Hampden to host both League Cup semi-finals on same day

Hampden will host both League Cup semi-finals on Sunday October 28.

Rangers will play Aberdeen at 12pm, with Celtic facing Hearts later in the day at 7.45pm.

The two ties were originally scheduled to be split between Saturday and Sunday, but organisers were forced into a change of plan with Celtic and Rangers playing on the Thursday night in the Europa League.

All four sides are also scheduled to play in a midweek round of Premiership fixtures just days after the semi-finals.

Murrayfield had been considered as a potential option to host one of the ties.

However, it has been decided that a Sunday double-header of fixtures was the best choice after talks with the participating teams at the national stadium on Thursday.

The SPFL is contractually obliged to bring both semi-finals to Hampden, with Police Scotland advising Aberdeen and Rangers play in the first match of the day.

Iain Blair from the SPFL said, "We knew going into last night’s Betfred Cup draw there was a chance that if Rangers and Celtic reached the Betfred Cup semi-finals the draw could keep them apart, and because they both have a UEFA Europa League match on Thursday 25 October, we had to find a solution which gave them the necessary two-day gap between competitive matches.

“We’ve been working hard with Police Scotland and Hampden Park on contingency planning for exactly this scenario and, together, we examined every possible permutation.

“The crowded fixture calendar means that this is the best and most practical solution as any alternative had the knock-on effect of causing major fixture congestion, not only for Celtic and Rangers, but for several other SPFL clubs.

“We met with representatives of all four clubs earlier today and explained that this was the only feasible outcome.

“The fact that both Celtic and Rangers are in Europe, and will hopefully be playing in the Europa League after the New Year, is obviously good news for Scottish football, but it does mean that our capacity for rescheduling games is significantly curtailed.

“We can confirm that Police Scotland have advised that the Aberdeen vs Rangers game should be played first.”

A Hampden Park Limited spokesman said “We have already started the detailed planning process which is standard practice for all major events at the Stadium. Hampden is the home of Scottish football and we all look forward to assisting our SPFL colleagues with the delivery of two very exciting Betfred Cup semi-finals at the Stadium.

• superscoreboard