How the fixture list is prepared

Stage 1 - Establish Fixture Skeleton
The Clydesdale Bank Premier League season comprises 38 rounds of fixtures. The first part in the process is to identify the dates on which these rounds of fixtures may be scheduled – considering the other competitions during the season.

For season 2008/09 there are 42 weekends and 41 midweeks between August 9 and May 24, of which 35 weekends and 10 midweeks are available for SPL fixtures. However, two of those midweeks are December 24 and 31 and others are earmarked for Scottish Cup replays.

Once dates are identified (and participating clubs are known after promotion/relegation at the end of the season) scheduling of actual games can be considered.

Stage 2 - Club Requests
It can be the case that our clubs submit requests in terms of dates when they wish to avoid being at home. This may be due to policing issues, other local events which are taking place or stadium related factors.

Stage 3 - The ‘Golden Rules’
Our ‘golden rules’ are the list of our specific needs based on our league structure and the ‘split’ system. By and large these factors are ‘must haves’ which form the foundation of our fixturing policy, for example:

+ No club will start with 2 home matches or 2 away matches
+ No club will finish with 2 home matches or 2 away matches pre-split (i.e. rounds 32 and 33)
+ No club will play more than 2 home matches or 2 away matches in succession
+ Celtic and Rangers must be perfect opposites (when one is at home the other is away)
+ Hearts and Hibernian must be perfect opposites
+ Motherwell and Hamilton should be perfect opposites
+ In each set of 11 fixtures a club should have 5 home matches and 6 away matches or vice versa as this will ensure that after 33 fixtures each club will have played 16 home matches  and 17 away matches or vice versa
+ Where possible each club should play a total of 19 home fixtures and 19 away fixtures during the Season
+ Each club should play 3 home matches and 2 away matches or vice versa after the split
+ Where possible each club should play the other 5 clubs in its section after the split to ensure that 2 home matches and 2 away matches have been played against these other 5 clubs
+ No club should finish the Season with 2 home matches or 2 away matches

Stage 4 - Consider Other Factors
We then list other conceivable situations that we want to avoid and assign penalty points for every ‘violation’ that may occur in the fixture list. This would include:

+ Away starts for the reigning SPL and First Division Champions
+ A club playing four games out of five either at home or away
+ Lengthy travel for games over the festive period and for midweek matches
+ Old Firm derbies immediately after Scotland World Cup qualification matches
+ Clubs playing two games at home or away in a row on several occasions through the season
+ An unfair balance of home/away fixtures with regard to midweek cards
+ An imbalance in pairings from last year  - i.e. in any two seasons Club A should play Club B at home on 3 occasions and away on 3 occasions pre-split (i.e. Club X vs Club Y x 2 + pre-split last season, Club Y vs Club X x 2 pre-split this season)

Stage 5 - ‘The SPL Computer’
With 12 clubs x 11 opponents x 38 rounds we are left with 5106 possible fixture options.  We have to choose a schedule from 5106 options – we need help to weigh up all these possible combinations.

The help comes in the form of Optimal Planning Solutions, a Canadian-based company who specialise in sports scheduling. Their clients include the NFL, MLS, French League and Australian A-League.

Previously we have used an internal mathematical model developed before season 2000/2001, the first season of the ‘split’. We have continually sought other viable models and have engaged consultants and academics in the past to improve on our internal approach.

Based on a recommendation from the French League, we have been in discussions with Optimal Planning Solutions for some time to develop a more sophisticated and flexible system.

Stage 6 - Review and Revise
This system does not allow us to prepare a ‘perfect’ fixture list – no fixture list will please everyone involved. It does, however, allow us to produce a fixture list that minimises the number of ‘violations’ or ‘penalty points’ as described earlier. 

Removing one conflict usually has the knock on impact of creating another conflict, but this way we can reduce these conflicts to a manageable level and help us achieve our goal – to create the most balanced fixture list for the league as a whole.

Our fixture list is then cross-checked against the SFL’s to minimise Dundee – Dundee United clashes.

Finally, some minor amendments will be made manually to accommodate live broadcast selections and allow for recovery time after known UEFA Cup matches.

7 - Publish
The final 2008/09 Clydesdale Bank Premier League fixture list was issued on Monday, June 16 at 10am in tandem with our colleagues in the Premier League, Football League and Scottish Football League.