View From The Field: Murray’s Matters (Joelle Murray column)

The SWPL was due to restart on 17 January after the winter break and was postponed to the end of the month at the earliest, a decision Hibernian’s captain thinks was right. Travelling the country and mixing with players from other clubs on the strength of a temperature check and a questionnaire was, she argues, unsafe; testing would be preferable but the majority of SWPL clubs, if not all, simply could not afford it. That leads her to a larger point about status: the authorities may see the league as professional, but its clubs range from amateur through semi-professional to professional, and she does not think it can honestly be classed as one thing. She notes that the WSL, which does test, has still seen a handful of postponements.