St Mirren manager Jim Goodwin has claimed that summer football should come to Scotland as his side could be set for two postponements in four days.
Goodwin’s match against Motherwell in the Scottish Cup on Saturday could be called off due to the continued rain. Motherwell manager Stephen Robinson admitted that it could be touch and go due to Storm Dennis (Daily Record).
Rangers vs Livingston was also postponed for 24 hours at the weekend, whilst Celtic have had to play in blistering conditions over in Clyde and up at Aberdeen in recent matches.
And Goodwin, speaking to the Evening Express, believes that the postponements and bad weather should lead to summer football down the line.
“I am a big fan of summer football. I understand the festive period is a big one in Britain because financially it’s great for clubs – you have people who maybe live abroad coming home at that time of year. But the reason we have the backlog of fixtures is because of adverse weather conditions.
“I would love to follow the League of Ireland. They started Friday and will play right through to October and be off November, December and January. It makes sense to me. The weather is bad in the months we find ourselves playing in.
“The attendances in Ireland have dramatically increased due to that better weather. I think that’s the route we are going to end up going down. In the next 10 years I can certainly see an argument for summer football.”
Great in theory, but European ambitions would be tarnished
That sounds ideal in theory, but it would be hugely detrimental to a club like Celtic who would have to play their European games in the middle of the off-season.
Goodwin states that we should have November, December, and January off. The Champions League, however, starts in mid-September. There were three group stage matchdays during the time that Goodwin would want off. It was the same for the Europa League too.
That would mean that every season we would be playing three massive European group games when the players are supposed to be taking a break. In addition to that, if we were to qualify for the latter stages, we would be playing the last-32 or last-16 matches right at the beginning of our season. That’s not ideal.
You can also flip it and say that would affect our league form too. If the season followed the League of Ireland and played from February to October, that would mean that we would have potential Champions League qualifiers right in the crunch end of a season at around July and August time.
Also – just what about our players who are potentially competing in international tournaments over the summer months? Have we to let them go and let it have a negative effect on our domestic success? It’s not as if the likes of St Mirren and Motherwell have these issues to worry about.
So it’s a thought full of good intentions by Goodwin, but unfortunately, it’s just not logical from a Celtic perspective. Plenty has to change before we even consider it.
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
