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Steve Clarke's desperate plea for Friday night fixtures ahead of the crucial Euro 2020 play-offs has been torpedoed by his own Hampden bosses.
Record Sport can reveal Clarke’s proposal to reschedule a raft of top flight matches in the build-up to next month’s semi-final showdown with Israel was discussed on Tuesday at a meeting of the all powerful Professional Game Board at Hampden.
But despite Clarke’s wishes, SFA chief executive Ian Maxwell confirmed during the meeting he has no plans to table a formal request for any of the Premiership matches to be brought forward - even though it could give as many as 10 Scotland squad members an extra 24 hours of preparation time.
A special Record Sport investigation has revealed Clarke’s big plan hasn’t even been officially discussed with the top 12 clubs. And Maxwell appeared to rule out the prospect entirely as the clock ticks down to Scotland’s date with destiny on Thursday March 26.
A source said: “The whole thing seems be clouded in considerable confusion. Ian was asked yesterday if he had any intention of requesting games are moved to the Friday night. He was quite categorical in his answer when he said the SFA will not be asking for a Friday night card.” Instead, Maxwell is understood to have repeated his earlier request that no Premiership matches are staged on the Sunday ahead of the semi-final clash with the Israelis. But Maxwell is aware that can only be agreed if neither Celtic nor Rangers make it through to the last 16 of the Europa League.
Clarke first floated the idea of creating a Friday night card during a meeting with the top flight clubs four weeks ago.
He wants the matches between Motherwell and Kilmarnock, Hearts and Ross County and Livingston and Aberdeen all brought forward along with Hamilton’s home clash with HIbs. All of these games are currently scheduled to kick-off at 3pm on Saturday March 21. Clarke had hoped that subsequent arrangements could then be thrashed out should Celtic and/or Rangers fail to extend their respective European campaigns by making it out of the last 32 over the course of the next eight days. Celtic are at home to St Johnstone with Rangers away at St Mirren the same weekend.
Clarke said at the time: “I did a question and answer for the SPFL and I actually threw in the fact they could play the card on the Friday night. Whether they do or whether they don’t, I don’t know. There was no real response. I just want them to be sensible.”
But it’s understood Maxwell failed to follow up on that by formalising a specific request during discussions with his SPFL counterpart Neil Doncaster on Hampden’s sixth floor. One club source said: “We would have been more than happy to accommodate given the importance of this game but nobody has asked us and it seems too late now.” Hamilton Accies boss Brian Rice added: “We need to do everything we can to help Steve Clarke and Scotland qualify for this tournament.”
Maxwell told Record Sport recently: “We asked for no games to be played on the Sunday beforehand because players would then be unavailable to train until the Tuesday or Wednesday. All I said to Neil was, ‘Could you speak to the broadcasters and make sure there’s no game on the Sunday? They can play on the Friday or Saturday’. We’ll see what happens but we’d like to think they’ll help us out.” But Maxwell has made no demand for those games that can be re-arranged to be moved as a matter of urgency despite the huge importance of the occasion.
The clash with Israel is the biggest fixture in a generation as Scotland look to move to within just 90 minutes of a first major finals appearance in 22 years by setting up a one-off, winner-takes-all showdown against Norway or Serbia.
Israel have cancelled domestic league fixtures ahead of the March 26 clash at Hampden with boss Andreas Herzog taking his players to a training camp in the north of England to give them the best chance of victory. Clarke has already accepted that there is no possibility of scrapping the full Premiership card with the fixture list already crammed and that he is helpless to prevent when English-based players feature that week
Glasgow is one of 12 host cities for this summer’s Euro 2020 and Hampden supremo Maxwell admitted the prospect of not being involved is “horrendous”. He added: “We’d still put on a show, of course, but we don’t want to be watching someone else at the National Stadium and thinking, ‘It should have been us’.”
Record Sport can reveal Clarke’s proposal to reschedule a raft of top flight matches in the build-up to next month’s semi-final showdown with Israel was discussed on Tuesday at a meeting of the all powerful Professional Game Board at Hampden.
But despite Clarke’s wishes, SFA chief executive Ian Maxwell confirmed during the meeting he has no plans to table a formal request for any of the Premiership matches to be brought forward - even though it could give as many as 10 Scotland squad members an extra 24 hours of preparation time.
A special Record Sport investigation has revealed Clarke’s big plan hasn’t even been officially discussed with the top 12 clubs. And Maxwell appeared to rule out the prospect entirely as the clock ticks down to Scotland’s date with destiny on Thursday March 26.
A source said: “The whole thing seems be clouded in considerable confusion. Ian was asked yesterday if he had any intention of requesting games are moved to the Friday night. He was quite categorical in his answer when he said the SFA will not be asking for a Friday night card.” Instead, Maxwell is understood to have repeated his earlier request that no Premiership matches are staged on the Sunday ahead of the semi-final clash with the Israelis. But Maxwell is aware that can only be agreed if neither Celtic nor Rangers make it through to the last 16 of the Europa League.
Clarke first floated the idea of creating a Friday night card during a meeting with the top flight clubs four weeks ago.
He wants the matches between Motherwell and Kilmarnock, Hearts and Ross County and Livingston and Aberdeen all brought forward along with Hamilton’s home clash with HIbs. All of these games are currently scheduled to kick-off at 3pm on Saturday March 21. Clarke had hoped that subsequent arrangements could then be thrashed out should Celtic and/or Rangers fail to extend their respective European campaigns by making it out of the last 32 over the course of the next eight days. Celtic are at home to St Johnstone with Rangers away at St Mirren the same weekend.
Clarke said at the time: “I did a question and answer for the SPFL and I actually threw in the fact they could play the card on the Friday night. Whether they do or whether they don’t, I don’t know. There was no real response. I just want them to be sensible.”
But it’s understood Maxwell failed to follow up on that by formalising a specific request during discussions with his SPFL counterpart Neil Doncaster on Hampden’s sixth floor. One club source said: “We would have been more than happy to accommodate given the importance of this game but nobody has asked us and it seems too late now.” Hamilton Accies boss Brian Rice added: “We need to do everything we can to help Steve Clarke and Scotland qualify for this tournament.”
Maxwell told Record Sport recently: “We asked for no games to be played on the Sunday beforehand because players would then be unavailable to train until the Tuesday or Wednesday. All I said to Neil was, ‘Could you speak to the broadcasters and make sure there’s no game on the Sunday? They can play on the Friday or Saturday’. We’ll see what happens but we’d like to think they’ll help us out.” But Maxwell has made no demand for those games that can be re-arranged to be moved as a matter of urgency despite the huge importance of the occasion.
The clash with Israel is the biggest fixture in a generation as Scotland look to move to within just 90 minutes of a first major finals appearance in 22 years by setting up a one-off, winner-takes-all showdown against Norway or Serbia.
Israel have cancelled domestic league fixtures ahead of the March 26 clash at Hampden with boss Andreas Herzog taking his players to a training camp in the north of England to give them the best chance of victory. Clarke has already accepted that there is no possibility of scrapping the full Premiership card with the fixture list already crammed and that he is helpless to prevent when English-based players feature that week
Glasgow is one of 12 host cities for this summer’s Euro 2020 and Hampden supremo Maxwell admitted the prospect of not being involved is “horrendous”. He added: “We’d still put on a show, of course, but we don’t want to be watching someone else at the National Stadium and thinking, ‘It should have been us’.”
