Preempting the announcement of the 2026/27 Premiership fixtures by an hour, Celtic released a statement outlining their ‘disappointment’ regarding the scheduling of the club’s opening Flag Day clash.
Celtic will host Dundee on Monday, August 3, for their opening match of the new season, meaning that once again, the reigning champions will not be the ones to kick off the overall SPFL campaign.
According to the club itself, this is a call out of their hands, and it’s a decision made, even though they tried to push back on it several times, by the SPFL and Police Scotland.
Now it has been shared that a reason why there isn’t a weekend slot available is because of ‘the Commonwealth Games and two Calvin Harris concerts.’
Celtic’s first five 2026/27 Scottish Premiership fixtures
Thoughts Celtic fans? 🤔
The Commonwealth Games and Calvin Harris concerts disrupt Celtic’s Flag Day
This isn’t the first time this has happened. It is rather annoying that not only do the champions of Scotland not kick off proceedings, but it’s also on a Monday evening.
As the club mentioned in their statement, this doesn’t help those supporters, and there is a large section of them, travelling from Ireland for this fixture.
That’s why the game against Dundee, which was set to be played at 8 pm, live on Sky Sports, will now kick off at 7:30 pm (BST).
The 2026 Commonwealth Games will take place in Glasgow, starting on Thursday, 23 July, and will commence on Sunday, 2 August.
Then you have Calvin Harris performing on home soil in what has been described as ‘two massive homecoming shows in Glasgow at Hampden Park.’
Once again, those shows will take place on August 1-2. Just bang in the middle when Celtic start the Premiership season.
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