A NEW SEASON AND SOME NEW CHALLENGES TO OVERCOME...
A NEW season of Scottish football was laid out in yesterday’s publication of the SPFL fixtures, with the Premiership incorporating a five-week winter shutdown due to the Qatar World Cup. Celtic will raise the title flag when they host Aberdeen on Sunday, July 31. Rangers begin their campaign with a trip to Livingston the previous day, while newly-promoted Kilmarnock kick off with a home match against Dundee United. The first Old Firm game of the season is at Celtic Park on the weekend of September 3/4. Easter Road plays host to the first Edinburgh derby in the second round of Premiership fixtures on August 6/7. Sky Sports’ selections for August will be confirmed soon. The Premiership will have a later finish than last season and halt between November 12 and December 17. A full card has been pencilled in for Christmas Eve, including a long trip up to Dingwall for Rangers fans. SPFL company secretary and director of operations Calum Beattie is in charge of the fixture process, worked in conjunction with US software firm GotSoccer, and explained some of the issues.
■ HOW BIG AN IMPACT DOES THE WORLD CUP HAVE ON THE SCHEDULE?
‘It certainly makes life challenging but leagues across Europe have been planning around the winter World Cup for some time. ‘The cinch Premiership season will end two weeks later than last year, with the top-flight clubs taking a break for the majority of the World Cup. We will have 16 fixture rounds before the World Cup begins on Monday, November 21, including one midweek card. ‘The change to the UEFA calendar has freed up a midweek date at the end of August, which will be used for the last 16 of the Premier Sports Cup. The other divisions will play through the World Cup, with some SPFL Trust Trophy ties also scheduled during that period.’
■ WHAT ABOUT EUROPEAN DATES FOR 2022/23?
‘UEFA have had to condense the group stage of their three competitions so that they finish before the World Cup. Some UEFA matchdays are therefore back-to-back midweeks, so we had to be mindful that, for example, Heart of Midlothian could be playing in Europe on Thursday and domestically on Sunday. In those weeks they couldn’t therefore play Celtic (or potentially Rangers), who might have a Champions League fixture on the Tuesday following the Sunday.’
■ WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES WHEN COMPILING THE FIXTURES?
‘Cross-divisional constraints are probably the biggest issue. We have managed to limit the Dundee/Dundee United clashes to one in January, which might be taken care of by TV. Ross County and Inverness Caledonian Thistle are traditionally at home on alternate weekends and we have kept the clashes to two. ‘With Cove Rangers now playing in the cinch Championship, we have also limited the number of occasions they are at home on the same day as Aberdeen. In addition, we had to take into account the groundshare between Hamilton Academical and Clyde at New Douglas Park.’
■ WHAT GOES INTO THE FIXTURE RECIPES?
‘Many things. All clubs have three home and three away games in their first six fixtures. The “big city” clubs generally don’t play at home on the same day, although there are two clashes in Edinburgh in the second phase of the cinch Premiership, largely because Heart of Midlothian and Hibernian both have six home games across those 11 fixture rounds. ‘Clubs which are at home on Christmas Eve will be away on January 2 and vice versa. ‘We try to minimise travel around the festive period but unfortunately this is not always possible. If we solve one issue it can tend to give us problems elsewhere in the fixture list. As ever, it is a difficult balancing act.’