Hibs chief Ron Gordon's SPFL anger over Hearts and Rangers fixture schedule and speaks on League Cup 'boo-boo'

Hibs owner Ron Gordon has hit out at the SPFL over the scheduling of league fixtures.

The American businessman sat down with supporters the day after the Premier Sports Cup debacle with Greenock Morton and explained his disbelief at Hearts and Rangers being the first two opponents at Easter Road.

Hibs kick off their league season at St Johnstone before the first Edinburgh derby of the season on August 7. They then travel to Livingston before facing Rangers in Leith.

Gordon called it “foolish” and “absurd”, saying such fixtures puts the team in “difficult position”.

"I’m not happy to be honest with you, for a variety of reasons,” he told Hibs podcasts. “Number one, we’re doing construction. We’re going to get the West Stand completed on the Wednesday or Thursday before Hearts and they knew that and they scheduled the biggest game of the year.

"Honestly, who schedules the derby as the opening day? You would never put Celtic-Rangers, Man City-Man United as your opening day. That makes zero business sense, it kills your season ticket. Who does that? I have already had this conversation with the league. I just find it absurd. That is our reality, once it is published it is published.

"We have a big game and it puts us in a difficult position where we need to be ready to play those big matches. Not only do we have Hearts but we have Rangers after that at home. I think the scheduling is really, really poor. Poorly planned on multiple fronts. I was shocked. I was very disappointed at the league. You would never do that.

"Opening day is by default a high attendance day. We get 2,000, 3,000, 3,500 people that walk up because it is a beautiful sunny day, it’s opening day. Instead of having two high attendance days with opening day and the Edinburgh derby, you collapse it into one. You kill 4,000-5,000 attendance you are not going to get. It’s foolish.”

Hibs chairman Ron Gordon. (Photo by Mark Scates / SNS Group)

League Cup boo-boo

Gordon also spoke on the League Cup incident with Hibs’ exit being confirmed after they had breached competition rules, playing a suspended player in the 1-1 draw with Morton which was then lost on penalties.

Rocky Bushiri played at centre-back having already picked up two yellow cards already in the competition which results in a one-game suspension.

The SPFL handed the Championship side a 3-0 victory.

"The ops department made a boo-boo", Gordon said. “Something fell through the cracks. It’s a bit of a shame.

“We are rectifying it. I look at the improvements we have made and that’s one area where we have upgraded. Our ops department is better but in this particular case they made a mistake. They feel terrible but if there is a consolation in it it’s the fact it doesn't effect anything. It doesn’t change. It would have been really bad if we had won last night and been in a bad situation because of that.

“I can assure you it is not going to happen again.”