Aberdeen’s trip to face St Johnstone in the Scottish Premiership on Saturday has been postponed after two players from the visiting team tested positive for coronavirus.
The Scottish
government and football authorities had agreed on Thursday that the game should
go ahead as planned but that decision has been reversed.
“This weekend’s
Scottish Premiership fixture against Aberdeen at McDiarmid Park has been
postponed,” St Johnstone said in a statement.
“The club is
disappointed at the news of this postponement but the health and wellbeing of
everybody is of paramount importance in this situation.”
It comes after
Scottish ministers accused Aberdeen players of putting the return of football
at risk following a “clear breach” of coronavirus protocols.
The Scottish
football authorities were summoned to a meeting by sports minister Joe
Fitzpatrick on Friday after eight Dons players were instructed to self-isolate
for up to two weeks.
Reports say all
eight were in a bar in Aberdeen on Saturday after their team’s 1-0 loss to
Rangers, which was the first competitive Scottish football match since
mid-March.
Stricter lockdown
was reimposed in the city this week following an outbreak linked to pubs and
bars — 79 cases had been identified by Thursday with dozens more potential
cases under investigation.
“The Scottish
government is disappointed by the actions of these individuals who have put at
risk the return of professional football in Scotland,” a spokesman said.
“This was a clear
breach of the rules that were put in place by the SFA (Scottish Football
Association), the SPFL (Scottish Professional Football League) and the Scottish
government.”
The spokesman added
that officials would also be meeting with all club captains and managers to
emphasise the guidelines.
Aberdeen chairman
Dave Cormack, speaking before the postponement, described the situation as “a
bitter blow” and promised the club would carry out a full investigation.