Opt-out week leaves Old Firm facing tricky starts to season

The 2011-12 fixtures, published yesterday, provide both Old Firm clubs with notionally less favourable starts to their title challenges than they could have expected if they had not chosen to interrupt them with lucrative friendly matches. Celtic will kick off their bid to win the championship for the first time in four years with two away games. They face Hibs at Easter Road on 23 July, the opening day of the SPL campaign, before travelling to Pittodrie to take on Aberdeen two weeks later.

The imbalance is caused by Celtic's involvement in the Dublin Super Cup on the second weekend of the season, on 30 and 31 July. Their scheduled SPL game from that round of fixtures, at home to Dunfermline, will have to be re-arranged. It means Neil Lennon's men will not play an SPL game at Celtic Park until 13 August when Dundee United are the visitors. Rangers will start their defence of the title with three of their first four games away from home. Ally McCoist's first competitive match in charge of the club will be at Ibrox on 23 July with Hearts the visitors as last season's championship flag is unfurled. But it will then be more than a month before Rangers have a league match at home. They take on St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park on 30 July before their scheduled home game against Kilmarnock on 6 August is postponed to accommodate their friendly against Chelsea at Ibrox.

Rangers will then travel to Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Motherwell on the subsequent weekends, with their next home SPL fixture against Aberdeen on 27 August. Hibs are the only other club to invoke the SPL's opt-out clause. Their friendly against Sunderland at Easter Road on 6 August means their scheduled home league game on that date against St Johnstone will also have to be re-arranged for later in the season.

Despite both Rangers and Hibs taking the same weekend off from SPL duty, the organisation's secretary Iain Blair insisted they could not simply designate that date for a fixture between those two clubs. "It was not possible to schedule Rangers v Hibernian for week three as both are due to be at home," explained Blair. "It's fair to say there is no such thing as a perfect fixture list but our aim is to compile the best and most balanced schedule across all clubs and I feel we have been able to improve on a number of areas from last season.

"There are various police requests which means clubs are unable to play at home on certain days. Celtic and Rangers and Hearts and Hibernian must play at home on alternate weekends and we have worked with our colleagues at the Scottish Football League to ensure there are no Dundee-Dundee United clashes in 2011/12. Clubs start the season H-A-H-A or A-H-A-H and play three home and three away games in their opening six fixtures. The final four rounds of fixtures before the split in April also alternate between home and away."

Dunfermline will mark their return to the SPL after a four-year absence with the visit of St Mirren to East End Park, while Motherwell play host to Inverness. The opening weekend will be completed on 24 July when Dundee United entertain Kilmarnock, the match put back to a Sunday because of United's involvement in the Uefa Europa League.

The first Old Firm fixture of the season is scheduled for Ibrox on 17 September, while the festive fixture between the Glasgow rivals at Celtic Park will take place on Wednesday 28 December at the request of the police. Hearts and Hibs will clash for the first time on 27 August at Tynecastle with the return at Easter Road on Monday 2 January.

Hibs manager Colin Calderwood is relishing a schedule which sees his team face away games at Inverness and Kilmarnock following their home match with Celtic on the first day. "We've been handed a testing start to the season, but it is one that I'm excited about," said Calderwood. "Our opening match of the season at home to Celtic will be a real test. Hopefully we will make it a lot more difficult for them than we did in last season's matches against them. It is not a bad marker for the rest of the season. Then straight after that we've got another tough one and it could be argued that facing Inverness is the most awkward away trip in the SPL outwith the Old Firm. Now the work starts to prepare properly for the start of the season to ensure we hit the ground running."

A full round of fixtures has been scheduled for Christmas Eve, a decision which is likely to cause some disquiet. Aberdeen chief executive Duncan Fraser has already indicated he will seek a change of date for his club's scheduled trip to Inverness that day. "I know the SPL will look to work with clubs that may seek to bring that 24 December game forward," said Fraser, "and that is something we will try to do nearer the time as I'm sure many of our supporters will baulk at the thought of a game on a day that is traditionally a time for families to be together."

Blair, however, feels using Christmas Eve instead of the more traditional Boxing Day for fixtures is the right decision. "As 24 December falls on a Saturday, it was felt it was preferable to use this date rather than say a midweek in November or January," said Blair. "Boxing Day was ruled out as there is a full midweek card on December 28 and that would mean clubs playing two matches in three days. We appreciate this might not find favour with everyone but hopefully fans can kick off the Christmas celebrations by watching their team notch a victory."

Blair also hopes the fixture list finds favour with Scotland manager Craig Levein as the SPL have avoided any Old Firm matches around the times of the national team's Euro 2012 qualifiers. "A big issue in the past has been the scheduling of the Old Firm derby and hopefully our colleagues along the corridor will appreciate that none fall either side of Scotland matches," he added.