Old Firm could be pushed back to after split

RANGERS and Celtic could play as many as 32 fixtures before the summer when Scottish football returns this month.

Both Glasgow clubs face relentless fixture schedules as they compete in the Scottish Premiership, Scottish Cup and European competition.

The winter break, which was brought forward by the SPFL amid Scottish Government curbs on fan capacity, has left little room for recovery for Rangers or Celtic should they progress in domestic and European cup competitions.

SPFL chief executive Neil Doncaster had warned that the shifted pause in fixtures had left no wriggle room for further matchday amendments – and a closer look at the scheduled fixture list prove his worrying admission to be accurate. Should Rangers and Celtic progress in their Europa League and Europa Conference League endeavours then they will be without a free midweek until mid-April – which falls after the Scottish Premiership split.

The only other down time for the Glasgow rivals would be in mid-March when Scotland compete for a spot in the World Cup with a play-off semi-final and possible final scheduled for Thursday,

March 24th and Tuesday, March 29th. However, Celtic could attempt to postpone the February 2 Old Firm fixture under SPFL rule G7 concerning unavailable international players.

Rule G7 of SPFL handbook states: “A club shall be entitled to apply to the board for the postponement of any official match where three or more of its players who would otherwise have participated in such match are unavailable through international selection and, following receipt of such an application, the board may postpone and rearrange the relevant official match in accordance with Rule G3.”

The rule could be targeted if Celtic are keen on a changed matchday as they could be without Japanese quartet

Kyogo Furuhashi, Daizen Maeda, Reo Hatate and Yosuke Ideguchi as well as Australia internationalist Tom Rogic.

The fixture list does not have free slots to re-arrange the match before April 19/20, which would mean moving a pre-split fixture to a post-split date.