Fixture list just too busy to help Celtic

SPFL chief executive Neil Doncaster has hit back at criticism from Celtic captain Scott Brown by insisting there is no room in the fixture schedule to give the Parkhead club a clear run at European games.

Brown berated the league’s governing body earlier this month after Brendan Rodgers’ side played three games in six days against Motherwell — including the Betfred Cup final — immediately before a seasondefining Champions League clash with Anderlecht at Parkhead.

Celtic lost 1-0 to the Belgians but still finished third in the group to squeeze into the last 32 of the Europa League to set up a double-header with Russians Zenit St Petersburg in February.

However, in response to Brown’s claim that ‘they (the SPFL) are supposed to be helping us’, Doncaster pointed out that there is little room for manoeuvre in the calendar to postpone matches over the remainder of the season.

And he claimed the logjam of meetings with Motherwell could not be avoided.

‘It is important to look at why that succession of three games happened,’ said Doncaster. ‘One was a league game, one was a rearranged league game and the other was a cup game. There is relatively little we can do to avoid instances like that happening from time to time.

‘We have a very congested fixture schedule and very limited control over a number of the dates, particularly the dates that are given to us by UEFA.’

Brown claimed he ‘wasn’t surprised’ at having to play three games in six days against the same team, between meetings with Paris Saint-Germain and Anderlecht, because ‘it’s the SPFL’.

The Scotland midfielder stated: ‘If you look at our schedule all the way through December as well, for (the SPFL) to throw an extra game in for us? They’re supposed to be helping us as well.

‘After winning a cup, you play the same team two-and-a-half days later. It shouldn’t happen.

‘We could play more games at the end of January or towards the end of the season, before the split. There will be plenty of time.’

Rangers had a match against Gretna postponed in 2007 to allow them greater preparation time for a Champions League meeting with Lyon.

However, asked if Celtic’s rearranged league fixture with Motherwell — played in midweek at Fir Park between the cup final and a Premiership clash at Parkhead — could have been held on a more suitable date, Doncaster was clear.

‘I think you would be hard pushed to identify a date that the match could have been relocated to without breaking into the winter break,’ he said.

‘We have a hugely-congested calendar post-Christmas and winter break. There are Scottish Cup games and matches in Europe and also cup replays and postponements due to weather.

‘We need to get games played before we split. Clearly, if clubs ever make applications to us to relocate games, we can have a look at it.

‘I suspect that in most cases, when clubs don’t make those applications, it is because they have gone through the fixture calendar and they can’t identify spaces to move those games to.’

Doncaster said he was delighted to see a Scottish representative in the last 32 of a European competition but admitted he has serious fears the entire game will collapse should UEFA fail to change the way they distribute finances across the continent.

This year’s Champions League opened up a clear divide between the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’, with Celtic’s 7-1 and 5-0 defeats by PSG repeated in other groups.

Doncaster was involved in the talks that preserved Scotland’s ‘Champions Route’ passage to the Champions League proper for the 2018-21 cycle, but the battle is far from over, with the top clubs forever threatening to break away from UEFA altogether.

‘Ultimately, football has to be about games where you don’t know the outcome in advance,’ he said. ‘We’re moving increasingly to a situation where groups feel and look more predictable.

‘I hope those involved in the discussions recognise we must have an element of unpredictability in group-stage games.

‘It is vital that Scotland retains the Champions (League) path. Huge amounts of broadcast money are coming into UEFA and it’s how the funds are distributed which is the main issue.’ l Neil Doncaster was speaking as the SPFL Trust launched Festive Friends, an initiative to provide free lunch, companionship and the means to get there at clubs across the country. The programme is this year being funded by the SPFL.

The schedule is congested. We have very limited control