Shrewsbury Town avoid any EFL Covid-19 protocol breach fines
Shrewsbury Town were not hit by an EFL fine due to having a number of fixtures postponed last season due to a Covid-19 outbreak, it can be revealed.
The League One club were left catching up fixtures at the mid-point of last season as, around the turn of the year, a widespread outbreak saw a significant number of players and football staff, including boss Steve Cotterill, test positive.
Cotterill would go on to miss the entire remainder of the season and only return to work on July 1, while the team returned to action in a rescheduled FA Cup tie on January 19 after 21 days out of action.
League One rivals Accrington Stanley this week revealed they were fined £7,000 after four losing games to the pandemic last October. The club’s owner Andy Holt suggested all clubs received fines following investigations, but Shrewsbury chief executive Brian Caldwell says an investigation into the club’s Covid-19 protocols found no wrongdoing.
Caldwell told the Shropshire Star: “All clubs who had matches cancelled during the 2020/21 season through Covid were investigated.
“Shrewsbury Town FC went through the full investigation, however STFC were proved to have carried all protocols in the correct way and no charges were administered to the club.”
Stanley chief Holt admitted the sanction against his club was ‘hard to take’.
