WINTER BREAK REMAINING FOR NEXT SEASON IS GOOD NEWS FOR CELTIC

THE SPFL have confirmed the Premiership winter break will be retained for next season.

This will be music to the ears of Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers who is a big fan of the winter break. However the Sevco Rangers assistant manager Davie Weir called for the break to be scrapped to give clubs more time to prepare for European competition.

Rodgers however believes that the winter break came at the perfect time for his squad who had played almost 50 matches by the time they left the field at Ibrox on Hogmanay celebrating a 2-1 victory.

Rodgers then took his squad to Dubai for ten days of  training and recovery and to re-charge the batteries for the second half of the season. Aberdeen, who Celtic play this evening in the Premiership, also enjoyed a winter break in the Dubai sunshine.

Top-flight clubs will again enjoy a three-week, mid-season break encompassing two full free weekends from January 1 to January 19 2018, subject to live TV selections.

This season, Celtic and Aberdeen enjoyed some warm weather training in Dubai while other remained closer to home.

While the majority of the Premiership clubs were in favour of the break, the Championship teams were happy to continue playing during the same period.

The governing body said that the changes in format to the League Cup that were introduced this season would also stay in place.

SPFL chief executive Neil Doncaster said: “We have managed to maintain a large degree of consistency for next season in line with the current campaign.

“Following overwhelmingly positive feedback regarding this season’s winter break, most notably during a recent meeting with Ladbrokes Premiership club managers and coaches, we’ve worked to retain this for next season.

“We also asked clubs in the Ladbrokes Championship if they would like to see this introduced in their league, however,DAV the clear majority of feedback was against this.

“What also proved very popular this season were the improvements made to the Betfred Cup including group stages and an earlier final and those will continue.”

Davie Weir might find that there are more pressing matters to consider preventing his club participating in European football, rather than whether or not the Scottish game continues with a winter shutdown.