“Either we’re very, very unlucky or someone’s making tricks behind the scenes,” Brendan Rodgers

One of the unwritten rules in Scottish football is that when Celtic have a league match at home theRangers are away and vice versa. The two clubs take it in turn having the opening fixture and the one around the end of the year.

Yet thanks to the Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers there’s one special rule that until today has slipped under the radar and that’s that theRangers have the luxury of a home match immediately following Christmas Day and of course that means Celtic are away from home.

We’re told we are paranoid but no Celtic supporter has noticed this until today. Here’s the situation dating back SEVEN years.

Celtic’s Post Christmas fixtures (2017-2023)

2017: Dundee (a)
2018: Aberdeen (a)
2019: St Mirren (a)
2020: Hamilton (a)
2021: St J (a)
2022: Hibs (a)
2023: Dundee (a)

theRangers’ Post Christmas fixtures (2017-2023)

2017: M’well (h)
2018: Hibs (h)
2019: Killie (h)
2020: Hibs (h)
2021: St Mirren (h)
2022: M’well (h)
2023: R County (h)

This came about because the game against Dundee at Dens Park has been moved forward to Boxing Day for television purposes and that means that for Celtic players and staff on Christmas Day the time available to spend with their families will be limited, not so of course for theRangers, for SEVEN years on the bounce.

Today at the end of his media conference Brendan Rodgers questioned why Celtic’s post-Christmas fixture is away from home for the seventh season running – with the manager saying it’s not right for supporters.

All the SPFL need to do to sort this out is give us an assurance that we’ll be at home after Christmas for the next seven years.

Have a listen to this…

This matter was discussed because the SPFL today announced their latest batch of fixture changes caused by the matches selected by Sky Sports for broadcasting.

These latest alterations as they affect Celtic are as follows:

Sunday 10 December – Scottish Premiership
Kilmarnock v Celtic – Live on Sky Sports, kick-off 12 noon

Tuesday 26 December – Scottish Premiership
Dundee v Celtic – Live on Sky Sports, kick-off 3.00pm

Tuesday 2 January – Scottish Premiership
St Mirren v Celtic – Live on Sky Sports, kick-off 5.00pm

Please note that Celtic v theRangers (Saturday 30 December, kick-off 12.30pm has already been confirmed as live on Sky Sports.

Here’s Brendan’s full media conference ahead of the trip to Easter Road, where his only fresh injury is Reo Hatate who looks like being missing for a number of weeks with a hamstring injury that the manager reckons is pretty bad.