Rangers cover up set to cost Scottish clubs a lot of money

On Wednesday, the Rangers played nine players whose test results had not yet returned and that has landed other Premiership clubs in financial trouble.

For months the world has struggled with the effects of the global pandemic. But just when it looked like things were coming back to something resembling normal, the Rangers took it upon themselves to give rise to fresh controversy by fielding nine players against Dundee United in a pre-season friendly without proper testing clearance.

The Rangers players had returned from the pre-season tournament in France and has a result had to undergo tests. The results were delayed though but the club still decided to go through with the match despite not nine of their players not being given the green light to play.

As expected, the matter was raised in a SFA meeting and the Rangers were asked to explain their testing breach. Other than that, Motherwell and Hibernian have also been questioned about their testing protocols.

And now, the SFA has decided to bring back the twice-a-week testing policy for the Premiership clubs after it had been reduced to just one day every week on July 10th. That is certainly a huge cost to bear for a number of the clubs, especially when a number of them are struggling to stay afloat amidst the financial crisis brought about by the global pandemic.

As reported by The Scottish Sun, a number of clubs were not happy with SFA’s decision:

"Top clubs were on a collision course with the SFA last night as the Testing fiasco plumbed new depths. SunSport can reveal several Premiership sides are seething that costly twice-weekly tests have been ordered by Hampden.They feel the SFA has overreacted to a number of ‘false positive’ results at St Mirren and testing issues which hit Rangers, Motherwell and Hibs.Some clubs also believe testing company Cignpost are taking longer than expected to return results — with one having waited five days for results."

The anger of the clubs are definitely justified as they are being made to pay for the mistakes of a certain few. And such mistakes can turn out to be very costly as even one positive result right now in that game could have pushed back the start of the season indefinitely.

Obviously, the leadership of the SFA in dealing with such situations has also left a lot to be desired.