Celtic’s Dubai trip under scrutiny as 13 players isolate after Jullien tests positive

Celtic’s home Scottish Premiership match with Hibernian on Monday night will go ahead despite the Parkhead squad being decimated by Covid-19 issues, with manager Neil Lennon and 13 players having to self-isolate.

The Scottish champions confirmed defender Christopher Jullien tested positive but had noted that all other players and staff members were negative after being checked following their return to Scotland from a training camp in Dubai on Friday.

However, Lennon, his assistant John Kennedy and 13 players have been deemed to be close contacts of Jullien and will also go into self-isolation, leaving the club in chaos for the visit of Hibs.

Celtic released a statement which read: “Celtic Football Club confirmed today that Christopher Jullien has tested positive for Covid-19 and is self-isolating at home. We wish Christopher a speedy recovery.

“While all of the other members of the squad and backroom team have tested negative, we have been informed by the authorities that, having been deemed ‘close contacts’, Celtic manager Neil Lennon, assistant John Kennedy and 13 first-team players will be required to self-isolate on a precautionary basis as required by the current regulations.

“The contacts were identified during the period from Wednesday last week, primarily around flight and team coach travel, during which time Celtic applied the same rigorous protocols used for pre-season training camps, Uefa match travel and for all domestic match arrangements in Scotland.

“These protocols have served us well in the past, as the club has not had one positive case in our own ‘bubble’ until now. As we have already stated, Celtic’s decision to travel to Dubai for a training camp was for performance reasons.

“Whilst we were in Dubai, the announcements made on January 4 significantly changed the Covid landscape. The reality is that a case could well have occurred had the team remained in Scotland, as other cases have done in Scottish football and across UK sport in the past week.”

Quick Guide SPFL suspends League One and below Show

The Scottish Football Association board has suspended professional football beneath SPFL Championship level for three weeks due to the escalating coronavirus situation. The Scottish Premiership will be exempt from the suspension, provided it continues to adhere to the stringent testing protocols, and the Championship will also be able to continue provided it commences weekly PCR testing.

Rod Petrie, Scottish FA president, said: “The Scottish FA is well aware of the efforts all clubs take to comply with the exacting protocols that were conditional on elite football being given an exemption to continue amid the pandemic. 

“While the national sport has been afforded the privilege of elite sporting exemption, the risk of mass transportation of untested, largely part-time players is something that cannot be sustained as the cases continue to rise and available hospital beds become increasingly scarce. After discussions with the SPFL, the Premiership and Championship will continue on the proviso that both adhere to the existing testing regime. The vast majority of teams in those divisions are full-time professional clubs and so the risk of transmission remains manageably low.”

The impacted leagues are: SPFL League One, SPFL League Two, Scottish Women’s Football Premier Leagues One and Two, Highland League, Lowland League, East, West and South of Scotland Leagues, Scottish Junior FA Leagues and the North Caledonian League. PA Media

The Scottish first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, had questioned the purpose of Celtic’s trip and whether they were following social-distancing rules after seeing photos from their Dubai base. Kennedy, the Celtic assistant manager, admitted on Saturday that there had been some minor “slip-ups” but that a photo had maybe painted a “false picture”.

Elite sports teams who go to foreign training camps are exempt from quarantine rules. Speaking on on Saturday to BBC Radio Scotland’s Off The Ball programme, the national clinical director, Jason Leitch, said: “Professional sport people can go on winter training camps – that is allowed. They’re not allowed to just go on a holiday, like the rest of us aren’t.

“That exemption if they stay within their bubble means they don’t have to quarantine when they come back. The United Arab Emirates on Friday had 5,055 new cases, nearly double the Scottish numbers of cases. There is a lot of Covid in Dubai.

“The club, when they’re in Dubai, have to follow the rules. They have to distance. They are allowed to be there, to be clear.”