Real Betis President unhappy with UEFA scheduling ahead of Celtic visit

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Real Betis President Angel Haro wanted to move his club’s first UEFA Europa league clash to Celtic Park.

The Bhoys travel to Andalusia a week on Thursday for their Europa League opener [Celtic FC]. However, the La Liga club would’ve rather played their first game away from home.

Betis face Granada on Monday night at 10pm, with Celtic visiting three days later.

Oddly, Haro had hoped for a fixture swap, with Betis travelling to Celtic Park first. That way, they could’ve hosted Celtic in December, despite a less gruelling schedule.

However, Celtic and Rangers can’t both play at home simultaneously. It’s possible that Haro wanted to have their home game towards the end of the group, in order to seek an advantage.

The club’s President said [Sun]:

“The opening game of the Europa League is not to our liking because we wanted to play the first game away from home. We contacted UEFA and asked them to change fixtures so we would play Celtic in Glasgow first.

“But they informed us that Celtic and Rangers cannot play at the same time in Glasgow so the fixture remains as it was.

“Playing so late on a Monday is hardly ideal either. It means we have a very difficult schedule of La Liga games, Europa League games and La Liga games in a very short space of time.

“There’s no point crying about it as it’s confirmed now, but it makes it hard for us.”

It’s hard to know what’s going on with Real Betis and Celtic issues

What’s Haro trying to do here?

It’d be very odd to suggest changing the fixture on the basis of Betis wanting to add travel to their built-up week of La Liga and Europa League action. Surely, they’d want to avoid the hassle of flights and different time zones the same week they have a late-night, Monday match.

If anything, is it not an advantage being able to play at home first?

Unless Betis are arguing they should have the right to host Celtic when the group is nearly completed. That’d be unusual to say the least, and if that’s the case, it’s little wonder UEFA said no.

Whatever happens, the possibility of welcoming Betis fans to Glasgow, and a potential Seville return for Bhoys supporters, is a mouth-watering prospect.

It’s just the timing Real Betis don’t like.

In other news: Celtic fans’ new second club run out of merchandise