There is no doubt the SPFL are under major scrutiny over how the Rangers Celtic match next month is going to be handled. That is, how are the governing body going to accommodate the rescheduled Dundee Rangers match.
It’s a major problem, kind of, given the Split is upon us and there’s a title on the line, easily the tightest title fight for years.
The problem they have is ultimately neither Old Firm side wants to have a game in hand after that match, so it’s better to get it ticked off prior to the Ibrox crunch match on April 7th.
It’s better to have everything reset fixtures-wise and be even-stevens going into the Govan match.
But that won’t be possible.
The only date in which there isn’t international football, fixture clash or Champions League TV clash is April 3rd, and of course that’s 4 days prior to Rangers Celtic.
That is not what Rangers want at all, the fresh week of prep before the borderline title decider is preferable given Celtic have one as well.
Which means it has to be the following week after the Old Firm.
But that means extra fixture congestion going into the Split and that’s unwanted as well.
It’s a headache, a real headache, all because of Dundee’s disgraceful conduct which left a match having to be postponed because the Dee reckoned the rules didn’t apply to them and they could easily just have the match at 3PM that day instead.
Logically-speaking, maybe, but unfortunately it was booked for Sky Sports whose schedule was already busy that afternoon with other live coverage so they couldn’t just dump something already scheduled.
So, in short, this has all fallen horribly, and not a single solution is actually ideal.
The only outcome we consider that could be possible and the fairest is scheduling this match for the end of the season when all other matches are done. And only ‘invoking’ it if the league hasn’t already been decided mathematically as it is.
In short, it can be left as an extra unschedulable (is that a word) match which could be saved for the rainy day of the league being undecided by the final match.
Because otherwise, it’s a congestion headache that doesn’t help Rangers one bit.