Meaningless Scottish Football statistic alert: Last weekend, Celtic’s first team, B team and women’s team beat their opponents by a score of 16-1 collectively. Rubbish, you say? Doesn’t matter? Well, to be fair, the collective score line owes much to the 9-0 pasting the women’s team handed to visiting Dundee United on “flag day” at Celtic Park, the first for the Hoops women’s side.
However, we’d argue the figure—which could have been higher if not for the woodwork at Easter Road on Sunday, when the first team defeated Hibs 2-0—actually says a lot about the competitive field in Scotland.
The Full Scottish
Yes, we all know by now that the last team besides Celtic and Rangers to win the men’s top flight in Scotland was Aberdeen, in 1985(!), but what if the problem—that being the dearth of competition—is even deeper than that?
In fact, it’s gotten so bad a pundit seriously (we think) expected all Scottish football supporters to pull for Rangers in their Champions’ League qualifier against Dynamo Kyiv Tuesday night, suggesting that, “Scotland is currently staring into a European abyss.”
’Gers ultimately lost at Hampden 2-0 (thanks to a dubious—we’re being kind—red card), which means Philippe Clement loses out on a £40 million payout that could boost his squad both continentally and domestically. Still, we don’t think there were many tears shed on the green side of Glasgow… or Belfast… or in the Granite City… or… well, you get the idea.
Competition
Which isn’t to say the Premiership wouldn’t benefit from a contested title race involving two—or, ideally, more—legitimate contenders, like, say, the SWPL. Last season’s chase went to the wire, and it made more matches meaningful—though most observers seem to think that Celtic made it close by falling back to the field, rather than the field catching up with the Hoops.
The 2024-season is still young, but already the vultures are circling. Hibs, on the country’s biggest clubs, have a lot of work to do. Their Edinburgh rivals Hearts were badly beaten at the weekend by Dundee. Aberdeen, another of the “big” clubs, just lost its best player, Bojan Miovski, to Girona in La Liga.
And Clement is left ruing that lost £40 million while watching his side’s bitter rivals play in the Champions’ League group stages and, potentially, cash in to the tune of £25 million (or more) through the sale of midfielder Matt O’Riley.
TV Drama
Behind the scenes, the Scottish game’s television partners are begging for a resolution to the “traveling support” drama between Celtic and Rangers, and yet it appears that will stretch on until at least March 2025, further compromising the matchday atmosphere in what remains one of the world’s most compelling fixtures.
That it constitutes all that most neutrals know of the Scottish game makes the need to showcase it in all its glory all the more poignant. Instead, we’re staring into an abyss again.