Scottish Government health official Jason Leitch has cautioned that August 1 is a very provisional date for football’s return. Scotland’s national clinical director also stressed that team training would not be allowed under current social restrictions. After talks with Professor Leitch and sports minister Joe FitzPatrick on Friday, the Scottish game’s Joint Response Group recommended lifting the suspension of all football activity from June 11. Scottish Professional Football League chief executive Neil Doncaster stated the Government had given the green light to resume football training in June, with a Premiership kick-off of August 1 now a “firm target”. However, Leitch clarified that training would be very limited during phase one of the route out of lockdown, which kicked in on Friday. Non-contact activities such as golf, tennis and physically-distanced, one-to-one training for athletes returned under the new guidelines. Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland’s Off The Ball, Leitch said: “I’m not sure people should write August 1 on their calendars quite yet. There’s a long way to go before August 1. “With a fair wind and the virus behaving itself, and of course the population behaving itself, there is reward to the two metres and there’s reward for not mixing your families because, if we do, we are going to go backwards.
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