody is going to come back adversely affected, but that doesn’t mean that there are not serious questions to answer. The governing body is going to have to account for this to the clubs, and to our club in particular. We provided not only players but members of the backroom staff and support systems … we cannot be ignored on this one.

Bog standard SFA incompetence is bad enough, but this goes way beyond that.

They can point their fingers at UEFA as they like, but they are our representatives on that august body and are supposed to have weight there.

There was no way this game should have been played; the SFA should have dug in their heels on asking for a postponement and if necessary should have been willing to forfeit the game. The Nations League is a ridiculous competition, a wholly un-necessary addition to a footballing calendar which was stressed to the maximum before the health crisis.

We are led lamentably here in Scotland, and Celtic occasionally complains about it but has never taken a proper lead.

We have people in positions of power, but I can’t see signs that we ever actually exercise it.

That absence of influence put our players in harm’s way this week.

And that is a state of affairs that simply cannot continue.

The SFA has big questions to answer here, and not for the first time.

Our club has to be – it must be – asking them.

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