SPFL should call time on this Celtic farce
SCOTTISH football is no stranger to farce.
But there’s one particular cock-up that keeps recurring – and must be dealt with immediately.
This SPFL rule which allows top clubs to postpone a league fixture to play glamour friendlies isn’t helping our game. It’s making us look like amateurs. I can see why Celtic wanted to play Inter Milan in the International Champions Cup.
There’s the high-profile opposition, the opportunity to mark the forthcming 50th anniversary of the two clubs meeting in Lisbon, and the money-making potential of the game being staged in Ireland.
But there’s no way the Hoops should have been allowed to cancel a Premiership clash with Partick Thistle in order to do it.
So who to blame? Ultimately, the buck stops with the beaks. More so than with any of their other crazy concoctions, the rule-makers need their heads looked at over this one. three years, his frustration seems even more understandable.
He must be absolutely fizzing at the SPFL – and rightly so.
But while the League must shoulder the lion’s share of the blame, I don’t think Celtic are beyond criticism here – and I say that as a Celtic supporter.
I’ll get stick for this from some of my fellow Hoops fans, but yesterday’s game is not something the club should have been involved in.
At best, it’s a distraction from the real task in hand – and I bet Brendan Rodgers feels the same way.
The fact that the team flew over the Irish Sea at 1.30pm yesterday – just five-and-a-half hours before kick-off – shows how seriously they were taking it.
With a vital Champions League play-off clash with Hapoel Be’er Sheva of Israel now just three days away, that’s perfectly understandable.
Celtic’s new manager has got two clear objectives this season – win the Premiership and get into the group stages of UEFA’s premier club competition
In order to play Inter yesterday, a Premiership game was postponed, and preparations for Wednesday night’s crucial first-leg were interrupted. That simply isn’t on. For me, the solution is simple – the SPFL must scrap this rule immediately.
It doesn’t help the Premiership and it makes Scottish football look like a Mickey Mouse affair.
If we want to be taken seriously, our game’s rulers must first take it seriously themselves.