Celtic and Hearts could turn to the SPFL during the Asian Cup with the rulebook opening the door for both clubs to request fixture postponements next season.
The tournament is set to run from January 12 and February 10, 2024 while the Scottish Premiership calendar is well underway. The winter break next term is currently expected to run from January 3 to January 19, but both the Parkhead side and Tynecastle outfit could see their ranks diminished for a crucial two week spell during the packed post break fixture list.
Ange Postecoglou could be without as many as eight players for the tournament, with Daizen Maeda, Kyogo Furuhashi, Reo Hatate and Yuki Kobayashi all hoping to get the call up for Japan. Tomoki Iwata, who is on loan at Celtic from Yokohama F Marinos, could also miss out if his loan deal is made permanent, while Yosuke Ideguchi is likely to be back from the J-League when his loan at Avispa Fukuoka comes to an end.
Hyeon-gyu Oh is in the running for a South Korea call up, while Aaron Mooy looks certain to get the nod for Australia. Hearts could be without a trio of key figures with Kye Rowles, Cammy Devlin and Nathaniel Atkinson all hoping to join Mooy with the Socceroos.
That could see the clubs request that the SPFL call of fixtures, with clubs allowed to ask for a new date if they have three or more players absent due to international commitments. The rulebook reads: “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.”
When facing a similar situation ahead of the World Cup in Qatar, Postecoglou played down the clubs chances of postponing fixtures. He said: “We’ll plan as we always have, that when we lose our players to international duty we’ll crack on and play the games we need to play."
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