Jason Leitch has ruled out a “red card” for Scottish football after Dundee United’s club photo breached Covid-19 rules.
The Scottish government health advisor said it would not put an end to the game, despite numerous prior incidents.
The non-socially-distanced image was taken on November 27 just days before an outbreak rocked the club.
Speaking on BBC radio show Off the Ball, professor Leitch said: “We’re not suggesting there is a red card coming for Scottish football.
“But we are suggesting that football needs to be careful. I’ve said that every week for nine months yet I get disappointed every time something like this happens.”
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Scotland’s national clinical director also questioned why none of those photographed raised the alarm.
He said: “I can’t believe one of the 49 didn’t say ‘hold on a minute, does this seem like a reasonable thing to do here? I wonder if we should postpone this photo.’
“Even if they’d done it a wee bit more imaginatively.
“Do it distanced in the stand and it would be a terrific photo because it would be a photograph for Dundee United and it would be a lesson for the rest of the country about how to do things like that.”
The Scottish FA, SPFL, and Dundee United are yet to comment publicly on the photo.
It is the latest in a series of incidents since the season kicked off in the summer.
This week, St Mirren and Kilmarnock had sanctions taken against them after failing to fulfil fixtures due to players self-isolating.
Professor Leitch added: “Football has been allowed back on the proviso that contact on the pitch, no contact off the pitch, is the rough message.
“So follow the same rules as the rest of us until you cross that white line and then you are given dispensation that the rest of us do not have.
“That’s to allow the game of rugby, netball, football to take place. It does not say anywhere that contact exemption can happen for a club photograph.
“We now know that some people in that photograph were positive so they were in their infectious period.
“These people are not in the same bubbles that apply for say, Formula 1, where they can’t see their families.
“These people are going about their lives like the rest of us.
“They could be in a shop and could be with other members of their family. That means they are also protecting them.”
