Simon Jordan slams ‘stupidity’ of Celtic as club is affected by COVID case but accuses Nicolas Sturgeon of ‘cheap shot’

Simon Jordan hit out at Celtic for their ‘stupidity’ after going on a trip to Dubai but is hardly endorsing Nicola Sturgeon’s criticism of the club.

The Scottish First Minister announced quarantine exemption rules for elite sportsmen and women will be reviewed after news that Celtic revealed Christopher Jullien has tested positive for coronavirus following the controversial trip.

Celtic will be without 13 first-team players, as well as manager Neil Lennon and assistant John Kennedy for their Scottish Premiership clash against Hibernian on Monday as a result of the positive case.

Sturgeon made it clear how unhappy she was at Celtic going abroad as the UK battles the new variant of the disease and it’s been suggested the rule that elite sports teams are exempt from quarantine rules after travelling to foreign training camps could be changed.

She said: “One of the things we will be looking at is tightening up travel restrictions and one of the things out of this whole episode we will be looking at, in fact I know we will be looking at, is whether the exemptions from the quarantine arrangements for elite sport and perhaps some other sectors have to be tightened up as well.

“So I’m not saying that’s happening only because of the Celtic situation but certainly that situation underlines the importance of us doing that.

“Football and elite sport more generally enjoys a number of privileges right now that the rest of us don’t have. These privileges include the right to go to overseas training camps and be exempt from quarantine on return.

“It is really vital, obviously for public health reasons but I think also out of respect for the rest of the population living under really heavy restrictions, that these privileges are not abused.”

She said that it is not the Scottish Government’s role to give approval or not give approval to what a football team is doing but that it gave the footballing authority ‘clarity on what the rules were and are’.

Jordan also condemned the club for deciding to go on the trip as it ‘opened the door’ for Sturgeon to pile more criticism on them.

However, the talkSPORT host accused Sturgeon’s lastest criticism of being a ‘cheap shot’.

He told talkSPORT: “They’ve opened the door for her to do this. This is one infection. We’ve seen Aston Villa have a litany of infections, we’ve seen Derby have a litany of infections. This is one infection which could’ve been gotten anywhere.

“And the stupidity of it all is that football continues to be arrogant and opens the door to those who don’t understand it and they’ve given Nicola Sturgeon this opportunity. They’ve given her the opportunity to smash it and she’ll do it because of her own motivations for it.

“You can hear the disdain that she holds it in by saying ‘yet again, I’m in a situation where I don’t want to be talking about elite sports because she wants elite sports people to behave like elite sports people.’

“By being elite, it means operating in a fashion that’s above the norm. And that also means operating in that way when you’re asked to behave in a certain way.

“So she’s using it as a cheap shot, it’s a cheap shot. Celtic could have got that infection anywhere but because of the stupidity of it, they’ve opened that door to her.”