RANGERS and Celtic could play as many as THIRTY-TWO fixtures before the summer when Scottish football returns later this month.

Both Glasgow clubs face relentless fixture schedules as they compete in the Scottish Premiership, Scottish Cup and European competitions.

The winter break, which was brought forward by the SPFL amid Scottish Government curbs on fan capacity, has left little room for recovery for Rangers or Celtic should they progress in domestic and European cup competition.

SPFL chief Neil Doncaster had warned that the shifted pause in fixtures had left no wriggle room for further matchday amendments - and an in detail look at the scheduled fixture list prove his worrying admission to be accurate.

Should Rangers and Celtic progress in their Europa League and Europa Conference League endeavours then they'll be without a free midweek until mid-April; which falls after the Scottish Premiership split.

The only other down time for the Glasgow rivals would be in mid-March when Scotland compete for a spot in the World Cup with a World Cup play-off semi-final and possible final scheduled for the Thursday 24 and Tuesday 29 of the month.

Much has been made of the SPFL rules which could see Celtic attempt to postpone the upcoming February 2 Old Firm fixture under rule G7 concerning unavailable international players.

Rule G7 of SPFL handbook states: "A club shall be entitled to apply to the Board for the postponement of any Official Match where three or more of its Players who would otherwise have participated in such match are unavailable through international selection and, following receipt of such an application, the Board may postpone and rearrange the relevant Official Match in accordance with Rule G3."

The rule could be targeted if Celtic are keen on a changed matchday as they could be without Japanese stars Kyogo, Daizen Maeda, Reo Hatate and Yosuke Ideguchi as well as Tom Rogic of Australia. 

But the fixture list, shown in full below, does not appear to have free slots to re-arrange the match before April 19/20.

It would mean moving a pre-split fixture to a post-split date - however Ange Postecoglou appears to be resigned to heading into the fixture without a number of key stars.

He admitted: “It’s a World Cup game so there are no negotiations. Both teams have important qualifiers and World Cups are important for every country irrespective of where you come from. 

“We are obliged to release them and we will. That has been in our planning for a while.  We have known that they are going to be away in that period if they get selected.

“I totally understand that whatever fixtures we have in that period they are likely to miss out.”

All of this comes without considering any possible Scottish Cup replays or postponements caused by severe weather or Covid implications.

SPFL supremo Doncaster told Sky Sports after the winter break change that all that's been done by changing the fixture list is worsen the matchday backlog.

But he revealed after the wishes of ten Scottish Premiership clubs, believed to be excluding Rangers and Ross County, the fixtures had to be postponed by majority.

Last month he explained: "There is no further room. We've used the two available slots that exist. Although so many clubs wanted to postpone all three festive games, there simply isn't the space on the calendar to do that. 

"We had two slots in January and the beginning of February, which we've used to put the 29 December and New Year games into, but there really isn't any further room. 

"So 10 of the 12 cinch Premiership clubs wanted to postpone fixtures. 

"I think that the two who didn't clearly expressed views that we already have a great deal of fixture congestion in the schedule, and by postponing the fixtures voluntarily, all we're doing is making that worse.

"From the league's point of view, all we want to do is to have as many games played as early as possible. So we understood that view. 

"But ultimately, the clear majority of the cinch Premiership clubs wanted to postpone fixtures and that's where we got to."

Rangers and Celtic potential fixture dates in full

Scottish Premiership fixtures resume (matchday 21) - January 17/18

Scottish Cup R4 - January 21 - Scottish Cup

Scottish Premiership matchday 22 - January 26

Scottish Premiership matchday 23 - January 29

Scottish Premiership matchday 24 - February 2

Scottish Premiership matchday 25 - February 6

Scottish Premiership matchday 26 - February 9

Scottish Cup R5 – February 12

Europa League & Europa Conference League play-offs 1st leg – February 17

Scottish Premiership matchday 27 - February 20

Europa League & Europa Conference League play-offs 2nd leg - February 24

Scottish Premiership matchday 28 - February 27

Scottish Premiership matchday 29 - March 2

Scottish Premiership matchday 30 - March 5

Europa League & Europa Conference League last 16 1st leg – March 10

Scottish Cup quarter-finals - March 12

Europa League & Europa Conference League last 16 1st leg – March 17

Scottish Premiership matchday 31 - March 19

World Cup play-off semi-finals – March 24

World Cup play-off finals – March 29

Scottish Premiership matchday 32 - April 3

Europa League & Europa Conference League quarter-finals 1st leg – April 7

Scottish Premiership matchday 33 - April 9

Europa League & Europa Conference League quarter-finals 2nd leg – April 14

April 16/17 Scottish Cup semi-finals

Scottish Premiership matchday 34 - April 23

Europa League & Europa Conference League semi-finals 1st leg – April 28

Scottish Premiership matchday 35 - April 30

Europa League & Europa Conference League semi-finals 2nd leg – May 5

Scottish Premiership matchday 36 - May 7

Scottish Premiership matchday 37 - May 11

Scottish Premiership matchday 38 - May 14/15

Europa League final – May 18

Scottish Cup final - May 21

Europa Conference League final – May 25