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Coronavirus: Scotland Euro play-off rescheduled for June

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Scotland IsraelImage source, SNS
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Scotland face Israel, a side they defeated in the Nations league, once again in June

It is "unrealistic" for Scotland's European Championship play-off against Israel to be played in June, says SFA chief executive Ian Maxwell.

Uefa delayed the match, scheduled for 26 March at Hampden, until this summer due to the coronavirus pandemic.

And there may be a further delay with the governing body keeping the revised date under review.

"Whether it's July, August, September, those dates don't seem unrealistic at this moment in time," Maxwell said.

"For us to be able to play an international window in late May or early June we'd be looking at football starting again in May, and as we're in the middle of March I don't see how that's possible."

Uefa have also delayed Euro 2020 by a year due to the coronavirus, with the tournament now taking place from 11 June to 11 July 2021.

Scotland topped their Nations League group to reach the play-off stage to give themselves a chance to play in the tournament, with Glasgow one of 12 host cities.

If Steve Clarke's side were to progress beyond Israel, an away tie against Norway or Serbia would be the only thing keeping Scotland from their first major tournament since 1998.

But Maxwell believes domestic football will have to resume before internationals can proceed.

"I think it's unrealistic, even you do the simple maths in terms of wanting clubs to release their assets, their top players to the national team, having not played a game- it is not going to happen realistically," Maxwell added.

"They'll need to have played a bit of football by that point."