He should have been in quarantine. He was not permitted to go to work for 14 days. He is employed as a footballer by Celtc FC, so it follows that he cannot play football. That makes him ineligible, by the definition of the word.
I get your point that there is no specific SPFL/SFA rule to cover this. However, there are rules which cover bringing the game into disrepute, not acting in the interests of the game or other clubs etc. Any of those could easily be adapted to cover this situation.
That is a fair point, and perhaps worth asking, but it's not a player eligibility breach. The simple fact is that all the talk/comparisons around fines and 3-0 to Killie, etc based on breaching player eligibility will not apply here unless there is a specific law relating to this - I don't believe there is and have been unable to find (or be shown) one. Player eligibility in the rules is around being registered to play and meeting player regulations (ie not being suspended, etc). There's nothing relating to legally meant to be somewhere else.
The issue as far as I'm concerned remains that they haven't written any of this into the rules and have left it as something to be worked out ad-hoc when the shit hits the fan. Typical SPFL to be honest, but even at that staggeringly incompetent.
It would be pretty straightforward to establish prior to season kick-off.
- Players, staff must adhere to government
regulations regarding CoVid
- If a player/staff member breaches government
regulations then penalty is ***
- Club is accountable for player/staff breaches of government
regulations and penalty for breaches is ***
Surely, given Nippy reference agreeing "rules" with the football authorities after the Aberdeen incident, they should've written them into the book? But no - apparently they thought they'd just manage to get by...
They also made a c@nt of it by postponing Aberdeen's game after that when they should've set the tone there and then. Give St J the points and lay the marker/precedent.