Scottish Premiership 2022/23 fixtures, dates and schedule: Celtic start title defence at home to Aberdeen | Football News

The 2022/23 Scottish Premiership season will kick off with Rangers away to Livingston on Saturday, July 30, before Celtic begin their title defence at home to Aberdeen the following day, with both games live on Sky Sports.

Kilmarnock will mark their top-flight return at home to Dundee United on Saturday July 30 when they unfurl the Championship flag at Rugby Park.

Celtic and Rangers fans need to wait until September 3 for the first Old Firm clash of the season as the title race promises to be another entertaining tussle between the Glasgow giants.

The sides will clash again at Ibrox on January 2 with their final pre-split meeting at Celtic Park on April 4.

Lee Johnson will experience his first Edinburgh derby as Hibernian manager on the second weekend of the season, as Hearts travel to Easter Road on August 6.

For the first time ever, the Scottish Premiership season will take a break after the weekend of November 12/13 for the winter World Cup in Qatar.

It will resume on the weekend of 17/18 December with fixtures including Aberdeen vs Celtic, Hearts vs Livingston and Rangers vs Hibernian.

There is a full card on December 24 with Rangers making the trip to Dingwall to take on Ross County.

There are no Boxing Day fixtures for the top flight this season with the final matches of 2022 taking place on 28 December and the teams then back in action on January 2, with derby day as Rangers host Celtic and Hearts take on Hibs at Tynecastle.

The opening weekend games

Here’s the first round of fixtures for the 2022/23 Scottish Premiership season (All fixtures subject to change):

July 30

Livingston vs Rangers, 12pm – live on Sky Sports

Hearts vs Ross County, 3pm

Kilmarnock vs Dundee United, 3pm

St Johnstone vs Hibernian, 3pm

St Mirren vs Motherwell, 3pm

July 31

Celtic vs Aberdeen, 4.30pm – live on Sky Sports

Opening Sky Sports live fixtures

Saturday July 30 – Livingston vs Rangers, kick-off 12pm

Sunday July 31 – Celtic vs Aberdeen, kick-off 4.30pm

In full: The 2022/23 Scottish Premiership fixture list

Aberdeen

Celtic

Dundee United

Hearts

Hibernian

Kilmarnock

Livingston

Motherwell

Rangers

Ross County

St Johnstone

St Mirren

Key dates for the 2022/23 season

The Scottish Premiership season will begin on the weekend of July 30/31.

The campaign will take a break in the middle of the season to accommodate the first ever winter World Cup, pausing on the weekend of November 12/13, before resuming on the weekend of December 17/18.

The season will end on the weekend of May 27/28.

The Premier Sports Cup final will be held on Sunday February 26 while the date for the Scottish Cup final is yet to be confirmed.

The Europa League final will be played on May 31 in Budapest, the Europa Conference League final will be on June 7 in Prague and the Champions League final is scheduled for June 10 in Istanbul.

Doncaster: It promises to be another exciting season

SPFL chief executive Neil Doncaster expects another “gripping” season of Scottish Premiership football, live on Sky Sports.

“We’ve enjoyed a really positive relationship with Sky for many, many years. It’s been a great partnership, we’ve seen audiences growing in terms of viewers on Sky Sports in recent years and I think a huge part of that is the partnership and the way in which we’ve developed that partnership with Sky.

“We’re very grateful for the support that Sky continues to give the whole of the Scottish game and we’re really looking forward to Sky Sports again exclusively presenting the cinch Premiership live again next season.

“There’s a huge amount to look forward to and part of that is indeed the women’s game.

“Next season the top two divisions of the women’s league will come under the remit of the SPFL and we’re very excited about that.

“I think it’s a hugely exciting development in the game in Scotland. We’ve seen the growth in women’s football across the globe and we want to be a part of that.

“It’s been led very much by the clubs and we’re certainly hopeful that we’ll be able to give whatever support we can to maximise the potential that undoubtedly exists in women’s football in Scotland.”

‘We wanted to get it right with VAR’

Video Assistant Referees will be introduced in the Scottish Premiership from the middle of the new season.

All 42 Scottish Professional Football League clubs voted on the proposal with 41 in favour and the technology will be implemented after December’s World Cup in Qatar.

Doncaster said: “We were keen not to be early adopters of this technology. We’ve seen some of the teething problems that its introduction has caused in some other leagues so we were keen to ensure we took advantage of the learnings from those leagues before we implemented it in Scotland.

“We’re not quite ready to launch at the start of the season but, in partnership with the Scottish FA, we’re very hopeful that VAR will launch partway through the season and hopefully achieve less controversy than perhaps we’ve seen in recent seasons.

“It’s a difficult job that the referees have so any support that they can have I’m sure will be appreciated.”

The new Scottish Premiership season with Sky Sports

• Up to 48 live matches from the Scottish Premiership plus the play-off finals.
• Live coverage presented by Eilidh Barbour with analysis from Kris Boyd and Andy Walker, and more.
• Round the clock coverage on Sky Sports News, on skysports.com and across our Sky Sports social channels.
• Free-to-watch highlights of every Scottish Premiership game on our website.
• Sky Sports is your ultimate destination for domestic football with live coverage of the Premier League, EFL, Scottish Premiership and the Women’s Super League.
• Find out more about Sky Sports