Celtic and Aberdeen each fined by SPFL over Covid-19 disciplinary breaches

Both clubs hit with £30,000 penalty, though majority of it suspended

Celtic defender Boli Bolingoli failed to quarantine after making a short trip to Spain. Picture: SNS

Celtic and Aberdeen have each been fined by the SPFL over disciplinary breaches relating to Covid-19.

The league has handed down £30,000 penalties, with £8,000 to be paid to the SPFL Trust within the next 28 days. The further £22,000 for each team will be suspended pending any further breaches across the whole of the 2020/21 Scottish Premiership season.

Aberdeen were the first club to find themselves in hot water after it emerged two players tested positive following an eight-player meeting at a city centre bar.

Just days after that news broke, Celtic defender Boli Bolingoli featured for the Parkhead side in a 1-1 draw at Kilmarnock after failing to quarantine following a short trip to Spain in the week leading up to the match.

Each side had three of their games, including one against each other, postponed by the SPFL as the Scottish Government leaned on Scottish football to get its house in order.

The Aberdeen eight were given three-game suspended bans that expire on February 28, while Bolingoli was handed an immediate three-game ban. The defender soon left Celtic on loan for Turkish side İstanbul Başakşehir.

A spokesman for the SPFL said after today’s ruling: “Aberdeen FC and Celtic FC demonstrated that they had gone to enormous lengths to ensure that their players adhered to all relevant requirements and protocols relating to Covid-19.

“However, the requirement of individual players to adhere to their clubs’ carefully-designed protocols is a matter of personal and professional responsibility on the part of those players.

“That the players involved ignored the strict and comprehensive requirements set down by Scottish Football, by their clubs and by the Scottish Government, is obviously a serious issue, but given the lengths to which the clubs had gone in each case to seek to ensure compliance by its players, the SPFL Board sub-committee suspended the majority of the fines imposed.

“The fact that adherence to social distancing and other regulations has been assiduous in the intervening period is obviously something we welcome, and we congratulate players, staff and officials for taking a leading role on these important issues.”

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