Sky Sports reporter takes Ibrox apologist Dickson to the cleaners over the 2008 SPL extension to Walter’s losers

Anthony Joseph has taken Andrew Dickson apart over his claims over the FACTS! Of the 2007/08 SPL season. 

This morning Giovanni van Bronckhorst called for the SPFL fixture list to be rearranged to suit his club’s Europa League schedule. 

Dickson quickly picked up on that with claims about the 2007/08 season when six clubs had their fixture list disrupted to assist Walter Smith’s UEFA Cup losers. 

Back in December 2007 Rangers had a match against Gretna postponed to give them extra preparation for a match against Lyon which they lost 3-0. 

That decision had a knock on effect on fixture congestion with a Scottish Cup tie at Ibrox strangely postponed due to waterlogging. 

Rather than fit games in the SPL pushed the final round of fixtures back from Sunday May 18 to Thursday May 22. 

Gordon Strachan’s side had to wait 11 days between their last two fixtures but fortunately justice was done when a goal from Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink beat Dundee United to win the SPL title for the hoops. 

The majority of Smith’s UEFA Cup losers had secondary agreements for disguised remuneration which was against the SPL and SFA rules with no Income Tax or National Insurance deducted. 

Four years later Rangers went into liquidation.  

The league season did get extended 14 years ago to help Rangers prepare in Europe – it finished on a Thursday night.

— Anthony Joseph (@AnthonyRJoseph) April 16, 2022

There’s only one team making Rangers play four game in eight days helped and it wasn’t Rangers.

— Andrew Dickson (@mrandrewdickson) April 16, 2022

Appreciate that’s not ideal. It still got extended, though, ending on May 22 – with Euro 2008 starting on June 7. Rangers also had a league game postponed earlier that season to help them prepare for a #UCL group game. Bit harsh to say there was no appetite to help.

— Anthony Joseph (@AnthonyRJoseph) April 16, 2022

As I say, only one team benefitted from RFC having to play so much in such little time. An association should look to help its teams if they are doing well in Europe, this didn’t do that. Extending only happened because it was unreasonable to fulfil fixtures in original schedule.

— Andrew Dickson (@mrandrewdickson) April 16, 2022