Breaking News: Rangers manager Walter Smith speaks out against season’s extension
Ranger’s manager, Walter Smith has come out and spoken up against the possible extension to the on-going Scottish league season. The weather conditions coupled with the European commitments that plague some of the team’s season
can mean that the Scottish Football Association will extend the season beyond the middle of May, 2011 to cater for the back log of matches that have been piling up.
The present winter has not been a pleasant one for Scottish football as many of the matches have been called off due to excessive snow fall. The dangerous weather conditions have prompted officials to call the matches off due to
unsafe travelling conditions for the fans. The fact that many of the Scottish club sides do not have under soil heating at their respective stadiums has also contributed to the postponement of certain games. On the previous weekend, the majority of the games
in the Scottish Premier League were postponed.
The Rangers have previously suffered from a hectic schedule as last time around in the 2007-2008 seasons, the Glasgow club played nine football matches in less than 24 days. These matches meant a heavy increase in fatigue levels
for the players at the club and thus it hampered the Rangers chances of effectively winning the UEFA Cup as well as the Scottish Premier League. Back then, the Rangers had called for the season to be extended but the Scottish F.A had ruled that it was against
their rules to extend the season for just a single team.
Walter Smith spoke about the issue at hand in his recent press conference as he said, "They can't extend the season because they wouldn't do it for Rangers a couple of seasons ago so they're not going to do it now, are they? Surely,
if the season is not going to be extended for one team, then they can't extend it for any of the rest of them. If they wouldn't do it for one team two seasons ago, why would they do it now?”
Smith’s questions have posed a new problem to the Scottish Football Association who find themselves in a new conundrum now as the season enters its most crucial stage. With matches being cancelled left right and centre due to bad
weather conditions, the Scottish F.A is pushing for an extension to the season.
Smith added, "I don't think we've reached the stage where it has to be extended anyway. Surely there are enough midweeks that we can fit the games in; I don't think there is any need to extend the season so far. Our problem is
if we stay in the cup competitions and the Europa League that obviously gives you more matches to play."
The Rangers recently qualified for the knockout stages of the Europa League after they finished third in their UEFA Champion’s League group, a group that included the likes of http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Bursaspor-c38700. It remains
to be seen what the Scottish F.A will eventually decide but the http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Rangers-c40314 are adamant that the backlog of cancelled matches can be covered up in the upcoming months by utilizing the concept of mid-week matches on Tuesday and Wednesday nights.
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