Following Celtic’s exit from the Champions League at the hands of Cluj, the Hoops will now need to qualify for the Europa League.
This will mean league fixtures being changed from Saturday, to Sunday. The first fixture to be affected is the upcoming home game v Hearts.
The Hoops announced the fixture change on the club’s Twitter account.
📅 FIXTURE CHANGE 📅
🆚 Hearts
🏆 Scottish Premiership
📆 25/08/19
🕒 3pm
📍 Celtic Park
(Previously Saturday, August 24) pic.twitter.com/UxKKkKdzVs— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) August 14, 2019
Unsurprisingly, the announcement did not go down well with a Celtic support still hurting at the 4-3 loss to Cluj. One fan even claimed not to want to be in the Europa League as they hated Sunday fixtures.
Here are some of the best reactions from social media to Celtic’s announcement:
To be honest hope were not in Europa league long hate Sunday fixtures
— kate dunbar (@katedunbar61) August 14, 2019
Brother coming over from Ireland, ticket bought, flies back 3:30 Sunday afternoon…. That'll be that wasted then.
— Rod Paradise (@Rod_Paradise) August 14, 2019
Aye, and the beauty of football Saturdays go out the window – replaced by ‘shall we drop points?’ anxiety…
— Gary Miller (@ewingcourt9) August 14, 2019
This is a joke i have booked tickets for me and my son for that game on the Saturday and made plans around that and a week and half before the game you change the kick off time
— Steven Nugent (@spiderlegs101) August 14, 2019
Disgrace
— Stevie Burns (@BurnsStevie) August 14, 2019
Lol no chance
— Cian (@cianc88) August 14, 2019
Cheers Lenny and Lawwell
— andy (@bathgatebhoy) August 14, 2019
It has to be said, the fans are correct to be upset. The Hoops should not have lost to what was an average Cluj side at best.
Hoops not guaranteed Europa League group stages
(Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
Now the club face an awkward tie to make the Europa League group stages, probably against AIK Stockholm.
The thought of playing on Thursdays and Sundays in the Europa League does not sound very tempting to Hoops fans at the moment.
Maybe that will change closer to the start of the group stages, should Celtic reach them. However, at the moment the Celtic support seems deflated after the exit to Cluj. It is easy to see why the Europa League does not appeal.
