Scottish football team forced to play two games at the same time and day
Johnstone Burgh, who play in the fifth tier of Scottish football, must play two cup games on November 21, with kick-offs scheduled for 2:30pm and 3pm. One squad will go to Tayport in the Scottish Communities Cup, and another will face Dunipace in the Lowland League Cup.
Johnstone Burgh confirmed the bizarre fixture planning in a statement to supporters and explained they tried every possible avenue in trying to avoid the scheduling. The club wrote: "We would like to update our supporters on the ongoing situation regarding our Scottish Communities Cup tie against Tayport.
We have explored every possible option to find a suitable solution that would allow us to play the tie outwith a Saturday afternoon as our schedule is already full. This has included attempting to rearrange league fixtures and South Challenge Cup ties, travelling to Tayport midweek, playing Tayport on a Friday night or Sunday afternoon, and, most recently, offering to play the Communities Cup tie immediately before or after our upcoming Lowland League Cup fixture.
In addition, we offered to forfeit our share of the gate money to help cover any inconvenience caused by rearranging the fixture." The statement continued: "Despite exhausting every option available to us, we have been unable to reach a solution that allows us to play outwith a Saturday afternoon. Regrettably, we now find ourselves in a position where our communities cup tie and lowland league cup tie must be played on the same day, at the same time, on Saturday November 21.
We are extremely disappointed that, despite our best efforts, we have been unable to find a reasonable solution that would allow us to compete in both games with our strongest available squad. We'd like to thank Tayport and the other clubs we have spoken to for considering the options we have put to them and understand that clubs want to stay within the traditional Saturday afternoon kick-off times.
We want to reassure our supporters that every avenue has been explored and every effort has been made to find a workable solution. It certainly hasn't been for the lack of trying." Clubs have previously been known to play on the same day but not at the same time.
In 1988, Liverpool and Everton played two 40-minute knockout matches in the Football League Centenary Tournament. Seven years ago, the Reds played two competitive fixtures in two different countries in under 24 hours, losing 5-0 to Aston Villa in the League Cup quarter-final at Villa Park and beating Monterrey 2-1 in the Club World Cup semi-final.
Mark Hughes infamously competed in two competitive matches on the same day in 1987, playing for Wales as they lost to Czechoslovakia, before flying to Germany in the evening and coming on as a second-half substitute for Bayern Munich against Borussia Monchengladbach. Follow related topics: You are about to be charged£0.00 More Stories