Peter Lawwell has admitted that he is helpless when the SPFL come to scheduling fixtures.
A year ago the best paid man in Scottish football was left on the outside looking in as the SPFL re-arranged the semi-finals of the Betfred Cup to suit three clubs with one set of supporters left disadvantaged.
Hearts and Aberdeen fans made it known that they were unhappy with the scheduling of the matches with Aberdeen asked to go to Hampden too early and Hearts too late.
A week after the fixtures were announced, with many long distance Celtic fans making arrangements for a Sunday night match in Glasgow it was announced that the hoops would be kicking off at lunchtime in Edinburgh. Scotrail were overwhelmed with chaos at various stations along the Edinburgh line as fans scrambled to to see their team in action.
Despite Celtic voicing their concerns no explanation was ever made for the Celtic support being inconvenienced while the three other clubs virtually got what they wanted. At last year’s club AGM Lawwell laughed back at a fan saying ‘well that went well’ when he was asked why another Glasgow team got their semi-final played in the city while Celtic fans faced an additional 90 mile round trip.
Today there was a similar theme posted on the Celtic website about kick=off times. While Celtic and Hibs face a Saturday tea-time kick off at Hampden the other semi-final has a more gentle Sunday 3pm kick off.
Today’s Celtic stated:
The Club also wanted to take this opportunity to assure supporters that we will be doing everything we can to make sure our voice is heard in terms of scheduling matches.
There have been a number of scheduling issues raised by supporters groups recently including the confirmation of matches such as the Betfred Cup Semi-Final, with a Saturday 5:30pm kick-off and our SPFL match against Ross County in Dingwall having a 12noon kick-off on December 1. Clearly, these kick-off times are hugely inconvenient for supporters.
The issue of match scheduling has always been a complex matter. There are a number of parties involved in the scheduling of matches, including the SPFL, broadcast media partners and Police Scotland, all of whom have their own considerations.
After the semi-final draw is made all four competing clubs discuss with the SPFL the scheduling of the matches as well as ticket pricing and allocations.
It seems that the wishes of the Celtic support are completely ignored in this ‘complex matter’.
