Sort this feud – give people their game back

SCOTLAND top of the European table leaving England and the rest of the big five in our wake.

If only we were talking about the fortunes of our national team. But no, it’s the supporters.

The one area of football where Scotland can rightfully boast to be ahead of the rest.

The one aspect that gives us hope for the future in trying times.

Latest figures show per head of population Premiership attendances are miles ahead of the nearest challengers with an incredible 1.77 per cent of the population going through the gates.

When you compare that with the EPL (0.72 per cent), La Liga (0.59 per cent), Bundesliga (0.48 per cent), Serie A (0.41 per cent) and Ligue 1 (0.34 per cent) it really is a remarkable stat.

And one that holds up season on season as a year earlier the Premiership was top with a figure of 1.78 per cent.

Against countries with similar populations? Norway has an average 1.01 per cent with Denmark 0.66 per cent.

There’s such a gap even given the suspicion over how some clubs calculate attendance figures there’s room for error and the Premiership would still romp home in first.

Okay the figure is skewed by Celtic and Rangers’ gargantuan followings but if you take out the Old Firm we still sit fourth in the table.

All of which begs the question – if the supporters can consistently be trusted to deliver is it not time for Scottish football to end the three-month civil war threatening to halt the Premiership in its tracks?

Give the people their game back before that hope starts to fade just at a time when the country appears to be kicking coronavirus into touch.

As we revealed yesterday there are tentative hopes to have fans back in our grounds as early as August.

That prospect seemed like a pipe dream just a few weeks ago.

It’s an incredible development in the face of the horrors brought upon the world by the Covid-19 crisis.

That hope can’t now be blown apart by a feud that could threaten the start of the new campaign.

Scottish football reaches a crossroads as the M8 alliance of Hearts and Partick Thistle have their day in court.

The legal clash that sees the Jambos and Jags take on the SPFL over their relegations is potentially more destructive than the Good Friday disagreement

Those members rely on one commodity more than any other – the fans

that caused this ugly spectacle.

That the two clubs, along with Stranraer, have suffered badly at the hands of their fellow members is inarguable and a revamp of the leagues should have avoided this mess.

But reconstruction never worked. Somehow reconciliation has to. Whatever form it takes.

That’s the £10million question facing Neil Doncaster. The threat to pull the trigger on an interim interdict stalling the season start is unthinkable.

Doncaster’s paid the big bucks to lead a body he never tires of saying is a membership organisation.

Those members rely on one commodity more than any other – the fans. And they can’t be forgotten.

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