PFA Scotland chief executive Fraser Wishart has outlined possible contract dilemmas for players after the coronavirus crisis sparked debate about the season’s end.
The Scottish Professional Football League was suspended on Friday “until further notice” along with all non-league and grassroots football.
Since then there has been growing speculation about when and how the current campaign will conclude and when and under which circumstances the next one will start, the players’ union boss pinpointed a key issue.
PFA Scotland statement on Coronavirus https://t.co/5mgkDTPw43
— PFA Scotland (@PFAScotland) March 13, 2020
Wishart told BBC Radio Scotland: “There are issues around people just automatically saying, ‘extend the players contracts by a couple of months and play in June and July’.
“The majority of players sign short-term contracts and they are up on June 9th.
“If you are asking a player to sign a month’s contract to get to the end of the season, the player says, ‘why don’t you give me a year’s contract?’.
“‘No, we are going to release you on June 30th when the season is finished but come and maybe get hurt’.
“‘Will you pay for my operation if I get hurt’? ‘No’.
The Scottish Professional Football League was suspended on Friday (Dave Howarth/PA)
“‘Will you pay for my wages for the next nine months if I get a serious injury’? ‘No’.
“So that is issues that we have to work on as a game, to protect the players in terms of going down that route.
“We would be asking for safeguards.
“Just to make it clear, let’s not get any headlines here, that players aren’t willing to bend, of course they are.
“I am just raising various scenarios and if that gets to that stage where that needs to be done, we will work with the authorities to try to get a way of getting to the end of the season.”
