Celtic will resume their Europa League campaign against Hungarian side Ferencvaros at Celtic Park at the unusual time of 3.30pm this afternoon, rather than the standard time of Thursday evening.
Ange Postecoglou’s side have work to do to qualify for the next stage of the competition after losing their opening two games to Real Betis and Bayer Leverkusen, while Ferencvaros are also seeking their first point.
Police Scotland informed Celtic and Rangers, who are also competing in the Europa League, that they would be unable to host home matches in the fourth match week of the competition on Thursday 4 November, due to the Cop26 climate change conference taking place in Glasgow on that date.
The Cop26 conference is being held in the city from Sunday 31 October through until Friday 12 November.
Consequently, both clubs will play their third matches of the group stage at home which has posed logistical issues as Police Scotland, stewarding companies and other matchday service providers, are unable to cater for two major matches in the city on the same night.
With Rangers hosting Danish team Brondby on Thursday at the more traditional time of 8pm on Thursday, Celtic were forced to move the time and date of their own game. Rangers are currently ranked 47th in Uefa’s club coefficient ranking, three places ahead of Celtic.
A further reason behind the lunchtime kick-off is that due to broadcasting rules, Uefa cannot schedule Europa League matches at the same time as Champions League games. And with two Champions League games kicking off at 5.45pm – Besiktas vs Sporting Lisbon and Club Brugge vs Manchester City – on Tuesday, Celtic’s game was required to finish before those matches start.
In a statement released on August 30, Celtic said: “In an attempt to avoid this change we have been in extensive discussions with all relevant authorities, exhausting all avenues to try and establish a better solution for the club and our supporters, however none of these other options have been successful, due to either UEFA considerations, policing requirements or domestic fixture scheduling.
“Clearly this is an unfortunate and unique set of circumstances driven by Cop26. We fully understand the frustrations of our supporters. We can assure our fans that we have made significant representation at the highest levels to try and avoid this eventuality.”
Celtic are not the only British club to be inconvenienced by Uefa this week. Leicester City’s game against Spartak Moscow in Russia will kick off at 3.30pm on Wednesday as city rivals Lokomotiv Moscow are in action against Galatasaray on Thursday night.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3DTZbQz
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