Scottish football fixture release day – all you need to know – BBC Sport

Still hurting after Scotland’s agonising Euro 2024 exit? We hear you.

Perhaps you need a break from the football? That would be understandable.

But maybe your way of coping is to dive back into it head first. Well, you are in luck, because Thursday – at 09:00 BST to be precise – is the day the fixtures for the forthcoming season are revealed.

So here is all you need to know before the 2024-25 SPFL schedule is unveiled.

The action in all four leagues kicks off on the weekend of 3 August.

Eight months later, the Premiership split happens after the matches across the weekend of 12 and 13 April and the top-flight season concludes on the weekend of 17 and 18 May.

The three lower leagues end two weeks before that in order to leave time for the play-offs.

And while it might be too painful to be thinking about the national team already, there are international periods in September, October, November and March to bear in mind.

There will not, however, be a winter break this season.

The expansion of Uefa’s club competitions – with the new league phase of the Champions League and Europa League running until the end of January – is the reason for that.

The Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) said the format change “exerts additional pressure on the domestic calendar” and means no mid-season trips to the sunshine for Premiership clubs.

Calum Beattie, the association’s chief operating officer, added: “It is fair to say that the additional slots required for the Uefa club competitions have made scheduling more challenging than usual.

“In particular, there is very limited flexibility within the Premiership fixture calendar, and we are therefore unable to accommodate a scheduled winter break.”

There are, as usual, several logistical issues to overcome in order to avoid logistical carnage.

Celtic and Rangers not playing at home on the same day is the obvious one, as is Heart of Midlothian and Hibernian sparing Edinburgh a weekend of gridlock. The league also has the city of Dundee to consider again, with the Tangerines back in the top flight alongside the Dark Blues.

But a recent development – or lack of – at Ibrox provides the SPFL with a fresh challenge.

Last week, Rangers said “there will be an impact on matches at Ibrox” at the start of the season after “a delay in a materials shipment from Asia” affected work on the Copland Stand.

Rangers are yet to confirm whether matches will have to be played elsewhere but have said they have “engaged with the SPFL and Uefa in order to review planned contingency arrangements”.

Reports have suggested Hampden Park and Murrayfield, where Rangers play Manchester United in a pre-season friendly, could be alternative options.

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