Highland League expected to kick off in October, with fixtures drawn up in the next fortnight says league secretary Rod Houston
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THE Highland League is on course for a mid-October return to football, with fixtures set to be drawn up at the start of next month.
League secretary Rod Houston is in talks with the Scottish Football Association today (Tuesday) aimed at creating a pathway for the sport to safely resume competitive matches.
Houston said he was "reasonably confident" that the Highland League could start in mid October, around the same time as the SPFL Championship, League 1 and League 2 plans to start their league programmes on October 17.
Clubs have already been given the go-ahead to start contact training this week
But he warned that all 17 clubs would have much work to do between now and the protracted league start in order to meet safety guidelines.
"We still have to see all the terms and conditions about return to matches," he said.
"We’ve had the return to training and clubs are working their plans up just now and looking to make a start over the next couple of weeks, which is great. They will feel a good sense of relief that they are getting going on that.
"We are looking to mid October (league start) and we are feeling reasonably confident. But there’s a heck of a lot of work to be done before then by the clubs."
The findings of today's meeting with the SFA will be put to a Highland League management committee meeting on Saturday.
Houston said if the go-ahead is given to plan for the start of the campaign as planned in October, a format for the league will be finalised at Saturday's meeting.
Clubs are likely to play each other once over the coming season instead of the traditional home and away clashes. The option to split the league in two with each half playing each other once to complete the campaign will also be discussed.
"We’ve been working on plans for some time but they have to be approved by the LMC so the plan is for that to happen on Saturday," Houston added.
"We have had model fixture lists on the stocks for some time now. It’s just a case of taking it down now and tailoring it to the dates and fitting everything in.
"All being well I would hope to be announcing fixtures within the fortnight.
"It’s a fixture programme, and god knows what we are going into in terms of winter weather and the resurgence of this virus, so we are concentrating on having sharp competitions that we are confident we can complete one way or the other."
