Steve Clarke has had his say on whether a full round of Scottish Premiership fixtures in March should be postponed.
SFA President Rod Petrie has apparently tried to encourage clubs and TV bosses to come to an agreement in order to help the Scottish national team. According to the Scottish Sun, however, it won’t happen due to the complexity of the fixture schedule.
Scotland are set to play a playoff semi-final on March 26th, with the final on March 31st should they succeed. Clarke will be looking to end a 22-year wait for qualification to a major tournament with Scotland. However, there’s also a full Premiership card of fixtures on the weekend of March 21st, with Celtic at home to St Johnstone.
Clarke, however, told BT that everything that can be done to help should be done.
“You want the governing body to do all they can to help. Everyone understands there may be some restrictions in there but where there is a will, there is a way.
“But for now the most important thing for me is to concentrate on the game tomorrow night and make sure we have a good win and good performance.
“I think this is more a discussion for afterwards, when we have the play-off draw and everyone knows if it is two home games or a home game and away game.”
A postponement could leave Celtic with a ridiculous schedule
Should the March 21st weekend of games be postponed, Celtic could be facing a nine-game schedule in April.
Assuming Celtic qualify for the Europa League quarter-finals and the Scottish Cup semi-final, we would be playing at least eight games in that month if the St Johnstone clash was rescheduled.
That could lead to a nasty fixture list as we enter crunch-time in the season. Neil Lennon won’t want his players being overworked and stuttering in matches due to fatigue.
As things stand, Celtic only have one match booked in for April at Easter Road. When the split is announced, however, that will bulk up. Both quarter-final legs of the Europa League and the semi-final first-leg will also take place that month (UEFA). The Scottish Cup semi-finals, meanwhile, will be another match for Celtic to tackle (SFA).
It’s best that the SFA allows the Scottish Premiership to continue at its normal rate come March. We never know how many matches could be needing postponed during the winter period too. There’s no point adding to the backlog.
If Scotland don’t qualify, it won’t be because our teams played a full five days before the playoff encounter. If the SFA are looking to help Clarke, they should find another idea.
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