Gary Mackay: Celtic and Aberdeen players ruining chances of fans returning

Fans must wait for now to get back into football grounds.

If professional players would start getting their act together, the football authorities would then have more opportunity to press for getting fans back into stadiums.

As it stands, they've got no chance with players breaking agreements with the Scottish Government in somewhat embarrassing fashion.

Hopefully there will be a line in the sand now after the incidents involving Aberdeen and Celtic players. The guys at every club surely now have to realise that their actions have a huge impact on the game.

If that line is drawn in the sand now, then we have a couple of months to show the positive side of Scottish football. Maybe then we can start to see some fans in the stands again come October.

Getting some supporters into Tynecastle would certainly be a big help to the Hearts players at the start of the season. Every other club will feel likewise as soon as punters start to filter in through the turnstiles.

The real disappointment for me is the fact that football players have been given an opportunity to get back to work and play games, yet they have disrespected that privilege. They can't use the excuse of boredom for these indiscretions.

They are back among their team-mates and enjoying the banter that goes with that. They have been given the chance to play competitive games again and should be thankful.

Instead of them making the right decisions and thinking of other people who aren't fortunate enough to even be employed at the moment, the choices a select few have made are just mind-boggling.

We can only pray that this is the end of it and there is no need for the Scottish Government to impose a suspension on football.

If they get to the point of stopping the Premiership altogether, you wouldn't expect them to let the Championship, League One and League Two to start while the top flight is stopped.

I’m sure in that event that the lower leagues would push to play, particularly if all their clubs had been abiding by the rules set out. But it would seem unlikely that one league would be dormant whilst others played fixtures.

It would probably be a blanket postponement – and that would just be disastrous. I really hope the players who have ignored the rules relating to coronavirus take heed.

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