Inverness Caledonian Thistle chief executive Scot Gardiner is calling for rule changes over shower facilities
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Inverness Caledonian Thistle chief executive officer Scot Gardiner has revealed he has asked for a rule-change to allow players to shower after matches.
Gardiner talked to league officials yesterday morning about the issue, which has come about because of Covid-19 guidelines.
Most clubs’ shower facilities are not built to allow for social distancing – which players must still adhere to while not on the pitch.
Goalkeeper Mark Ridgers called the rules diabolical when the season kicked off at the start of October, and there has been no change in the situation since.
The concern is that players will fall ill having to travel for hours after playing in potentially saturating and freezing conditions, with Caley Thistle naturally invested in a resolution with the amount of travelling they do on a regular basis.
But that is not Gardiner’s only concern.
“There’s an issue not only about travelling distances, but we’re also not able to have pre-match meals because a lot of places have shut down,” he explained.
“You’ve got no meal and no shower essentially and you’re travelling four hours there and back.
“That just about makes it inoperable for an athlete.
“We’re now having hotels cancelled because they have been shut down, and we’ve been unable to get a pre-match meal for certain games so far.
“We had to have our pre-match meal last Saturday – before we entered into Tier Four – at North Queensferry, because there was nothing we could get closer to Alloa.
“Now we find ourselves extremely stretched going to Greenock and Arbroath.
“I have spoken to the league, not just for ourselves but for everybody else too.”
Club forward Miles Storey shared Gardiner’s concern, adding: “We played last Saturday and got changed in a leisure centre just over the road with no shower facilities.
“It’s gross really, but it’s something you’ve got to do.
“Obviously with the long journey back up the road, it’s not nice, but I suppose that’s the way things are with protocols.
“We got away with it at Alloa because the weather wasn’t too bad. If it had been raining, I think it would have been dangerous really to come back in.”
