Hampden bosses will hold an emergency breakfast meeting on Monday morning in a bid to thrash out a contingency plan to reschedule this weekend’s packed Scottish Cup card around the funeral of Prince Phillip.
The SFA revealed on Saturday that they were holding crunch talks about potentially pulling the plug on Saturday’s fourth round fixture list - including an Old Firm blockbuster at Ibrox - after Buckingham Palace announced the ceremony is to be held at 3pm in the grounds of Windsor Castle.
But Record Sport understands crisis talks were being held throughout Sunday to come up with a range of proposals in order to keep the competition up and running against the backdrop of a log jammed SPFL fixture list.
Friday night’s showdown between Forfar and Dundee United is expected to go ahead as planned as well as Livingston’s trip to face Aberdeen on Sunday afternoon.
Stranraer’s visit from Hibs could also go ahead as scheduled with a lunchtime kick-off slot on Saturday.
But four more ties - involving Motherwell and Morton, St Mirren and Inverness Caley Thistle, St Johnstone and Clyde and Kilmarnock and Montrose - will have to be moved from their existing 3pm kick-off slot as a mark of respect to the Duke of Edinburgh who died on Friday aged 99.
And it seems certain too that a new slot will have to be found for the top of the bill clash between Rangers and Celtic which is supposed to get underway live on Premier Sports at 4pm on Saturday.
Any rearrangement of that explosive fixture will also require police approval and Hampden sources already suspect cops will look dimly on any plan to move it to a later kick-off time on Saturday night.
One source told us last night: “There are a variety of very complex factors which have to be fully considered. There have been a great deal of talks over the weekend and various proposals have been put forward but nothing will be decided until the morning when a planning meeting will take place.”
