Murrayfield not a neutral venue - Rodgers

Hearts' Scottish League Cup semi-final against Celtic has been moved to Murrayfield in Edinburgh and will kick-off at 13:30 GMT on Sunday, 28 October.

Aberdeen v Rangers will take place on the same day at Hampden at 16:30.

Both matches were originally scheduled to take place in Glasgow, with an early afternoon start for the Dons' meeting with Rangers and an evening kick-off for Hearts v Celtic.

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers described the process as "unfair".

And the club said in a statement external-link that not holding a ballot to decide which tie should be played in Edinburgh was "irrational and discriminatory".

"I don't mind where we play," said Rodgers, whose side have won the tournament for the past two seasons. "I've been disappointed with the process. You have to be fair to all four teams and all sets of supporters.

"It just feels as if it's assumed that Celtic and Hearts should go to Murrayfield. And if we're talking about a neutral venue then it's certainly not neutral with Hearts having played part of their season there last year.

"I've never been to Murrayfield in my life. I would hope that we would at least have the possibility to train there at some point before we would play a semi-final there."

Both games can only be played on the Sunday at the earliest as both Celtic and Rangers have Europa League fixtures on Thursday, 25 October.

When the semi-final fixtures were originally announced last week, Hearts and Aberdeen stated their concerns about travel arrangements for supporters with both games taking place on a Sunday with reduced public transport provision.

And the Scottish Police Federation's general secretary said it would be "idiotic" to stage both games in Glasgow on the same day.

Hampden Park Limited waived its right to host both games and tournament organisers the Scottish Professional Football League looked to move one of the games to Murrayfield, which hosts Scotland and Edinburgh rugby matches and was also the venue for four Hearts home games last season during Tynecastle's renovation.

'An extremely challenging and complex process'

An SPFL spokesman said: "In reaching our decision, we have consulted with Hampden Park, the Scottish FA, Scottish Rugby, Police Scotland, Transport Scotland via the Scottish Government and with the four clubs involved.

"A wide variety of issues have been considered, including the ability of local transport networks to safely and efficiently handle the flow of fans from all four teams to and from the stadia.

"As everyone now understands, this has been an extremely challenging and complex process, due in large part to a lack of alternative fixture slots."

The league body added "it simply is not possible to satisfy the preferences of all parties involved" and that ticket allocations will be announced "in the next few days".

Hearts forward Steven Naismith commented on BBC Radio Scotland's Sportsound: "As a player, changes don't really affect us.

"I think I said at the time commonsense should prevail. If somebody's made a mistake, just rectify it and move on. It seems to be what's happened and it kind of suits everybody, I think. Let's just play the games now."

Analysis - 'Very bumpy ride awaits Doncaster'

BBC Scotland chief football reporter Chris McLaughlin:

It is certainly not the SPFL's finest hour and it is bringing pressure for Neil Doncaster, as the man at the head of that organisation.

Whether it ultimately means he is going to lose his job, I suspect not. He brings a lot of sponsorship money into Scottish football, and the clubs know he is good at that.

The clubs are the ones who would have to make a change at the top of the SPFL, but it is a frustration for fans that something that seemed so simple has turned into such a saga.

I suspect it is going to be a very bumpy ride and I would be very surprised if there is not an internal review into the whole process.