Peat makes fixture claim

FORMER SFA president George Peat claims a club chairman urged him not to help Rangers ‘in any way’ when the Ibrox outfit faced a fixture backlog in their UEFA Cup final season. Walter Smith’s side were competing on three fronts as an epic 2007-08 campaign approached its conclusion, having already

won the League Cup. They had two games in hand on their league rivals, with the finale for the SPL top-six delayed from May 18 to May 22 to enable all teams to finish on the same date. However, that still meant Rangers were unable to get time off prior to facing Zenit St Petersburg in Manchester and had to play five games in 11 days. Smith’s men lost the UEFA Cup final to the Russians and finished second to Celtic in the SPL, but won the Scottish Cup. Peat has now revealed he was dismayed by an attempt to persuade him to deny Rangers any kind of assistance. Asked in a BBC Scotland interview about disappointments from his time as SFA president between 2007 and 2011, he said: ‘There were certain things that disappointed me. One in particular. I remember when Rangers got to the final in Manchester. I got a phone call from a prominent chairman of a club requesting me not to help Rangers in any way. It so happened I’d already had a meeting with Lex Gold at the SPL. What we were willing to do was extend the season because of the fixture pile-up Rangers had. ‘I was most disappointed when I got back to the office to receive this call that asked me not to help them in any way. That really stuck in my throat. I just said no, I’m not doing it. The prominent club asked me not to (help Rangers) and I refused.’ Asked if he could name the club, Peat added: ‘I would rather not.’ After losing to Zenit on May 14, Rangers played rearranged league fixtures against Motherwell on May 17 and St Mirren on May 19. They then lost to Aberdeen on May 22 as Celtic defeated Dundee United to finish top of the SPL by three points. Two days later, Rangers beat Queen of the South 3-2 in the Scottish Cup final.