THE Scottish Premier League is to explore options to help ease Rangers' congested fixture schedule despite rejecting a request from the Ibrox club to have Saturday's game against Dundee United postponed.
Walter Smith's side saw Celtic move further ahead in the title race at the weekend as Rangers were held to a goalless draw at Hibernian.
But, after reaching the Uefa Cup final last week, Rangers have asked for special dispensation with regard to a
crammed fixture list before the end of the SPL season, which is currently scheduled for Thursday, 22 May – two days before the Ibrox side play Queen of the South in the Scottish Cup final at Hampden.
The SPL turned down yesterday's request to postpone Saturday's match at Ibrox against Dundee United, but it is understood that the governing body for the top flight will continue to assess potential options to help the Glasgow side.
A spokesman for the SPL said: "We have received a request (from Rangers]. At the moment, the request has not been acceded to.
"We put in place two schedules on the basis of Rangers reaching, or failing to reach, the Uefa Cup final. We are keen to have all SPL clubs finish at the same time, in order that no-one has an advantage. Postponing Saturday's game would have a knock-on effect. We would have to move all the top-six fixtures to end the season with all teams playing at the same time."
Smith criticised a perceived lack of support for his team with regard to fixtures after the 0-0 draw at Easter Road on Sunday. Coupled with Celtic's win at Motherwell on Saturday, Rangers have seen a strong position at the SPL summit turned into a seven-point deficit behind the Parkhead club, although the Ibrox side have three games in hand.
It is those games in hand, however, which have produced the current furore. The tragic death of Phil O'Donnell while playing for Motherwell in December plus the alarming disrepair of the Fir Park pitch saw a backlog created for Rangers, although two Scottish Cup replays and the postponement of other matches has not helped the team's cause.
Rangers' opponents in the Uefa Cup final, Zenit St Petersburg have been excused league duties ahead of the final in Manchester a week tomorrow by the Russian Football Federation. However, the season in Russia is only weeks old, meaning the option to rearrange matches has acceptable consequences.
Choices for the SPL seem limited,with an extension beyond the Scottish Cup final appearing to be the only possible conclusion. A further statement is expected from the SPL today.
Believe it or not, Celtic can win the league this weekendGlenn Gibbons
Chief football writerTHE edginess that seems to have afflicted Rangers in recent weeks is unlikely to be stilled by the realisation that Celtic could win the Clydesdale Bank Premier League championship as early as Sunday. It is a possibility that has arisen almost unnoticed, like a mugger padding towards a victim from behind.
A widespread pre-occupation with the Ibrox team's matches in hand, together with an assumption that they would win them, has tended to lend a sense of artificiality to the lead their fiercest rivals have established, even the Parkhead side's successive victories in the last two Old Firm matches apparently insufficient to dispel the impression of Rangers as notional champions-elect.
The scoreless draw with Hibernian at Easter Road on Sunday, however, has clearly brought awareness of the closeness of the duel for the title; Celtic's seven-point advantage suddenly appearing much more formidable than before.
It is, indeed, so useful that, if Walter Smith's team lose both their matches this week – at home to Motherwell tomorrow night and Dundee United on Saturday – and Celtic beat Hibs on Sunday, the latter will retain their title, ten points ahead with Rangers having just three fixtures remaining.
While this outcome looks improbable – and anyone betting on it will be offered handsomely rewarding odds – it is self-evidently not impossible.
Rangers' progress in the cup competitions at home and in Europe has almost certainly deflected attention from domestic form that has been both unimpressive and damaging. Only two points have been garnered from their last four league matches, which include the losses to Celtic and draws with Dundee United and Hibs.
In fact, they have won only two of their most recent ten games – against Sporting in Lisbon in the Uefa Cup and Partick Thistle at Firhill in the Scottish Cup. Their failures have included the draws with United in the CIS Insurance Cup final, St Johnstone in the Scottish Cup semi-final and Fiorentina in the European semi-final, all settled in their favour in penalty shoot-outs.
In those ten matches, too, they have scored just 11 goals, in four of them failing to find the net. It is a run that is reminiscent of Celtic's difficulties through March and the first week in April, when the Parkhead side seemed to be caught in a downward spiral, seemingly helpless in the matter of avoiding damage even in matches in which they were largely dominant.
During that desperate period, Gordon Strachan's team achieved one victory from seven outings – by 3-0 over Gretna at Almondvale – and failed to score in five of them. These included the defeats by Barcelona, Aberdeen, Rangers and Motherwell and a 0-0 draw with Dundee United that brought their elimination from the Champions league and the Scottish Cup and the loss of eight league points.
The reversal of fortunes began with the 4-1 victory over Motherwell at Fir Park, since when they have completed a five-timer that includes the double over Rangers, a home win against Aberdeen, and another at Motherwell last Saturday. The run has also yielded 12 goals, with five conceded, helping the Parkhead side to extend their goals difference superiority over Rangers to eight.
Smith will be more cognisant than anyone of the need to pull out of the dive, but, in these circumstances, the controls are not always immediately responsive. And the manager's attack on the SPL fixtures planners in the wake of the Easter Road match hints at the onset of a certain anxiety.
Smith's renowned sangfroid should not be mistaken for insensitivity. He will surely be feeling that his team have not been accorded the credit they deserve for their efforts this season, his understandable pique prompted by regular criticism of the defensive, generally uninspiring, style they have adopted.
But, as with the vast majority of managerial outbursts, Smith's is flawed by self-interest. It is, for example, quite irrelevant to compare the League's sanctioning of Celtic's bringing forward their match with Dundee to allow them more time to prepare for the 2003 Uefa Cup final.
Five years ago, there was a blank midweek, Dundee were amenable to the switch and it is much easier to bring a fixture forward at the end of a season than it is to put one back. As for the SPL's four-day extension to the present campaign, the chairman, Lex Gold, and the secretary, Iain Blair – the men responsible for the re-arrangement – insisted that they had to consider their other members, to save those clubs from having to wait 17 days between their penultimate and their final outings.
Despite the popular perception of a European final as a fillip for the entire country, executives of leagues and national associations will invariably make their own flagship tournament their priority, because that is their primary remit.
Rangers' schedule over the next 16 days – five league matches and two cup finals – is unquestionably more demanding than any club would consider ideal, but it is the consequence of a conspiracy of circumstances, rather than a plot to ensure their downfall.
RANGERS' LAST TEN GAMES• Hibernian 0, Rangers 0
Premier League, 4 May
• Fiorentina 0, Rangers 0
(Rangers win 4-2 on pens)
Uefa Cup semi-final, 1 May
• Celtic 3, Rangers 2
Premier League, 27 April
• Rangers 0, Fiorentina 0
Uefa Cup semi-final, 24 April
• St Johnstone 1, Rangers 1
(Rangers win 4-3 on pens)
Scottish Cup semi-final, 20 April
• Celtic 2, Rangers 1
Premier League, 16 April
• Partick 0, Rangers 2
Scottish Cup quarter-final, 13 April
• Sporting 0, Rangers 2
Uefa Cup quarter-final, 10 April
• Dundee Utd 3, Rangers 3
Premier League, 6 April
• Rangers 0, Sporting 0
Uefa Cup quarter-final, 3 April
Played 10, won 2, drawn 6, lost 2 The full article contains 1425 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
