Highland League has plenty "elbow room" for delayed start if October 17 kick-off not possible, says league secretary Rod Houston
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CLUBS will have their say on when the Highland League season kicks off if an October 17 start date cannot be achieved, says league secretary Rod Houston.
An October fixtures list was released on Sunday, just days before the Scottish Government announced tighter restrictions to deal with the coronavirus crisis.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s next update on October 13 will determine whether or not crowds are allowed into football matches, just days before the projected start to the SHFL campaign.
Houston said playing games on the schedules dates had not yet been ruled out, but the 16-game format voted in by clubs in August will give the league plenty flexibility to delay the season if required.
“No decision has been made not to have October 17 as a start date,” he said.
“It will be the clubs that make the decision, and the league management committee.
“By deciding to make the league championship a single fixture between each club, they have actually bought themselves a considerable amount of elbow room in the calendar.
“At the moment I think people are being rightly concerned about our ability to hold matches with spectators on October 17. But we are not under the same pressure with the calendar.”
The league has stated that closed-door competitive fixtures cannot be played, and the league will not begin if fans can’t attend matches.
However, the shorter programme means that if crowds are allowed to return several weeks after the planned start date, the season could still be played.
“If there is a review of the restrictions in three weeks, that will be October 13, which is tight, so we have to look at all of those things,” Houston added.
“We dealt with return to training, return to closed-door friendlies, we are now doing return to matches with spectators, to do arrangements with clubs. If we have to then look at how far we can delay, that comes because we’ve had to delay."
The next league management committee meeting was due to take place on October 1 but it has been taken forward to Monday, allowing discussions to take place on the season ahead.
"Ultimately the central decision-making body is the league management committee," Houston said. "The strength of that is, every club is represented on that, so it is not an executive board making decisions, every club is a party to any decisions that are made.
"In these circumstances I think that is a definite strength.
"We know the fixtures we want played, it’s just now hoping that we can find the circumstances to have them played in front of spectators."
