The SPL have announced that the premier league will kick-off earlier than ever next season on 23rd July 2011. Clubs will also be able to postpone one fixture in order to appear in friendlies.
The early kick-off has been decided upon in order to prepare Scottish clubs for their European campaigns. Scottish clubs will now have more competitive football under their belts before their first euro ties. Although this season that wasn’t such an issue for Rangers who started their Euro campaign in September.
An SPL statement about the early start read: ‘An earlier start date is an important part of the SPL’s strategic plan for Scottish football and should mean that SPL clubs involved in European qualifiers in July enter those games better prepared. A July start date will also reduce the number of midweek games in the Clydesdale Bank Premier League during the winter months.’
In this first season that the league will kick-off early, the SPL will allow each club to cancel one league fixture to fulfill pre-season friendly obligations. It sounds like a bizarre set up to me, I mean you could have Rangers missing two games in a row say if we postpone one in the first weekend and if Hearts for example want to cancel one the next week when they were due to face Rangers.
What if the SPL don’t allow Hearts to cancel their fixture with us because we had one postponed the previous week? Or if they let Hearts do it but then they don’t let Celtic do it? This will surely start consipracy theories.
And how much notice do they need to give? What if sky or espn had picked that game as their televised game and then midweek before the game the club decides they want to postpone. Could the be breaching the contract?
I’m not really sure if the SPL have thought this one all the way through but what do I know. I guess I probably don’t know all the facts, but it just seems a bit strange.
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