Celtic get Real Madrid go-ahead

The Scottish Premier League has approved Celtic's plans to play Real Madrid on the second Saturday of the season.

SPL champions will face Primera Liga holders in America

The Scottish Premier League has approved Celtic's plans to play Real Madrid on the second Saturday of the season. Celtic this week announced they would take on the Spanish champions in Philadelphia on August 11th, seven days after the SPL kick-off. Last year chief executive Neil Doncaster announced teams could postpone one match early in the season in order to play lucrative friendlies as a "one-off solution" because of the July 23rd start, the earliest kick-off date. But the SPL announced a partial extension of the policy two days after Celtic confirmed the friendly. A statement read: "The SPL board is mindful of the benefit to Scottish football as a whole of its clubs participating in glamorous and lucrative matches against some of the world's highest-profile clubs. "The SPL has therefore confirmed that, in line with an SPL board decision taken in November 2011, Celtic FC and Rangers FC will be scheduled to play at home on the weekend of 11/12 August 2012. "Both clubs will be allowed to postpone their games that weekend in order to play in friendly matches. "Any other club scheduled to play at home that weekend will also be offered the same flexibility." Celtic, Rangers and Hibernian all took advantage of the rule last summer with Kilmarnock also playing a friendly after their trip to Ibrox was postponed.