Last week the SPFL announced the post split fixture list for the remaining 5 games each club has to play in both the top and bottom six of the SPFL.
Meanwhile the Scottish FA finally got clarity on their own outstanding fixture dates when FIFA settled on dates for the Scotland v Ukraine World Cup playoff semi-final before the winner takes on Wales for a place in the Qatar Finals later this year.
Our @FIFAWorldCup Play-Off Semi-Final against Ukraine will be played on Wednesday, 1 June.
The winner of this match will face Wales in a Play-Off Final on Sunday, 5 June.
Tickets bought for the original Ukraine match remain valid.
➡️ More information: https://t.co/o9tIUubdPJ pic.twitter.com/4SDZo19LVp
— Scotland National Team (@ScotlandNT) April 14, 2022
A few weeks before that theRangers signed up to play in a friendly competition in Sydney, Australia during the break in club football in November as the focus turns to the World Cup. Having agreed to these fixtures theRangers shortly afterwards pulled out due to their fans revolting at the thought of being the support act in Ange Postecoglou’s homecoming tour.
Back in 2003 Celtic played Boavista in the semi-final of the UEFA Cup winning 1-0 to qualify for the final in Seville. Martin O’Neill had to get his players back to Glasgow as quickly as possible because there was a huge Scottish Premier League match at Ibrox that weekend against Rangers and there was no possibility of that that being moved to help the team playing in a European semi-final.
And for the final itself Celtic went to extra-time with Porto before losing out in the intense, energy sapping heat in Seville before having to return to play Kilmarnock that weekend in the final league match of the season which was essentially a shoot out to see which side could score the most to win the league on goal difference.
Celtic won 4-0 at Kilmarnock – some result after playing in the UEFA Final a few days earlier – but Rangers won 6-1 against Dunfermline at Ibrox and won the league title on the narrowest of margins.
Today theRangers manager has gone public on theRangers wanting to extend the season to suit theRangers. That is entirely unacceptable to the 80,000 Celtic supporters who were in Seville, and indeed the rest of the Celtic support who were not. It’s hardly likely to suit the Scottish FA either as they look towards the game against Ukraine at the start of June.
But watch now the hacks in the mainstream media and the blue-nosed pundits like Boyd, Rae etc hammer home the need to do all we can to support the Scottish team in Europa.
Not a chance, Celtic will agree to this and we need to be strong and vocal in our opposition. The fixtures have already been announced and Sky Sports – who do no broadcast European games – have already scheduled all Celtic and theRangers games in their broadcast output. They are hardly likely to change these plans so theRangers have many hurdles to overcome to change the dates and effectively extend the season.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst today said this: “We have seen in other countries dates and kick-off times moved to support clubs in Europe. We want to do the best for Scotland, hopefully, the league is also able to support us.
“The league would have to agree to move any fixtures, we will do everything we can to do so but we don’t have the final call.”
🎙️ GVB: We have seen in other countries dates and kick-off times moved to support clubs in Europe. We want to do the best for Scotland, hopefully, the league is also able to support us.
— Rangers Football Club (@RangersFC) April 16, 2022
🎙️ GVB: The league would have to agree to move any fixtures, we will do everything we can to do so but we don’t have the final call.
You can see the leagues all over Europe doing this to support their teams.
— Rangers Football Club (@RangersFC) April 16, 2022
