Rangers fixtures: toughest start, Celtic dates, busiest month, European impact, neutral venue

Rangers have found out who they will begin their William Hill Scottish Premiership campaign against following the publication of the 2024-25 fixture schedule but they still don’t know where they will be playing their home matches in the opening weeks of the new season.

Phillipe Clement’s side have been handed the toughest possible start on paper – outwith an Old Firm clash – with an away trip to Hearts, the undisputed third best team in the country last term, to kick things off, live on Sky Sports, on Saturday, August 3 at 12.30pm.

Back-to-back home matches against Motherwell and Ross County follow on August 10 and 24 – with Champions League qualifiers and a Viaplay Cup last 16 clash in between – but they will almost certainly be played away from Ibrox due to delays in building work in the Copland Stand that has rendered the stadium unavailable for an undetermined period of time into the new season.

Rangers are set to play their opening home matches of the 2024-25 Scottish Premiership season away from Ibrox due to a delay in building works. (Photo by Alan Harvey / SNS Group)

As yet, there has been no confirmation of an alternative venue for their matches, with Murrayfield and Hampden among the possible options. Rangers are still in talks with the Scottish Professional Football League, Scottish Football Association and the Scottish Rugby Union over a temporary home.

It is hardly the ideal start for a Rangers side who will be aiming to break Celtic’s stranglehold on the title with their arch-rivals having won three in a row and 12 over the past 13 seasons either side of the Light Blues’ solitary success in the 2020-21 covid-impacted campaign.

On the back of the fixture release, a statement from Rangers read: "Supporters will be aware of the delayed works in the Copland stand, likely to impact home fixtures in the early part of the new season. The club will provide an update on any changes to those home matches at the earliest possible opportunity. Rangers thanks our supporters for their patience."

The prospect of an Old Firm match being played at a neutral venue has been avoided with the first instalment of the Glasgow derby set to take place at Celtic Park on Saturday, August 31 at 3pm. No TV arrangements have been announced for this fixture so a date and/or time change is likely once either Premier Sports or Sky Sports – the SPFL’s two main broadcast partners for Premiership matches – confirm their plans for live coverage.

The first international break of the season follows in early September and Rangers are not scheduled to be at home again until September 28 against Hibs with the hope and expectation that the team will have returned to Ibrox by then.

December is always a busy month in the SPFL calender and so it proves again with Rangers scheduled for six league fixtures across the month with the prospect of European group stage football – either in the Champions League or Europa League – set to take that up to seven. There will no winter break to recuparate either with the expanded European schedule putting paid to the traditional two-week Premiership shutdown.

The festive period will see Rangers make the short trip to Paisley to face St Mirren on Boxing Day, before hosting Celtic in the second derby clash of the season at Ibrox on Thursday, January 2, live on Sky Sports at 3pm.

Celtic then host the third and final Old Firm fixture before the split on March 15 – subject to change – meaning Rangers will have home advantage for the potentially title-deciding post-split derby clash in a reverse of the season just past.

One further thing for Rangers fans to consider is the prospect of several matches being moved to Sunday if they fail to qualify for the Champions League. Defeat for Rangers in either the third qualifying round or play-off tie will mean they drop into the Europa League group stages with matches taking place on a Thursday.

The match dates for the revamped Europa League – with a single 36-team league replacing the 32-team group phase – fall on September 26, October 3, October 24, November 7, November 28, December 12, January 23 and January 30.

Rangers are due to play four pre-season friendlies before the league action gets underway. Clement’s men face Ajax at the Mulderssingel Sports Park in Wezep on Saturday, July 13 before hosting Manchester United at Murrayfield on Saturday, July 20. They then take on Birmingham City at St Andrews on Wednesday, July 24 before concluding their pre-season schedule against Union Berlin in the German capital on Saturday, July 27.

Rangers Scottish Premiership fixtures 2024-25 (subject to change):

August

3 - Hearts (a) live on Sky Sports, 10 – Motherwell (h), 24 – Ross County (h) 31 – Celtic (a).

September

14 – Dundee United (a), 28 – Hibernian (h).

October

5 – St Johnstone (h), 19 – Kilmarnock (a), 26 – St Mirren (h), 30 – Aberdeen (a).

November

2 – Dundee (a), 9 – Hearts (h), 23 – Dundee United (h), 30 – St. Johnstone (a).

December

4 – Kilmarnock (h), 7 – Ross County (a), 14 – Aberdeen (h), 21 – Dundee (h), 26 – St. Mirren (a), 29 – Motherwell (a).

January

2 – Celtic (h) live on Sky Sports, 5 – Hibernian (a), 11 – St Johnstone (h), 25 – Dundee United (a).

February

1 – Ross County (h), 15 – Hearts (a), 22 – St Mirren (a), 26 – Kilmarnock (a).

March

1 – Motherwell (h), 15 – Celtic (a), 29 – Dundee (h).

April

5 – Hibernian (h), 12 – Aberdeen (a).