The club fully endorse the statements made by the SFA/SPFL joint response group made on Friday and Monday in respect of suspension of all football activity at our level until they are in a position to give further clarity post a UEFA conference call happening today, March 17th. Our first priority is to ensure the health and safety of our players, management team, volunteers and supporters that attend our games and believe that the steps taken to date is an effective contribution to the wider efforts to control the impact of the virus.
We also welcome the statement made by PFA Scotland in relation to playing games behind closed doors. The players and management team at our club and at the majority of clubs across Scotland are part time and have day jobs as well as football. A number of our players are self employed and others at present cannot go to their place of work at the moment as buildings are on lockdown. These are unprecented times.
Social media, newspapers and the airwaves are full of "hot takes" at present as to what is going to happen next in relation to Scottish football, as column inches, TV and radio programmes need to be filled with alternatives to actual sporting content. As a club we can only control the controllable at the moment so we will need to wait on any further updates from the SFA before setting in place any plans.
It goes without saying that the indefinite suspension of the season is having a financial impact on the club. We have a minimum of six home games yet to complete and were expecting big attendances at our home games vs Berwick Rangers on the 21st (which was part of the groundhop weekend and a View from the Terrace were due along also) and our top of the table clash vs Kelty Hearts on the 28th. If we were still in with a chance of winning the league at that stage we would have expected larger attendances than normal for our remaining league games also, bearing in mind that at the time of the suspension we were six points behind Kelty Hearts with a game in hand with six games to play.
We will continue to investigate what support is available for a club such as ours but you can help to support us if you are in a position to do so via our weekly Roses lottery which at present is still going ahead this Sunday. We will continue to monitor the situation with respect to our lottery (i.e. if it is still safe for our sellers to sell tickets in the current environment) and will provide any updates as appropriate.
Is it important in these times to look out for each other as social interaction becomes increasingly limited. Below are some sites and phone numbers which may be of use in the current climate for supporters of all ages:
- Please use official government sites on virus updates such as NHS Inform as guidance is changing daily (not unreliable Facebook or WhatsApp posts).
- Social distancing should not mean social isolation, with many older people having to spend time indoors. The Age Scotland Helpline on 0800 12 44 222 is available to call for a chat, or just to hear a friendly voice.
- The Young Scot is a fantastic resource for our younger supporters which provides an update on what is happening and the simple steps to take to help prevent catching the virus and spreading to others, without all of the jargon.
- Sites promoting mental health and wellbeing such as Breathing Space on 0800 83 85 87 and Midspace which is Midlothian's online source of mental health and wellbeing information. There is also an excellent article on BBC Newsbeat
on how to protect your mental heath in the current environment.