McLeish will lobby SPL for games to be postponed

Published on Monday 22 October 2007 01:04

SCOTLAND manager Alex McLeish wants Celtic and Rangers to postpone their Clydesdale Bank Premier League fixtures on the weekend before the decisive Euro 2008 qualifier against Italy.

Celtic play host to Falkirk and Rangers are away to St Mirren ahead of the match which will decide the fate of the national team.

McLeish now intends to sound out Old Firm managers Gordon Strachan and Walter Smith before making a formal request to the SPL.

"With the bulk of our players coming from the Old Firm it would be great if they could get a break," he said. They have been through a lot recently with internationals, the Champions League and the Old Firm game and they could benefit mentally as much as physically.

"We would obviously need the approval of Gordon Strachan and Walter Smith because we need them on board and I will speak to them to gauge their thoughts."

Meanwhile, Smith believes McLeish has taken the national side to new heights.

And he insists the Tartan Army still has "an excellent opportunity" to reach the finals of Euro 2008 despite needing to beat World champions Italy to clinch qualification after last week's surprise defeat in Georgia.

Smith, who left the Scotland job to take over again at Rangers, has no regrets, especially after Saturday's 3-0 Old Firm derby win over Celtic.

But he said: "I think confidence is one of the biggest things in football and some major changes took place when I took over.

"But I have to say that even though we achieved a decent run of results, Alex McLeish has taken them up to new heights and has done a magnificent job to get them this far."

He added: "You can never say you expect to beat a team like Italy because they are world champions after all, but what you can say is that any country coming to play at Hampden at the present moment would find it very difficult to get a win.

"At the start of the qualifying programme nobody would have envisaged getting to this position where you need to win your last game in a group like this to qualify.

"But Alex has kept the belief in the players and the confidence high and I think they have an excellent opportunity to beat Italy."

And Scotland's players will receive a share of a 1.25 million bonus if they qualify for Euro 2008, according to reports yesterday.

Players agreed to waive any win bonuses or appearances fees in favour of a lump sum in the event of qualifying for next summer's finals - meaning they would end up with nothing if they fail to make it to Austria and Switzerland.

The cash would be distributed on a pro-rata basis and Scottish Football Association president George Peat said: "The players' wages situation is an interesting one.

"There's no win bonus, they only get remunerated if they qualify. The days of quibbling about appearance money is in the past, thankfully."