Celtic semi-final move to Murrayfield 'unfair', says Rodgers

Brendan Rodgers has lamented the "lack of forward planning" from the Scottish FA, after Celtic's League Cup semi-final clash with Hearts has been moved to Murrayfield, the Scotland national Rugby team's home venue.

In addition to this late change, the fixture will now also be played in the earlier time slot of 1.30 pm on the Sunday, after fellow semi-finalists Aberdeen savaged the original 12 noon kick off time for their tie with Rangers. This second contest has since been swapped to the later 4pm kick off, to be played at the traditional venue Hampden Park. 

 

October 3, 2018

Speaking in his pre-match press conference ahead of Celtic's Europa League clash away to RB Salzburg, Rodgers became the latest manager to weigh in on the scheduling fiasco: "If you're going to change it, be transparent with it and be fair with it, I don't think that is fair. I think for supporters and for clubs and for players and for everyone, transparency is important.It's an easy one. If Murrayfield is an option and so is Hampden, it's just a draw. Then nobody can complain."

Rodgers went on to claim that semi-final opponents Hearts will have an "advantage" in the tie, as they used Murrayfield as a temporary home while a new main stand was being built at Tynecastle, saying of the new venue: "It's not neutral. You can look at it and it's fair on everyone to have made a draw. We'll see if it's for definite, but if it is, I don't think it's fair. I just think you have to plan, you have to anticipate, that's the key to it all."

Celtic's chief executive Peter Lawwell had written to the SPFL asking for a draw to determine which tie would be moved to Murrayfield in Edinburgh, but his pleas fell on deaf ears, as the SPFL opted to allocate the placement of each tie themselves. 

Following the announcement, Lawwell responded to the decision in a statement yesterday evening, writing: "The SPFL Board's decision not to hold a ballot to decide the venues of the forthcoming semi-final matches is both irrational and discriminatory. Celtic recognised there was a genuinely difficult problem to resolve. All we asked for was equity of treatment - in other words, a simple ballot of which game went to which venue, so that all clubs would have a 50-50 chance of playing at Hampden."

However opponents Hearts seem content with the decision made by the SPFL, with manager Craig Levein arguing that it is more than fair to expect Celtic to travel to Edinburgh. Speaking before the confirmed venue change, Levein said: "For me, considering we were the first out of the hat, that makes us the Saturday game. We have to play on the Sunday to suit Celtic, so I think it's reasonable to expect them to come through." 

Either way, this decision from the SPFL, although controversial, seems very much final, and the teams will have to put aside their complaints in order to focus on winning through to the final of the competition to be played in December at Hampden Park.