Thursday 18 February 2016 12:41, UK
The SPFL has revealed a number of key dates for the 2016/17 season including a return to a pre-Christmas Scottish League Cup final.
In the latest announcement relating to the reformatted national cup competition, next season's showpiece will take place on Sunday, November 27, the first time it will have been held late in the year since 1998.
The 2016/17 season starts with the group stages of the competition when eight groups of five teams will play each other once each in a round-robin format across five July dates, subject to TV selections.
This new 80-game group stage will involve all 38 teams not involved in UEFA qualifiers plus winners of this season's Highland League and Lowland League.
As previously announced the four Ladbrokes-sponsored leagues will all kick off on the weekend of Saturday, August 6, while it has now been confirmed the Ladbrokes Premiership three-week winter break will start immediately after the New Year fixture round and end with the Scottish Cup fourth round fixtures over the weekend of 21 January.
The regular Ladbrokes Championship, League 1 and League 2 seasons (bar play-off matches) conclude on the weekend of Saturday, May 6, while the 38th and final fixtures of the Ladbrokes Premiership season for all clubs bar the team finishing in 11th place will be played on the weekend of Saturday, May 20.
The final SPFL fixture of the season, the Ladbrokes Premiership play-off final second leg, will take place on Sunday, May 28 (unless either finalist is also a Scottish Cup finalist in which event the play-off final second leg will be moved to the following midweek).
SPFL chief executive Neil Doncaster said: "We're very pleased to announce more of the key dates for the SPFL's league and cup competitions next season.
"Significantly the Scottish League Cup semi-finals and final will again be contested before the end of the year which we know is something a large number of supporters and stakeholders including the media were very keen on.
"With dates also confirmed for the new Scottish League Cup group stage, all four leagues kicking off on the same weekend and the Ladbrokes Premiership play-off final dates confirmed, we believe that season 2016/17 will bring a huge amount of freshness and even more excitement to Scottish football and its supporters."
Since March 2000, all Scottish League Cup finals have taken place in spring, with the last November final in 1998 when Rangers beat St Johnstone 2-1 at Celtic Park.
The full fixture lists for the 2016/17 SPFL league season are expected to be announced in June.
