Burley's Scotland are second in qualifying Group Nine

The Scottish FA has confirmed it will ask the Scottish Premier League to consider a change to the start date of next season.

The SPL set the first matches for 8 August, four days before Scotland go to Norway for a World Cup qualifier.

Scotland manager George Burley had asked for a 1 August start to give his players more match fitness.

"We'd hope the SPL would understand the importance of this game for Scottish football," said an SFA spokesman.

When the SPL fixture dates were announced in December, the SFA said it should have been consulted given the importance of the Norway match.

As Burley's initial request for the season to be brought forward was rejected, the SFA will seek an alternative solution to assist the national team's preparations.

We'd hope that they would be willing to look at the fixtures to see what could be done to help the national team SFA spokesman

This could involve proposing that clubs with Scotland players kick off a week later to allow extended squad preparations.

The SFA, SPL and Scottish Football League will all meet in February to cement the schedule for next season.

"We will certainly be speaking to the SPL and we certainly want the fixtures co-ordination meeting to go ahead next month," added the SFA spokesman.

"I don't think we'll go in there with a fixed proposal about postponing games.

"But what's clear is our number one priority is to help the national team.

"We'd hope that they would be willing to look at the fixtures to see what could be done to help the national team."

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version