Latest News

Ange faces massive changes with UEFA shift

|
Image for Ange faces massive changes with UEFA shift

The seasonal pattern that Celtic fans have got used to is in for quite a jolt next season as the calendar adapts to a World Cup starting in November and running through until the final on December 18. 

To accommodate that there will be no January break in the SPFL with fixtures on hold between November 12/13 and December 24. 

That gap has a big knock-on effect with the most obvious being in UEFA competitions where Celtic are four points away from a return to the Champions League. 

A steady diet of midweek games between mid-September and early December with breaks for internationals will be altered next season with the six group stage matches played before the World Cup Finals intervenes. 

The Champions League dates are September 6/7, September 13/14, October 4/5, October 11/12, October 24/25 and November 1 and 2. Four Champions League matches over five midweeks is going to be very demanding. 

After gaining some momentum since 2016 with a November or December Final the League Cup is going to feel very strange next season. 

Celtic enter at the second round played on August 30/31 with the quarter-finals on the other October midweek 18-20 before things get very different. The semi-finals will be played on January 14/15 with the final on February 26. 

The one massive bonus is that if Celtic win the SPFL there will be no Champions League qualifiers but the two months before the World Cup break will be very demanding on Ange Postecoglou’s squad. 

NOTE: Celtic need four more points from three matches to book their place in the Champions League group stage. 

CLICK HERE for League Cup dates. 

CLICK HERE for significant dates. 

CLICK HERE for UEFA dates.

Videocelts Extension Button

Share this article

Joe McHugh has been Video Celts since 2010, every day covering events in and around Scotland's most successful club.
When a six year stretch at the Sunday Mirror came to an end it was clear that the future was digital, print had ran its race.
Smart phones and social media created a new landscape, Video Celts has certainly made an impact with Joe described as having an unhealthy obsession by Peter Lawwell at the 2024 Celtic AGM. A priceless endorsement, cheers big man.
There are issues breaking around the clock, no two days are the same more than 50 years on from his first match Joe is enjoying every success for Scotland's Most Successful Club.