THE SPFL today announced the League Cup final will be played before Christmas next season - for the first time in nearly 20 years.
The governing body this morning unveiled a number of key dates for the 2016/17 campaign - and confirmed the League Cup final will take place on Sunday, November 27, 2016.
It is the first time the showpiece game, which will be shown live on television by BT Sport, has been played before the turn of the year since back in 1998.
The League Cup format will change dramatically next season with the introduction of group stages in July. There will be eight sections comprising five teams.
Clubs will play each other once in a round-robin format on five dates - subject to television selections.
The new 80 game group stage will involve all 38 teams not involved in UEFA qualifiers plus the winners of this season’s Highland League and Lowland League.
The Premiership and Championship as well as League 1 and League 2 will get underway on Saturday, August 6, as has been previously announced.
The three week winter will start immediately after the New Year fixtures and will come to an end when the fourth round of the Scottish Cup is played on the weekend starting January 21.
The regular Championship, League 1 and League 2 campaigns will conclude on the weekend of Saturday, May 6.
Elsewhere, the 38th and final fixtures of the 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.
That will be changed if either finalist is also a Scottish Cup finalist. In that eventuality, 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. The last November final being Rangers’ 2-1 victory over St Johnstone at Celtic Park in 1998.
The full fixture lists for the 2016/17 SPFL league season are expected to be announced in June.
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