The rearranged Glasgow derby of February 2 could be set for a further postponement due to international commitments.
Although not on the FIFA list of international dates there will be World Cup qualifiers being played in Asian with the African Nations Cup at the semi final stage.
If three players are away on international duty a club can apply for a postponement, as things stand three of Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s players are in the Nigeria squad while Tom Rogic and Kyogo Furuhashi are likely to be called up by Australia and Japan.
If Ange Postecoglou signed any players from the Japanese squad that could Celtic’s contingent upto three allowing them to call for a postponement.
The Sun reports:
With the winter break brought forward in Scotland, it means all three players (Balogun, Bassey, Aribo) could miss a host of Rangers’ games, starting against Aberdeen on January 18 and potentially extending until February 6 against Hearts, with the AFCON final on the same day.
Crucially, they would also miss the clash with Celtic on February 2, which is the same day as the first semi-final, if either Nigeria enjoy a good run in the tournament or if they have to self-isolate on their.
However, Rangers do have an option to ask for a postponement if the three players are called up for international duty in the final squad.
SPFL rule G7 state in their ‘Postponement and International Selection’ that a ‘club shall be entitled to apply to the Board for the postponement of any official match where three or more of its players who would otherwise have participated in such match are unavailable through international selection and, following receipt of such an application, the Board may postpone and rearrange the relevant official match in accordance with Rule G3.”
Beyond the first week in February the SPFL could struggle to find a spare date for the derby with UEFA competitions resuming and international dates set for March.
Sky Sports will have to be included in any discussion with the Glasgow derby the central point of their Scottish coverage, in season 2019/20 the broadcaster missed out on two derby clashes.
