Premiership to go into cold storage but lowerleagues hope to play on
The SPFL Premiership will close down for more than a month before Christmas next year to accommodate the World Cup Finals in Qatar – whether or not Scotland qualify for the tournament for the first time in 24 years.
An unwillingness to fall foul of FIFA by scheduling matches in the face of competition from their flagship tournament was the main reason for that decision.
A Hampden source claims that there were pressing logistical reasons for shutting the top flight down next winter.
“We might not know until the end of March whether Scotland will have qualified – and we all hope that they will,” he said.
“If we waited until then to make an announcement, there wouldn’t be enough time for clubs to make their pre-season arrangements.
“So we chose to close the division down a week before the first game of the World Cup on November 21, and it will restart on December 17.”
With the final due to be played on December 18, the power brokers are clearly confident that Scotland won’t be involved!
Yet while the big guns will stand down, it’s understood that fixtures in the Championship, League One and League Two will continue as normal, much to the delight of some of those involved.
“I would agree with carrying on. I think it’s the logical thing to do,” said Allan Maitland, the chairman of Championship club, Hamilton Accies.
“There might also be the possibility of having some games covered by Sky, who don’t have the rights to broadcast World Cup ties.”
That’s an opinion shared by Queen’s Park chief executive, Leeann Dempster, whose club tops the League One table and is on course for a second successive promotion.
“We haven’t been informed of that yet, but if there was minimum disruption to our season then that would be great,” she claimed.
“I would welcome that, and hope that our clubs would benefit from more people coming through the turnstiles.
“While the World Cup would be running in the background, the Scottish public could enjoy the live experience on their doorstep.
“Obviously, we don’t know which division we’ll be in next year. But whether it’s the second or third tier, I don’t think that there would be any downside for us playing right the way through.
“It would be a good opportunity for the Premiership to discover how many fans turn up for games if they start their season during the summer.
“We had a meeting of all 42 clubs at the start of last week where that was discussed, but there was no real mention of the lower leagues at that point.”
Steve Clarke’s side are favourites to claim a play-off semi-final slot, and victory over Moldova in Chisinau on November 12 will guarantee that outcome.
But the identity of the countries who progress to the World Cup itself from the knock-out phase won’t be known until March 29.