CELTIC or St Johnstone fans could face a European lockout this summer due to UK Government travel restrictions.
The Scottish Premiership duo face the possibility of meeting Turkish giants Galatasaray in either the Champions League or Europa League, respectively.
If Ange Postecoglou’s Hoops make it past Midtjylland in their second-round qualifying clash they will then face the winners of Galatasaray vs PSV Eindhoven.
Callum Davidson’s Saints will play the losers of that tie and whoever comes up against Galatasaray could face a double header at a neutral venue across Europe.
Turkey is currently on the ‘red list’ of high-risk Covid countries, but questions remain over why this is the case.
Covid rates are currently relatively low, there are no new variants of concern and high testing rates have also been recorded. Experts have suggested that the travel ban remains in place due to Turkey being a worldwide transport hub.
Celtic or St Johnstone would also be forced to fork out €50,000 to help with the running of the two fixtures, despite losing out on home revenue.
Uefa’s ‘Special rules applicable to the qualifying phase and play-offs of the competition due to COVID-19’ regulations explain: “If restrictions imposed by the national/local authorities of the visiting club’s country apply to the visiting club’s travel to play the match or its return home after the match, the home club must propose a suitable alternative venue within 24 hours of the relevant deadline, which may be in a neutral country (within the territory of a UEFA member association) that would allow the match to take place and would not cause the visiting club any restrictions in either travel direction.
“If the home club fails to propose such suitable alternative venue within the aforementioned deadline, the UEFA administration will take a final decision on the match venue and/or match date.
“The home club will remain responsible for the organisation of the match and both clubs will share the related costs in equal measure. Furthermore, an amount equal to 50 per cent of the fixed contribution per round (€50k) will be deducted from the payments due to the visiting club and paid to the home club as a compensation.
“If either club refuses to take part in the match, it will be held responsible for the match not taking place and the match will be declared by the UEFA Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body to be forfeited by such club. Moreover, the UEFA Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body may take any further disciplinary measures in accordance with the present regulations.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel