Why did the SPL not allow a delay to the kick-off?
The postponment has caused anger and frustration for both teams and supporters with the game called off two hours before kick-off.
A statement on the Caley Thistle website said: “Before the referee’s verdict, the club had tried to contact the SPL to have the kick off delayed by an hour until 1pm, and Celtic indicated that this was suitable to them. Unfortunately this was not possible.”
It is not clear whether the SPL turned down the request or more worryingly no-one at the SPL was available to make a decision.
The reasons for the postponement are unclear and with no explanation coming from the SPL the matter gets more and more mysterious.
It seemed an ordinary drizzly day in the Highland capital this morning with not a thought about a potential postponement of the crucial SPL clash.
Out of nowhere an inspection was called for 10am and in next to no time it was GAME OFF- in April.
By now the weather was brightening up, the skies were turning blue and a postponement seemed bizarre.
The SPL website decided not to enlighten the people that keep the match alive with the twitter Celtic community outraged by the postponement two hours before kick-off.
The timescale of the postponement is unknown with both clubs criticising the decision to call them game off at such notice. It appears that referee Craig Thomson did not stay overnight in Inverness to allow an early morning inspection.
With the SPL split scheduled for the weekend of April 24/25 options are limited when the game can be played with Motherwell and Caley Thistle both fighting for the lucrative sixth place in the table.
Celtic were first to criticise the postponement with Peter Lawwell concerned that for the second time in a month supporters had made a wasted journey.
The Celtic chief said: “This is the fourth time we’ve been up here, and the second postponement we’ve had. There is now the real prospect of fixture congestion in having to re-arrange this game again.
“Clearly something is wrong with the drainage of the pitch, when the rain doesn’t start till the early hours of the morning, and then with eight hours of rain the game is called off. I know it’s something the groundstaff at Inverness are already looking at.
“This is the beginning of April and we’re still getting games called off, and in top-flight Scottish football, some overnight rain shouldn’t cause a match to be called off.”
Most of the criticism was aimed at Caley Thistle but the club came back with a robust defence of the events and timescale of the postponement.
Caley stated: “The facts of the matter are that heavy overnight rain caused a major problem to our playing surface. By 8:00am it was unplayable but with a good short-term weather forecast, we felt the game could go on.
“We asked the referee to wait another half hour, which we are positive would have made all the difference in fast-improving conditions, but at 9.45am he called the game off.
“The pitch was playable within the hour and we feel the game could have been played had we had the opportunity to delay the inspection, however we do appreciate the referee had to make his decision on the prevailing conditions at the time.
“Before the referee’s verdict, the club had tried to contact the SPL to have the kick off delayed by an hour until 1pm, and Celtic indicated that this was suitable to them. Unfortunately this was not possible.”
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