When the Scottish League fixtures were drawn up at the start of the season, all dates were agreed by all teams. The season would end on the weekend of the 18th of May, the weekend before the Scottish cup final, as it has been for over 100 years.
Now however, in a competitive league, one team has wrangled an extension of the League to help them out, but that doesn't seem to be enough, and they now want more favours to help them win it.
Rangers have a bit of a pile up of games, mostly of their own making. However, they want games moved, and the league extended to help them win it, to the detriment of every other club.
The Fixture Pile Up
Rangers like to point out one game, postponed in the new year as a mark of respect for Phil O'Donnell, as the cause of their pile up, and as such it wasn't their fault. But let's look at some of the real reasons.
In November, both Celtic and Rangers had games postponed due to a Scottish national game. Celtic rearranged their game for a midweek in December (incidentally they dropped points the Saturday after). Despite also having two midweeks free to play their game in December and another in February, Rangers choose not to. This game is still to be played.
Back in December, Rangers asked for a postponement of a game against Gretna FC in order to prepare for a Champion League tie against Lyon. This request was granted. This postponed game against Gretna could also have been played in the free February slot. Rangers choose not to play that game either.
At the same time, Celtic were getting on with their fixtures in both League and Champion League. Three days before Celtic played the reigning European champions AC Milan (and just three days after another Champions League game against Shakhtar Donetsk) they travelled to Hearts and dropped points.
Four days afterwards, they dropped more points to St Mirren. All the while, Rangers were having a rest preparing for their 3-0 defeat to Lyon. These points dropped, whilst Rangers were having their break, may prove to cost Celtic the League title, but that's the way the game works, and they played the games they were arranged to play.
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