SCOTLAND MANAGER George Burley is refusing to accept he will only have three days to work with his full squad before the country's crucial World Cup qualifier in Norway on August 12.
Yet that appears unavoidable after the Scottish Premier League unilaterally decided six weeks ago that next season's championship will begin on August 8 – and have since stated they will not accede to requests for postponements of opening weekend fix
tures that would supply him the six days' preparation he declares a must.
Burley admits the SPL's unwillingness to move the start of the league forward by one week to August 1 left him "angry" and bemoans the fact that possible solution to the scheduling difficulties "fell on deaf ears".
"They (SPL] never took Scotland into consideration and that's something that has to be looked at and, I'll be stressing, has to be changed," Burley said. The issue threatens to overshadow this week's squad get-together at St Andrews in preparation for the double header that will see Scotland travel to Holland before hosting Iceland next month. "FIFA changed the Norway game from the August 19 to the 12th and we can't disadvantage ourselves even more by our players playing on the Saturday when we have to play on the Wednesday. The first game of the season is always 100 miles an hour, players are really keyed up, and it takes a lot out of them. It has to be sorted out. Longer preparation is something Scotland need. It's a very important game. The World Cup only comes around once every four years. It's February, there's still time to change it. Two years ago (for the Italy game] there was two weeks' preparation. I'm talking about six days. I don't think that's too much to ask for. Let's be sensible and give us a fair chance."
As it stands, Scotland will be doubly handicapped compared to Norway. The Scandinavians will be halfway through their summer season when the game comes around, and none of their home-based players will have been required to contest club matches the previous weekend. The Norwegian League, known as the Tippeligaen, will break between August 2 and August 15 because of the World Cup qualifier.
"There was no difficulty in arranging this," said John Jamessen, spokesman for the Norwegian FA. "The Tippeligaen is part of the Norwegian FA and, of course, the national team has priority for such an important game."
"That's exactly what I would have expected – common sense prevailed there, didn't it?" Burley offered ruefully when told of the arrangements of his Group 9 rivals. The backdrop to them provides a sharp contrast to Scotland, where conflicting interests have strained relations between the SFA and the SPL. Defending the league start date that, in a break with convention, was announced well in advance of the "fixture co-ordination" meeting to be held in the next fortnight, SPL secretary Ian Blair last month made plain his prime concern was an "effective league".
The belief among the SPL board is that this was compromised by agreeing to postponements last season that contributed to a fixture pile-up and ultimately necessitated a much-disputed extension to the season following Rangers' progress to the UEFA Cup final.
Next season the SPL runners-up will find themselves in a Champions League qualifier in the last week of July. Despite that, with the English Premier League not kicking off until August 15 roughly in line with major mainland European set-ups, it is also understood that Celtic and Rangers did not want an August 1 start date. They feared this could prevent them participating in lucrative summer tournaments and attracting glamour English opposition to Glasgow for friendlies.
"I can't see any reason why the league couldn't have been moved forward, especially considering that the season finishes two weeks earlier because of the World Cup," Burley said. "It makes sense to me. The thing is, clubs look at it the wrong way. They have their own reasons but the national team has to come first in this instance. You want fair preparation. We don't want to make excuses like 'we've had six call offs on the Saturday' or the players were not quite right for the Wednesday after the first game of the season on the Saturday."
Indeed, with the SPL first weekend fixtures staggered for live Setanta broadcasts, Burley is facing the "nightmare scenario" of five of the 10 players he draws from the Old Firm not being available to him until Sunday evening. It has become standard to show flag day at the home of the champions on the Saturday lunchtime and then the away day opener of the runners-up 24 hours later. With no competitive English top-flight action, Setanta are likely to object to any fixture rescheduling that deprives them of their two major Scottish draws on such a hyped-up weekend.
Privately, the SFA believe they have "wiggle room". But aside from chief executive Gordon Smith lobbying furiously on his manager's behalf, it is difficult to see how the SPL's hand could be forced. The matter will be top of the agenda at an SFA board meeting this week, but poring over FIFA's statutes will offer no hope of imposing a five-day rule on the release of Scotland players for Norway.
Even though five World Cup qualifiers involving European teams will be played on the FIFA-imposed date of August 12, that day has been set aside on the football calendar for international friendlies. The regulations governing player release for such dates are explicit: "For qualifying matches for an international tournament that are staged on a date earmarked for friendly matches (players shall join the Association team no later than] 48 hours before kick-off."
However unfair it might seem, Burley could simply require to be grateful that those players who come through the opening weekend fixtures unscathed can be gathered together at least 72 hours before he sends out a team in Olso.
