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Scottish sides in Europe opt to postpone Premiership matches


All five Scottish teams in European competitions have opted to postpone their Premiership matches scheduled for Saturday, 22 August.

The qualifying play-offs for the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League will take place across two legs, either side of the weekend affected.

Celtic and Rangers are both guaranteed to reach that stage in Europe, although the latter do not yet know which competition they will be in.

Previously, postponements had to be agreed by both clubs, but since April 2025, a team playing in Europe has been able to unilaterally delay a game.

Premiership winners Celtic do not yet know their opposition for this year’s Champions League play-offs, at which stage they were beaten by Kazakh side Kairat Almaty last season.

Hearts are 4-0 behind on aggregate in their Champions League second round qualifying tie against Sturm Graz and are likely to drop into the third round of Europa League qualifying, where Rangers have already been drawn against Polish side Jagiellonia Bialystok.

The only way Hearts will avoid a play-off is if they beat Sturm Graz on aggregate and then lose in the third round of Champions League qualifying. In that case, they would directly enter the Europa League league phase.

Motherwell and Hibernian are in the middle of their Conference League second round qualifying ties and their league matches will only be postponed should they reach the play-offs.

Motherwell are 2-0 up on aggregate against Faroese side HB, while Hibs lost the first leg by the same scoreline against Kosovan outfit Malisheva.

Rearranged games will be played in midweek – on either 8/9 or 15/16 September.


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