GIVE CELTIC TITLE NOW

SPFL call crisis talks on following lead of Belgians Null and void off table as board weigh up options

SPFL chiefs are set for crisis talks next week to discuss whether or not to follow Belgium’s lead and declare the football season over.

And Record Sport understands if a decision is made to pull the plug on the current campaign Celtic will almost

certainly be crowned champions with immediate effect.

It’s expected the Belgian solution will be at the top of the agenda at a full SPFL board meeting on Monday and then debated again the day after in a series of conference calls with the four separate divisions.

But an alternative option to null and void campaign 2019-20 will not be on the table.

We revealed yesterday Scotland might be forced to go it alone by declaring this season’s winners and losers as, across the border, Premier League bosses are attempting to draw up increasingly unrealistic plans to complete the season and avoid a catastrophic £1billion cancellation bill.

We also told how UEFA – also running scared of huge compensation claims if the Champions League and Europa League has to be scrapped – asked for domestic competitions to be restarted all across the continent from as early as June.

But league bosses in Belgium stuck two fingers up at the governing body yesterday when they handed the Jupiler League title to Brugge, who had romped to a 15-point lead over second-placed Gent.

The move has infuriated UEFA top brass who spent yesterday locked in talks with the Belgians in an attempt to force a U-turn.

SPFL chiefs will be closely monitoring the outcome of these talks before sitting down to thrash out their own emergency measures.

A source close to

Hampden’s sixth floor said: “Developments in Belgium highlight the split between Europe’s big five leagues and the rest.

“The smaller nations have less lucrative broadcast deals and so the scale of the problems they face from cancelling the season are just about manageable.

“The priority for clubs in these countries is to urgently distribute prize money and to begin selling season tickets.

“On the contrary, for the bigger leagues and for UEFA itself, the financial costs of cancelling the season are so unmanageable.

“After discussions at the start of next week it’s very likely we will move towards a Belgium-type decision but obviously it would then need to be made watertight legally before any announcement.”

While Belgium have made Brugge champions they’ve not addressed the issue of relegation at the other end of the table. It’s understood they could opt to reconstruct their entire league rather than sentence clubs to the drop.

That option could also be discussed by the SPFL board next week but it would require the backing of 11 of the top 12 clubs as well as the support of 75 per cent of clubs from across the three lower leagues.

But the null and void alternative is being dismissed as “completely unworkable” with our source saying: “It’s never been looked upon as a viable option.

“The legal implications from saying this season never actually existed would be absolutely immense.”