Booking rules favour top tier in play-offs

McCall thinks it would be fairer if the rules were changed. Picture: Jane Barlow

The Ibrox side face Hearts tomorrow hoping to leapfrog Hibs into second place in the Championship and avoid a two-leg tie against fourth-placed Queen of the South, so reducing the number of games needed to achieve promotion to the Premiership. But two of McCall’s players are just one yellow card away from suspension.

The SPFL insists that regular season bookings are carried into the post-season head to heads, leaving Rangers players Kenny Miller and Darren McGregor teetering on the brink, as well as several of their Championship play-off counterparts.

McCall said: “I still harp on about the suspension thing. The Premiership sides play 38 games. Whoever it is comes to play the second bottom side in the Premiership, will either have played 38 or 40 games. The team that finishes third or fourth in our league will have played 40 games if they make it to the play-off final, as opposed to 38.

“The way the set-up is at the minute, if anyone gets booked in the May 17th tie, they would then miss the last leg of the final. I think the bookings should end at the end of the league games, I don’t think they should go into the play-offs.

“I think it’s poor. And it’s not just because we have a couple of players like that, I think Hibs have the same.

“The play-offs aren’t in the league. You can’t count this as a league game if we, or any team in this division, end up playing a team from the Premiership, it can’t be a league game because we are in different leagues. It’s got to be separate.

“In England, when I was down there, I think they had a cut-off point of late March. That should be looked at up here.”

McCall’s gripe comes on the heels of similar complaints from

Booking rules favour top tier in play-offs - McCall