New Celtic manager Tony Mowbray will travel to Aberdeen in his first Scottish Premier League match, while champions Rangers begin their title defence at home to Falkirk.
Mowbray, who was appointed as Hoops boss on Tuesday, found out Celtic's schedule for the 2009-10 campaign as the SPL fixtures were announced yesterday.
The opening fixtures will take place on August 15. But the first eagerly anticipated Old Firm derby between Rangers and Celtic at Ibrox comes on October 3.
Rangers, who ended Celtic's three-year reign as Scottish champions when they clinched the title last season, are away to their Glasgow rivals on January 2.
Toni not leaving Bayern Munich
Striker Luca Toni will be staying with Bayern Munich next season.
The towering Italian has been linked with a move to the Serie A this summer after two years in the Bundesliga. However, Toni's agent Tulio Tinti said the former Palermo and Fiorentina player is going nowhere.
"He is a Bayern player and will continue to be. These rumours have been invented and they have nothing at all to do with the reality of the situation," Tinti told reporters in South Africa where Toni is playing for Italy in the Confederations Cup.
Toni's current contract with Bayern Munich runs until June 2011.
Union urges people to fill stadiums
South Africa's largest labour union yesterday asked South Africans to buy Confederations Cup tickets after the country experienced a low turnout at some early matches.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions in a statement said: "The low turnouts at some matches have been a serious embarrassment to the country and must be improved upon, if we are to demonstrate to the world our passion for football, and to remove any doubts about our commitment to the 2010 World Cup tournament".
The union's call comes after FIFA president Sepp Blatter on Monday criticised organisers of the Confederations Cup for not doing enough to fill stadiums.
The average match ticket costs six euros (nine dollars) in a country where 43 per cent of the population lives on two dollars a day.
Rossi in demand after goal blitz
Italy's Giuseppe Rossi has been hogging the headlines since his two-goal blitz against the United States.
Even before the season ended the Villarreal star had attracted the attention of the likes of Juventus and Manchester City but Villarreal spokesman Jose Manuel Llaneza said: "From our point of view, I think there will be very few clubs who can afford him.
"You only have to look at what he did in the Confederations Cup and what he has done at Villarreal. Rossi is a forward of a very high calibre with a great future."
He added that Villarreal would consider nothing less than €40 million for the player.
Man. City owner eyes six buys
The Abu Dhabi billionaire owner of Manchester City will not pay "crazy money" for players, but may buy up to six players for next season, the club's chairman said.
"I'm frustrated with people assuming we are going to throw crazy money at deals, that we won't understand true values and we can't negotiate for a player," Khaldoon al Mubarak said.
Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan took over City in September, theoretically making them the league's richest club.
Mubarak said: "We will shrink our squad and add four to six players. Key for us is that we trust Mark Hughes and any acquisition is based on his view."
Jesus leads the way for Benfica
Portuguese club Benfica have named former Braga manager Jorge Jesus as their new coach.
Benfica had agreed to pay Braga €700,000 to release Jesus from a contract which tied him to the northern club for another season.
Jesus managed Braga for one season, taking them to fifth place in the Portuguese Premier League and the last 16 of the UEFA Cup for the first time.
Last week, Quique Sanchez Flores stepped down as coach of Benfica after the two sides agreed to end the Spaniard's contract a year early, after one season in charge.
Flores built a squad that included Jose Antonio Reyes, Pablo Aimar and David Suazo, but Benfica could only finish third.
Pitch talk lands Maradona in trouble
Diego Maradona's criticism of River Plate's pitch has landed the Argentina coach in hot water.
River Plate, whose Monumental stadium hosts Argentina's home World Cup qualifiers, wrote to the Argentine FA demanding to see Maradona's contract as national coach and his medical tests.
The club are upset after Maradona slammed the state of the pitch before and after the national team's 1-0 win over Colombia 10 days ago.
Maradona called the pitch a quagmire. AFA president Julio Grondona put an official apology to River Plate on the body's website.