If league finishes now, Celtic are the champions
AS regrettable as it is, the correct decision has been made in terms of postponing the Scottish leagues at this moment in time.
There are more important things than football after all, and health is definitely one of them. It is not a matter of life and death, despite the old saying, so credit to the authorities for belatedly doing the right thing.
The only problem they have now is what to do next, and with the coronavirus not set to peak here for weeks or perhaps months, there doesn’t seem to be an obvious solution.
From a Celtic point of view, it is easy to sympathise with Neil Lennon’s assertion that the league title should be awarded to the club should the season be unable to be played to a finish. It is true that it is unlikely Celtic would drop as many points in their remaining eight games as they did in their opening 30, after all.
Rangers though would argue that with two games yet to play between the clubs and with a game in hand of their own against St Johnstone, that they still had a chance – however slim – of clawing back that deficit.
That would never happen in my book, but there is the real possibility that Rangers would mount a legal challenge in any case.
It is such a shame for Celtic that it might come to that. Lennon’s side have been terrific since the winter break, and not only do they deserve the chance to lift a league trophy that they have earned, but they also deserve a chance to go for an unprecedented fourth treble on the bounce.
So much hard work has gone into Celtic getting into this position, and now, through no fault of the manager or the players, they may be denied the chance to make history.
What would be unthinkable is that the season is declared null and void, and simply wiped from the record. That would be a gross injustice given the position that Celtic have worked to get themselves into.
Even if Celtic are awarded the title though, what would that mean for next season? Would they still be going for 10-in-a-row? Would the achievement of getting nine titles in succession be diminished? Rangers fans would probably claim that to be the case, even though I don’t think the argument holds any water.
Where it is even trickier is at the opposite end of the table, where the margins between teams are much tighter than at the top of the league. For me, it is clear that Celtic were going to win the title, and that they will do so should the games go ahead in the near future. But the picture is much less clear in terms of relegation, with Hearts only four points adrift of Hamilton at the bottom of the Premiership.
I think it would be nighon impossible to argue that Hearts were nailed on to still be bottom of the league at the end of the season, particularly with the post-split fixtures pitching the teams at the bottom against one another, so there would be all sorts of legal ramifications I would think should they be told the current league positions would be final and they would be going down to the Championship.
Speaking of the Championship, the situation is even tighter at the bottom of that division, so it is an absolute minefield right throughout the leagues.
What worries me above all else from a football perspective is what all this could mean for clubs in a financial sense. The issue of the destination of the league title is one thing, and obviously means so much to everyone concerned. But at the other end of the scale, we could be looking at clubs really struggling to make ends meet if they don’t have the ticket money they rely on to survive.
The SPFL have already said there is no reserve pot of money to help clubs out with any short-term shortfall, so it is a really concerning time for so many famous old Scottish clubs.
It’s an awful situation for Scottish football as a whole, and while I realise that the impacts of the disease are far more wide-reaching than that and far more serious than what it means for sport, it doesn’t lessen the ramifications this could have on our clubs and on the history books.
Hopefully it won’t come to that, and we will be able to get back to some sort of normality in order for the rest of the games to be played in the near future.
My preference would be for the matches to take place in the summer if it is at all possible, and I’m sure that Celtic and Lennon would prefer that too.
It would of course have a huge knock-on effect in terms of the team’s preparations for next season and for their Champions League qualification campaign, but when faced with the other options, it seems the best scenario of a pretty bad bunch.
It is a shame too for Scotland that just when a bit of enthusiasm is building up around the national team for the first time in a long while, and Hampden is sold out for the first time in years for an international, that the rug will likely be pulled from under them.
They have a real chance of beating Israel with a packed national stadium behind them, but it looks unlikely that the match will go ahead at all, never mind being played behind closed doors.
In fact, it looks as though the European Championships may be under threat. On a positive note, if the Euros are put back a year and the winter break is maybe scrapped for next season, it might just be about possible to complete the season this summer. It will put a huge physical strain on the players, but what else can be done?
There are more important things than football