Steven Gerrard has urged Scottish football chiefs to help the Old Firm’s Europa League hopes by giving them Sunday night fixtures.
Rangers and Celtic earned impressive Thursday night Euro results against Porto and Lazio but both face crunch Premiership games on Sunday – Celts at Aberdeen at lunchtime and Gers hosting Motherwell at 3pm.
Ibrox boss Gerrard reckons a rethink of fixture scheduling would boost the Glasgow rivals’ continental chances.
He said: “I understand TV want to buy certain games. I think that’s where the governing body have got to help European teams and give you the kick-off that helps the players be more recovered. Because surely the players’ safety is better?
“Surely the outcome of Scottish football is very important. You have to give the players time to recover and be in the best shape to go and entertain the people who are actually watching on the TV.
“It is something that needs to be discussed.
“Celtic have the worse one this weekend.
“They have to travel up to Pittodrie and they have the early kick-off. We have been there. Last time we got the early kick-off.
“I don’t know if Derek McInnes and Neil Lennon have the same opinion but from where I’m at, if you have the Thursday-Sunday schedule it is a very difficult kick-off time.
“You would prefer the later kick-off and you would prefer being at home. Especially if you have been travelling away like us. The worse one is being away and then you have to go away again and you have a very early kick-off. That is hard to prepare for, not just physically but mentally.”
The Englishman insists shifting to evening matches would give teams a priceless few hours of extra recovery.
Gerrard added: “If there is a massive fixture I can understand why Aberdeen v Celtic should be on TV.
“But sometimes we feel like there are other fixtures in the league which could maybe be on that early TV game rather than us, especially after Europe.
“We get no support for that point of view. But it’s life. We get on with it.
“There is no doubt in my mind that if Aberdeen v Celtic was at night you would see a better quality game because of the recovery time. Night games are always better than morning games.”
