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SOME CLUBS ARE FIZZING

FIELDING colt teams in the Irn-Bru Cup has taken a new twist.

The rules have been amended to allow the under-20 sides of Premiership outfits to include two over-age players in their ties that kick off next midweek.

When the 12 young sides were introduced to what was the Challenge Cup last season, they could only use age-restricted players.

However, after Celtic were the only colts team to progress to the third round, the rules have been relaxed.

The ruling was not in place when details of this season’s competition – including the participation of clubs from Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and Wales – were announced back in June. And no explanation has been provided to the SPFL member clubs over why the change has been brought in.

Clubs were advised of the alteration by e-mail at the end of last week.

An official at a League Two club, who preferred to remain anonymous, said: “You could be cynical and say this is an attempt to make sure more colts teams get through to the later stages.

“If this does not work, would it be changed to five over-age players next season?”

NEW LOW FOR SCOTLAND

SCOTLAND will fall behind both Haiti and Jamaica in the FIFA Rankings which will be released this week.

Gordon Strachan (above) is still in the hunt for Russia 2018 and face Lithuania in Vilnius at the start of next month.

And although they will remain in 58th place in the FIFA Rankings, they will embarrassingly be rated behind the likes of Caribbean minnows Haiti and Jamaica.

The Scots will also find themselves trailing Burkina Faso and Montenegro. They will be rated behind England (13th), Slovakia (22nd) and Slovenia (51st), who are in their World Cup group.

Scotland’s next opponents, Lithuania, will be 99th.