Celtic Discontent as Champions Start Title Defence on Monday Night

Celtic will begin their Scottish Premiership title defence on a Monday night – and the champions are far from happy about it.

The club has publicly voiced its disappointment after being told their opener against Dundee on 3 August will kick off at 19:30 BST on a weekday, rather than taking its traditional place on the opening weekend.

The scheduling headache stems from a packed Glasgow calendar. The Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games cycling events are booked in at the Sir Chris Hoy Arena, right next door to Celtic Park, across the weekend of 1 and 2 August. At the same time, Calvin Harris is set to play two major concerts at Hampden on those same days.

Between the Games, the gigs and the demands of policing and logistics, the SPFL and Police Scotland informed Celtic there was “no choice” but to move the champions’ curtain-raiser to the Monday.

Celtic are not buying the idea that this was the only option.

The club say they made “repeated representations” to both the league and Police Scotland in an attempt to secure a weekend slot, stressing the stature of the match and the impact on supporters. They stressed that, in their view, a Saturday or Sunday date should have been found “in the interests of both teams, both sets of supporters and the status of the fixture”.

The champions did at least manage to tweak one detail. Acknowledging the sizeable travelling support from Ireland, Celtic say they have negotiated an earlier evening kick-off to ease the journey for those coming across the water.

While Celtic are shunted to Monday, the rest of the league’s opening round will unfold across the previous three days, with television dictating much of the shape.

All six fixtures on the first Premiership weekend will be shown live, with the 2026-27 campaign officially kicking off on Friday, 31 July. Dundee United host Rangers at 20:00 in a fixture that immediately drops one of the division’s heavyweights into the spotlight.

Saturday brings a double-header. Falkirk face St Mirren at 15:00, before last season’s runners-up Hearts travel to Aberdeen for a 17:30 start in what already feels like a meeting with European implications.

By the time Celtic finally emerge on the Monday night, the rest of the league will have laid down their early markers. The champions, frustrated by the calendar and boxed in by a city’s major events, will have to answer in the only way that really matters – under the lights, with the title defence already playing catch-up to the schedule.