Elgin City chairman Graham Tatters feels the League Two season should only restart once there is certainty it can finish without further disruption.
The SFA yesterday announced all leagues currently in shutdown due to Covid-19 would continue to be suspended until a further update, which is due by March 1.
All football below the Championship has been suspended since January 11, but prior to yesterday’s announcement clubs in League One and League Two had hoped to receive permission to return to training ahead of a mid-March commencement of matches.
That would be on the condition clubs undertake weekly testing, which was not a requirement when they initially started the season in October.
Tatters says the prospect of paying for testing facilities only for the season to be halted again makes him reluctant to support a return to action until there is more certainty the campaign can safely be completed.
Tatters said: “If it’s not right, it’s not right.
“The players are desperate to play, but personally I’m looking at it from the point of view that if we get going it’s got to be for good.
“I would be loathe, as a chairman or director of a football club, to start forking out £3,000 a week when there’s a chance it could only last five or six weeks and then we get called off again.
“We will have wasted around £20,000 and we cannot afford to do that. We’ve got to think of next season.
“We will just have to wait and see what happens but I can’t criticise the decision because I’m not privy to all the information the SFA have got.
“We’ve got to look at it from the point of view of a game of football. If we don’t play football, nobody is going to die.
“If we do play football, there’s a risk of it.”
Tatters accepts the SFA’s decision puts added strain on the fixture schedule, with the Black and Whites having played only nine games of their truncated campaign.
Elgin were denied a shot at the play-offs when last season was cut short at a time when they sat third, with Gavin Price’s men a position higher in second place at present.
Tatters added: “The problem now is we started a 27 game season, but if we can’t complete that what do we do? Will we allow promotion and relegation?
“If the Championship are doing 27 they will not be happy we are doing 18.
“They will make a decision in March, and then we will have to have at least a fortnight, so with 18 games still to play by the middle of March we will be struggling.”
Tatters feels the £100,000 government grant received by the Borough Briggs, along with the £50,000 donation from philanthropist James Anderson last summer, will ensure the cost of testing is affordable once Elgin commence playing.
The Elgin chairman hopes to repeat the arrangements made for their only previous experience of testing as a squad, ahead of a Betfred Cup tie against Ross County in November.
Tatters added: “It’s quite difficult for us because of the geographical problems we’ve got with players.
“The last time we managed to get most of the players up to Elgin and did a full night’s testing, and we got 25 results in an hour and a half.
“The guys in Glasgow went to Celtic, and those from Dundee went to Dundee United, who were fantastic for us.
“I was hoping that would continue as the top teams have been really good at helping people.
“My biggest concern is the test is only good for the day you do it.
“As soon as you walk outside, you could pick it up from work or your kids could pick it up from school, but you could be asymptomatic. It’s a difficult one.
“There’s nothing to say that within that time between tests you are OK. You can’t live in a bubble.”
