Brazilian Posted April 10, 2011 Report Share Posted April 10, 2011 Do they not take the teams that finished top six last season and assume they will finish top six the next. seems they do, so much for wanting more competition if thats the assumption that a fair & balanced league is based on scotprem.com spoke to Iain Blair, the SPL’s Company Secretary, and as he explains, it is a crucial task for the SPL, but is one that is not without its challenges. “Putting together the fixture list has always been a complicated process but in recent years we have tried to do more to explain how it all works. There are always going to be issues and conflicts – that is one promise I can make! But if people understand the process they will be more likely to accept the outcomes.” What role do the clubs have in the process? “We have a group of club representatives who sit on the Fixtures Working Group. Celtic, Hearts, Hibernian, Kilmarnock and Rangers are all involved in this. They provide the SPL Board with their recommendations on issues like the start date of the season, how many midweek cards are to be used and what our priorities should be. “From there, the SPL Board will instruct Neil and me to prepare the detailed fixture list. So, while the clubs don’t get the chance to review their individual games, they do set our objectives and let us know what the key things are we need to try and avoid.” Is it true that a Canadian company are involved? “Yes. Optimal Planning Solutions are specialists in this territory. Their software helps create the fixture list for leagues across North America, Europe and Australia and this is the third year we have worked with them. “They have driven big improvements on how the fixtures are generated by allowing us to incorporate a range of different requests. They also programme in the level of priorities set by our clubs which the software takes into account when it creates the final fixture list. I am sure that the guys in Canada will also be looking forward to reading the latest conspiracy theories that will no doubt emerge about this year’s fixtures!” There was a lot of criticism about the post-split fixtures last year, has this been taken on board? “The split system does throw up issues and imbalances. These happen when a club who finished in the top six one year, finishes in the bottom six the next year or vice versa. But if Celtic, Dundee United, Hearts, Hibernian, Motherwell and Rangers finish in the top six this season then all clubs will play 19 home games and 19 away games. Also, if this happens, clubs in each half of the split will play their opponents twice at home and twice away. “Most of the games have also been reversed from last season. For example, the first Old Firm derby was at Ibrox last year, so this year it will be at Celtic Park.” Some clubs felt last year that they had a particularly difficult start to the season. Have you tried to avoid that? “We raised this one with the Fixtures Working Group and the Board. They were clear with their instruction to us that we should not be making value judgements on what we think is an easy game or what is a difficult one. That is not our job. So, no, we don’t build that into our system.” Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tweed Posted April 11, 2011 Report Share Posted April 11, 2011 Just wonder if they are going to release as late as possible and shaft over the teams who are being resistent to changing the league to hammer home the status quo is not an option. Call me a cynic if you like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy_P Posted April 11, 2011 Report Share Posted April 11, 2011 Sad as I am to have him amongst the folk I have a nosey about on Twitter but ESPN commentator Derek Rae suggested that: No announcement on SPL fixtures anticipated until later in the week Real Radio punter Mark Benstead reckoned that: what do you make of post split #spl fixtures - looks like someone is gonna get messed about. Does beg the question, what's the hold up? It was clear from last midweek that it was either going to be Inverness or Motherwell taking the sixth place, so what's the delay? Admittedly there's no immediate rush with it being Semi Final weekend this week but you might have thought that with a few days to play with even before the sixth place was confirmed there might have been a Set 1 with Motherwell included and a Set 2 with Inverness included sitting waiting to be announced. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kmcalpin Posted April 11, 2011 Report Share Posted April 11, 2011 Does beg the question, what's the hold up? It was clear from last midweek that it was either going to be Inverness or Motherwell taking the sixth place, so what's the delay? Admittedly there's no immediate rush with it being Semi Final weekend this week but you might have thought that with a few days to play with even before the sixth place was confirmed there might have been a Set 1 with Motherwell included and a Set 2 with Inverness included sitting waiting to be announced. The problem is Andy there is a rush. Clubs have to make arrange,ments for hospitality, policing and the likes. How can MFC sell hospitality packages if we don't know who were playing and when? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Craig Posted April 11, 2011 Report Share Posted April 11, 2011 Admittedly there's no immediate rush with it being Semi Final weekend this week but you might have thought that with a few days to play with even before the sixth place was confirmed there might have been a Set 1 with Motherwell included and a Set 2 with Inverness included sitting waiting to be announced. Whoa Andy, that sounds very much like common sense. The Ess Pee Ell will not tolerate talk like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Finlay Posted April 11, 2011 Report Share Posted April 11, 2011 I thought this would have been done today or tomorrow. Can't see what the hold up is. Oh, maybe waiting till Thursday till after the OF games have been played. Break the 'bad news' then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brazilian Posted April 11, 2011 Report Share Posted April 11, 2011 The problem is Andy there is a rush. Clubs have to make arrange,ments for hospitality, policing and the likes. How can MFC sell hospitality packages if we don't know who were playing and when? I'm surprised the delay in the announcement of fixtures hasnt received more press, and genuinely from fans that are planning their easter weekend. ( dare I say it a weekend that should be receiving promotions to boost attendances ) as such not letting fans know is the biggest crime in my eyes, but like you say, Dave, clubs need to know for commercial reasons as well therein lies the very thing that annoys me the most, the clubs are the SPL and everytime there is a complete shambles like this, and clubs suffer commercially, no one is answerable. but hey the have the best programmers utilising the best equipment in place to schedule 5 rounds of games, Queue the almost guaranteed fuk up, with no justifiable reasons, that question the competitions integrity and commercial imbalance that leads to at least one club losing out in fact like Tweed I love a conspiracy, who will they shaft the most to get the ten team vote through Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelboy Posted April 11, 2011 Report Share Posted April 11, 2011 they pretty much had to announce the old firm game early as you could hardly spring it on the polis with only a couple of days notice. i've got a feeling we'll be playing rangers at home on the final day. i think the spl will be doing everything they can to avoid a scenario where a team can qualify for europe by losing their last match which could happen if we get to the final or the 4th place team need rangers to win the league. i wouldn't be suprised if we get both the old firm at fir park and the other teams away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Finlay Posted April 11, 2011 Report Share Posted April 11, 2011 Seems about right to me steelboy. Still think that last game could be meaningless right enough......well as far as the Championship goes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Well_Jaggy Posted April 11, 2011 Report Share Posted April 11, 2011 I think we have already had 17 home SPL matches this season, so we will probably only get 2 more at home post split. we should get 3 to make up for missing one last season, but fairness doesn't seem to be top of the SPL's agenda. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuwell Posted April 11, 2011 Report Share Posted April 11, 2011 I think we'll get celtic, united and hearts away with killie and rangers at home. I also agree that we'll get rangers on the last day with celtic playing away to killie. The different options for the spl are a right headache due to killie being due both rangers and celtic at rugby park but I think the rangers game will be switched along with a few others to make it happen. whatever the fixtures are I'm sure ever club will be moaning about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LadywellToi Posted April 12, 2011 Report Share Posted April 12, 2011 I think we have already had 17 home SPL matches this season, so we will probably only get 2 more at home post split. we should get 3 to make up for missing one last season, but fairness doesn't seem to be top of the SPL's agenda. Didn't we get Rangers on Boxing day with Sky at 3pm as the acknowledgement of our unfair end to last season? The SPL probably think we're even, only thing that will help us is the hissy fit we had last season and the presumption you shouldn't be penalised 2 years in a row. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnstone Posted April 12, 2011 Report Share Posted April 12, 2011 We can moan all we like about the fixture headache that the top six split makes, but at the end of the day all SPL clubs agreed to have this split so thats the way the cookie crumbles. My only gripe with it is that Rangers and Celtic always get the fixtures in their favour and not vice versa. But whats new eh? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuwell Posted April 12, 2011 Report Share Posted April 12, 2011 I can see us getting Celtic away early on because if we do reach the final (still a big assumption), I don’t think the SPL will want us to play them the second last game of the season in case a Celtic win gave them the league. We could then be accused of throwing the game to ensure European football - which wouldn’t be fair on the players. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rambunctious Posted April 12, 2011 Report Share Posted April 12, 2011 I just hope we get United at home Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperCC Posted April 12, 2011 Report Share Posted April 12, 2011 I can see us getting Celtic away early on because if we do reach the final (still a big assumption), I don't think the SPL will want us to play them the second last game of the season in case a Celtic win gave them the league. We could then be accused of throwing the game to ensure European football - which wouldn't be fair on the players. So what your saying is that we have to throw that game sooner rather than later and then really make an effort against the other lot!! Poor McCalls going we be well confused!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
well_nuts Posted April 12, 2011 Report Share Posted April 12, 2011 When are the fixtures announced? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weesacs Posted April 12, 2011 Report Share Posted April 12, 2011 Stuwell - i would happily throw a game if it meant we would get into Europe Can you imagine if this scenario happened - we beat Celtic, they lose the league, and because of that we are £???k worse off Money talks - if this situation actually arose - can you seriously fault Motherwell for NOT winning the game? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LadywellToi Posted April 12, 2011 Report Share Posted April 12, 2011 So what your saying is that we have to throw that game sooner rather than later and then really make an effort against the other lot!! Poor McCalls going we be well confused!! We could win the Scottish Cup and it's all irrelevant. I would hope the SPL have taken all these factors into account when they publish the fixtures. I remember when they used to show Italian football on C4, right at the end of the season there was a game between AC Milan and some other team (Brescia I think), both teams needed a point, Milan to win the title and the other to remain in the Serie A. Needless to say it was a complete travesty of a game and utterly corrupt, Peter Brackley was going mental commentating, however out the blue AC Milan scored and the other team look bemused as if to say "hey that's not what was agreed", they duly kicked off, cut through Baresi, Costcurta, etc. like a hot knife through butter and scored 30 seconds later. I've rarely ever seen a host look so embarrassed and apologetic afterwards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sbcmfc Posted April 13, 2011 Report Share Posted April 13, 2011 You often find when a result suits both teams, that's the way it turns out. The day we beat Celtic to hand rangers the title, hibs could afford to lose by 1 goal if I remember right, and rangers just needed to win if Celtic slipped up. The last 5 minutes were a farce, apparently dado prso was dancing in the centre circle during the game. One of the reasons final games are played at the same time, to limit these situations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave87 Posted April 13, 2011 Report Share Posted April 13, 2011 according to the beeb and st mirren's official twitter page the fixtures are to be announced tomorrow morning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ya Bezzer! Posted April 13, 2011 Report Share Posted April 13, 2011 I can see us getting Celtic away early on because if we do reach the final (still a big assumption), I don’t think the SPL will want us to play them the second last game of the season in case a Celtic win gave them the league. We could then be accused of throwing the game to ensure European football - which wouldn’t be fair on the players. Unless I'm missing something I don't see how the timing of the fixture really changes anything. We have next to no chance of finishing Top Four so we basically want Celtic to win the league to have any chance. That doesn't change if we play them first game after the split, in the middle or last. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuwell Posted April 13, 2011 Report Share Posted April 13, 2011 Unless I'm missing something I don't see how the timing of the fixture really changes anything. We have next to no chance of finishing Top Four so we basically want Celtic to win the league to have any chance. That doesn't change if we play them first game after the split, in the middle or last. If we lose to celitc early on it wouldn't mean they would win the title as other results could change that but if we play then in the second last game and they need only to win or draw against us to be sure of the title it could be seen by some that we threw the game. I'm not saying we would as I believe that players have enough pride in themselves not to do it but the accusation could still be made and I think the SPL would look to avoid that when arranging the fixtures - the same as they don't have one of the OF playing at home on the last day to avoid the accusation of giving them home advantage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian-in-Oz Posted April 13, 2011 Report Share Posted April 13, 2011 Let's just see what teams are in the final before debating the importance of league results. If St Johnstone or Aberdeen make the final then our league game against Celtic means hee haw no matter when it's played. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toxteth O'Grady Posted April 14, 2011 Report Share Posted April 14, 2011 They're being published at 11am apparently. Seemingly we are at Parkhead on the last day of the season Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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