Brown wants current standings to count if Premiership is halted

CELTIC captain Scott Brown claims current league standings should count if the season i s forced to come to a premature end.

Scottish football authorities are discussing their next move after the Holyrood Government announced plans to curtail large gatherings.

Matches could be played behind closed doors or the season temporarily suspended, but the coronavirus crisis is causing an ever-changing set of scenarios which could mean the campaign cannot be finished.

However, Brown believes there need to be winners and losers.

Speaking ahead of Celtic’s bid to move 16 points clear of Rangers in the Premiership at Ibrox on Sunday, the midfielder said: “If it ends, it stays as it is. We are i n a good position but we just need to focus on this game on Sunday.

“The main thing is we make sure everyone is OK, they are all safe and we try to nail this on the head as soon as we can.

“But we still want to play football and win as many games as we can, whether it’s in front of fans or not.”

When the prospect of a season finishing without a champion was suggested, Brown said: “I don’t know what’s going to happen.

“We have just got to take the lead from the club and the SFA as well and we will worry about that when it comes.”

The more likely scenario is that games are played in empty grounds for a short period at least – although Ibrox is set to be full for Sunday’s derby.

Brown said: “It will be sad if there’s no fans there because t h a t ’s w h a t football is all about.

“But if it gets the league done and dusted and we managed to keep up with the fixtures as well, it helps everybody.”

Celtic skipper Scott Brown.