Gers Meet SPL

[calscot 0]

Craig, I think they should give us assistance; however, picking and choosing games seems a dangerous road to go down. We will hopefully be playing important European games all season, like we were last season and so when we play Celtic is going to be a moot point.

 

They can certainly try to avoid the situation of last season when we played Celtic twice in a week when we also had a Euro semifinal. But I don't think we can tailor our fixtures to give us an easier ride when we have European games.

 

Three away games out of 4 sounds bad but it's only one off the normal two which is why I said it's hardly an anomaly. Four away games out of five starts to get a bit much.

 

You could, however, argue that we may have three easy home games in a month when we have other important Euro clash.

 

In the end I think, that apart from a few exceptions, and some sensible constraints, the fixture list should be fairly random.

 

I don't advocate running the fixtures through the computer multiple times until we see a version we like.

 

I do think we should have new rules to accommodate teams in Europe, like allowing them to forgo replays in the SCup. Teams still in Europe should also possibly get an extra "by" to one more round.

 

The season should start earlier to allow teams to get up to full fitness before qualifiers and this should also all them to play in better weather and help prevent fixture pile ups. More games before the winter means less games after. Rangers' fixture schedule from Feb onwards was outrageous.

 

To that end I would also have the League cup done and dusted by November which will also brighten up the mid season as well as rewarding early season form. However, it's main impact would again to be to stop fixture pile ups when there are postponements later due to the winter weather.

 

This way teams could probably afford to postpone a game or two when they think they need it for Europe.

 

So I'm all for helping teams in Europe, I just think messing with the fixtures is a step too far.

[craig 5,199]

I see exatly where you are coming from cal, exactly !! I can't disagree with any of what you are saying.

 

However, at this stage of drawing up fixture scheduling it is the ONLY time in the season when the authorities know for FACT dates of the Euro qualifiers, so they could assist all SPL teams who have qualifiers, not just Rangers.

 

After that point when you get to group stages etc it becomes far too messy to try to manipulate the fixture list and it is a case of tough luck.

[alexscottislegend 2,090]

Phil O'Donnell.

Of course. It was the missing apostrophe that threw me. Cheers.