Steve Clarke pleads with UEFA and FIFA as Scotland boss 'desperate' to avoid SIX games in June

Steve Clarke has pleaded with world football’s governing bodies not to punish Scotland’ s players for Russia’s atrocities by hitting them with a six game fixture pile-up in June.

Clarke named a squad on Tuesday for two friendly matches which had to be arranged at the 11th hour after Vladimir Putin plunged the world into crisis by ordering his war machine into action.

Scotland’s semi-final play-off with Ukraine has also been rescheduled for June - with the winners then facing either Wales or Austria for a place at Qatar 2022.

But, as it stands, Clarke’s men also have four Nations League matches to fit in at the end of the season.

And the manager suspects FIFA and UEFA are on the verge of making a typically botched decision rather than go to the bother of ripping up and redesigning their own fixture lists.

Clarke said: “‘We hope and pray that we are playing Ukraine in the semi-final play-off in June. But what happens with the rest of the month, I don’t know is the honest answer.

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“All the big wigs are still in discussions and trying to find a solution. There’s fixture congestion that will arise from this situation.

“At the moment I’m desperate not to be in a position where we might have to play six