FIFA has taken drastic steps in a bid to lessen the impact of the coronavirus pandemic in a move which will see Rangers demands met.
Football’s governing body has already called for the 2019/20 season to be lengthened indefinitely so that fixtures can be completed and so that sporting integrity is maintained across leagues around the world.
They have now released further details on what had always been a sticking point for the game continuing late into the summer, player contracts, although UEFA postponed the 2020 European Championships to allow domestic football to be played into June and July, this had always been the main issue.
FIFA has stated that all player contracts that were set to expire – including loan deals – will now be honoured up until the end of the 2019/20 season, whenever that may be in each respective league with no specific dates being set.
Florian Kamberi and Ianis Hagi will now get the opportunity to clinch permanent deals at the club and with the latter having an exclusive option to buy in his contract, the Romanian international’s is the most likely transfer to be made.
Additionally, the transfer window will now open and close between the last day of 2019/20 season and the start of 2020/21, again, no specific date is given because it would be impossible based on each countries own fight against the virus.
With UEFA and FIFA singing firmly off the same song sheet it now looks as though the SPFL fixtures will be completed as originally demanded by Rangers and Hearts despite recent claims by the BBC that awarding positions based on the current table was almost a done deal.
The SPFL would be strongly advised to heed UEFA’s warnings towards both the Dutch and Belgian leagues who have looked to finish their respective seasons early with the threat of continental football being withdrawn.
After a continuous demand since football was halted from ex-Celtic players and several media personalities for the Parkhead side to be awarded the Scottish Premiership trophy it now looks as though they will have to do it the hard way, by actually winning the league.