Scottish Football 2025-26 | boooooo

[GoonerBear]

I find your response quite odd. It just highlights what an imperious achievement it was by Sir Alex to break the Old Firm back then when no one has done it since. I don't follow Scottish football so it doesn't matter a whole lot to me, but I find it neat that no one else has managed to do what he did.

While Sir Alex achievements were obviously fantastic, we do need to remember that he wasn't the only non Old Firm manager to win the league in that period, Jim McLean and Dundee Utd won the league in 82/83. In fact, if Celtic didn't win the league on the last day in 1986, we'd have had a 4 year run of Dundee Utd, Aberdeen X2 & Hearts as league winners, before the Souness revolution happened at Rangers and because of the English European ban was able to get England national team players up north like Woods, Stevens and Butcher.

Dundee Utd also reached a European Cup semi in '84 and a UEFA Cup final in '87. Was much more of a romantic time with teams playing nearly all home grown players. Some big names in Scottish football history, like Leighton, McLeish, Miller, Strachan for Aberdeen and Malpas, Gough, Narey, Sturrock for Dundee Utd

 

[golden_blunder]

You don’t think it’s fairer for them to play a system like the PL were it doesn’t split? Then you’re at luck of the draw for the fixtures. Hearts probably would have won the league had they not had to play the strongest teams at the end of a long season. From that POV it’s fairer on the other clubs. But n my opinion.

Sell me the benefits of the split?

 

[SirAF]

While Sir Alex achievements were obviously fantastic, we do need to remember that he wasn't the only non Old Firm manager to win the league in that period, Jim McLean and Dundee Utd won the league in 82/83. In fact, if Celtic didn't win the league on the last day in 1986, we'd have had a 4 year run of Dundee Utd, Aberdeen X2 & Hearts as league winners, before the Souness revolution happened at Rangers and because of the English European ban was able to get England national team players up north like Woods, Stevens and Butcher.

Dundee Utd also reached a European Cup semi in '84 and a UEFA Cup final in '87. Was much more of a romantic time with teams playing nearly all home grown players. Some big names in Scottish football history, like Leighton, McLeish, Miller, Strachan for Aberdeen and Malpas, Gough, Narey, Sturrock for Dundee Utd

I know. It doesn’t really change anything I wrote.

 

[GoonerBear]

You don’t think it’s fairer for them to play a system like the PL were it doesn’t split? Then you’re at luck of the draw for the fixtures. Hearts probably would have won the league had they not had to play the strongest teams at the end of a long season. From that POV it’s fairer on the other clubs. But n my opinion.

Sell me the benefits of the split?

The theory behind it is that you end up playing a series of games with teams you are meant to be in direct contention with, so making the run in more exciting, and to be fair, I'd say this season in particular in the top half that's worked really well.

I know. It doesn’t really change anything I wrote.

Hence my first sentence.

 

[SirAF]

Hence my first sentence.

Could have saved you a wall of text! Just kidding mate

 

[FearAontaithe]

You don’t think it’s fairer for them to play a system like the PL were it doesn’t split? Then you’re at luck of the draw for the fixtures. Hearts probably would have won the league had they not had to play the strongest teams at the end of a long season. From that POV it’s fairer on the other clubs. But n my opinion.

Sell me the benefits of the split?

The benefits are more direct competition settling the championship.

Beats 115 wrapping it up at home versus pliant mid-table mediocrity.

The drawbacks I suppose are Hearts not winning the championship against already relegated whoever, and having to beat the reigning champions at their ground.

 

[Ish]

Celtic win they win the league
Draw - Hearts win it

Celtic need to win, Hearts need to not lose.

Thanks lads. Heartbreaking for Hearts, that. I hope they maintain this level and compete again next year.

 

[BeforeKeanetherewasRobson]

Obviously highly unlikely it makes any difference, but the rules are clear that game abandonments due to pitch invasions should be sanctioned. Standard practice is replay or forfeiture. Particularly when the same thing happened on Wednesday night. And especially when it's the club's third major pitch invasion in a matter of weeks. Clearly the club's weak comments indulging the invasion after the first incident at Ibrox have helped to create an invincible attitude amongst the invading fans. The lack of official response to Wednesday's invasion, probably swept aside by the furore over the penalty award, has further enabled a zero-consequences attitude.

It's unlikely in both games that Motherwell and Hearts find an equaliser. But twice there's been a minute or so to play and it's the Celtic fans who've decided to end the game and then the referee having to react and take a safety-based decision to blow his whistle before time is up. Yesterday there was no safe way the game could be restarted so it must go down as an abandonment despite the attempt to cover tracks that took place last night.

It's a basic principle that pitch invasions during the game that force the game to finish are punished with a severe sanction. There was literally the same example last week in the 97th minute in Czech football that saw the game abandoned, the club fined, awarded a 3-0 defeat, and are to play 4 games behind closed doors. The Scottish FA's judicial panel protocol sets out that the punishment is a fine up to £1m and the game must be replayed due to pitch invasions forcing the abandonment.

I heard about the Slavia Prague incident and I’m not disagreeing with your opinion (replay or forfeit) but wondered if that situation/outcome was influenced by their fans throwing flares into the other fans sections (I.e. it passed some type of threshold)?

Don’t know, just wondering.

 

[FriedClams]

You don’t think it’s fairer for them to play a system like the PL were it doesn’t split? Then you’re at luck of the draw for the fixtures. Hearts probably would have won the league had they not had to play the strongest teams at the end of a long season. From that POV it’s fairer on the other clubs. But n my opinion.

Sell me the benefits of the split?

This is an unlikely scenario, but let’s say that after 33 games the league looked like this;

1. Hearts 70pts
2. Celtic 69 pts
3. Rangers 69 pts
4. Motherwell 68 pts
5. Hibs 67pts
6. Falkirk 66 pts
7. Aberdeen 65 pts

now let’s say the top 6 have a bunch of draws, a few wins and a defeat, with the winner ending on 79pts…Aberdeen would then play teams 8-12 and win all their games and finish on 80 pts. They would still finish 7th!

Presumably the SPL wants a more competitive league, so any system that makes the above even slightly possible is a poor one

 

[FriedClams]

Obviously highly unlikely it makes any difference, but the rules are clear that game abandonments due to pitch invasions should be sanctioned. Standard practice is replay or forfeiture. Particularly when the same thing happened on Wednesday night. And especially when it's the club's third major pitch invasion in a matter of weeks. Clearly the club's weak comments indulging the invasion after the first incident at Ibrox have helped to create an invincible attitude amongst the invading fans. The lack of official response to Wednesday's invasion, probably swept aside by the furore over the penalty award, has further enabled a zero-consequences attitude.

It's unlikely in both games that Motherwell and Hearts find an equaliser. But twice there's been a minute or so to play and it's the Celtic fans who've decided to end the game and then the referee having to react and take a safety-based decision to blow his whistle before time is up. Yesterday there was no safe way the game could be restarted so it must go down as an abandonment despite the attempt to cover tracks that took place last night.

It's a basic principle that pitch invasions during the game that force the game to finish are punished with a severe sanction. There was literally the same example last week in the 97th minute in Czech football that saw the game abandoned, the club fined, awarded a 3-0 defeat, and are to play 4 games behind closed doors. The Scottish FA's judicial panel protocol sets out that the punishment is a fine up to £1m and the game must be replayed due to pitch invasions forcing the abandonment.

Yup looks identical

 

[Gio]

Yup looks identical

Plenty of similarities:

• an injury time pitch invasion
• pitch invaded by fans of the team in the lead
• pitch invasion forced abandonment of the game

I heard about the Slavia Prague incident and I’m not disagreeing with your opinion (replay or forfeit) but wondered if that situation/outcome was influenced by their fans throwing flares into the other fans sections (I.e. it passed some type of threshold)?

Don’t know, just wondering.

Yeah it will have been. That's where the authorities will/should break down the offence and link it to the corresponding punishment.

Pitch invasion forcing abandonment - forfeiture of the game because this is about the integrity of fulfilling the fixture.

Fan behaviour - 4 games behind closed doors, i.e. fans directly punished for their behaviour

 

[Stickz]

This is an unlikely scenario, but let’s say that after 33 games the league looked like this;

1. Hearts 70pts
2. Celtic 69 pts
3. Rangers 69 pts
4. Motherwell 68 pts
5. Hibs 67pts
6. Falkirk 66 pts
7. Aberdeen 65 pts

now let’s say the top 6 have a bunch of draws, a few wins and a defeat, with the winner ending on 79pts…Aberdeen would then play teams 8-12 and win all their games and finish on 80 pts. They would still finish 7th!

Presumably the SPL wants a more competitive league, so any system that makes the above even slightly possible is a poor one

there have been times when the 7th placed team has finished on more points than 6th place.

I actually think it makes for quite an exciting system though i’d not be for it in England.

 

[Reiver]

You don’t think it’s fairer for them to play a system like the PL were it doesn’t split? Then you’re at luck of the draw for the fixtures. Hearts probably would have won the league had they not had to play the strongest teams at the end of a long season. From that POV it’s fairer on the other clubs. But n my opinion.

Sell me the benefits of the split?

I've never been a fan of it. I think it was introduced to give mid table teams something to play for towards the end of the season more than anything else. Obviously you can have the team finishing in 7th on more points than the team above them, not a major issue, but it does look stupid. A far greater issue is that you can have teams playing away at the same ground 3 times in a season. It happened this season and I think it probably has every time since the split.

The best solution would be to expand the top league with enough teams so they play each other twice, home and away. There is definitely enough teams of good enough quality to do this. In fact, a report commissioned not too long ago recommended this but was obviously rejected by the SPL.

 

[Reiver]

Plenty of similarities:

• an injury time pitch invasion
• pitch invaded by fans of the team in the lead
• pitch invasion forced abandonment of the game

Yeah it will have been. That's where the authorities will/should break down the offence and link it to the corresponding punishment.

Pitch invasion forcing abandonment - forfeiture of the game because this is about the integrity of fulfilling the fixture.

Fan behaviour - 4 games behind closed doors, i.e. fans directly punished for their behaviour

Haven't the SFA come out and said the final whistle was blown? Thought I read it somewhere

 

[StamsShinyHead]

There’s a video showing a fan running towards shankland to film him, phone in hand, and shankland very aggressively shoves him away and comes close to catching him with his elbow. Looks like he just defending himself though, can’t blame him, actually fair play to him for being that brave

Yeah I'd agree here. Players at a minimum should be safe from this kind of crap on the pitch. Added to the fact he's after a very emotional moment, and he doesn't know the fan's intent.

 

[FriedClams]

Plenty of similarities:

• an injury time pitch invasion
• pitch invaded by fans of the team in the lead
• pitch invasion forced abandonment of the game

Yeah it will have been. That's where the authorities will/should break down the offence and link it to the corresponding punishment.

Pitch invasion forcing abandonment - forfeiture of the game because this is about the integrity of fulfilling the fixture.

Fan behaviour - 4 games behind closed doors, i.e. fans directly punished for their behaviour

You said “literally the same” I just wanted to show that it clearly wasn’t. Big difference between fans invading the pitch with phones to take selfies, and fans armed with flares. Punishment should fit the crime.

 

[Denis' cuff]

Maybe already mentioned but not much diff w/championship playoffs.

Slogged through the whole season then get beat by a team that finished 5/6th.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Doing their utmost to ruin the game on so many levels. Maybe this us t the worst but it’s still a money grab

Think I’ll give the WC a miss

 

[golden_blunder]

Thanks lads. Heartbreaking for Hearts, that. I hope they maintain this level and compete again next year.

2 of their players are on loan and will return to their parent clubs. I suspect rangers will once again sniff around shankland. I’ll be surprised if the team doesn’t lose 4-5

 

[Ish]

2 of their players are on loan and will return to their parent clubs. I suspect rangers will once again sniff around shankland. I’ll be surprised if the team doesn’t lose 4-5

Yeah someone above posted that 5-6 players are already leaving. That’s brutal. Maybe Bloom can use them as a “development” type club for Brighton who they can loan players to? I’m no fan of the multi club ownership (not even sure how involved Bloom as with Hearts) but hoping Bloom can keep them competitive.

 

[MrMarcello]

I wasn't aware how the SPL sets up the final stretch run with splitting into two groups of six.

Why not just end the season at 33 matches and send the top six to a playoff format and the bottom six to a relegation playoff format? It's basically what they're seemingly doing yet tallying group points towards to a 38-match table. It's an odd system for me. And probably rarely matters anyhow as Celtic and/or Rangers are usually well clear of the rest.

 

[GoonerBear]

I've never been a fan of it. I think it was introduced to give mid table teams something to play for towards the end of the season more than anything else. Obviously you can have the team finishing in 7th on more points than the team above them, not a major issue, but it does look stupid. A far greater issue is that you can have teams playing away at the same ground 3 times in a season. It happened this season and I think it probably has every time since the split.

The best solution would be to expand the top league with enough teams so they play each other twice, home and away. There is definitely enough teams of good enough quality to do this. In fact, a report commissioned not too long ago recommended this but was obviously rejected by the SPL.

I think defo that an expanded top league playing each other twice would be better. The problem used to be clubs didn't want to lose the benefit of having extra Old Firm games at home boosting gate receipts, although I think that less of an issue now as some clubs started slashing their allocation anyway. So I'd imagine the main stumbling block now is trying to get Sky / TV companies to be happy with less Old Firm games a season, which isn't great when trying to negotiate TV deals.

 

[Reiver]

Yeah someone above posted that 5-6 players are already leaving. That’s brutal. Maybe Bloom can use them as a “development” type club for Brighton who they can loan players to? I’m no fan of the multi club ownership (not even sure how involved Bloom as with Hearts) but hoping Bloom can keep them competitive.

If I remember correctly, the stake Bloom has is 1% short of the amount that would count as him being being an owner/co-owner. For the purposes of avoiding any issues if we meet another of his teams in Europe. I might be wrong. The Foundation of Hearts wrote to members explaining it when they needed us to vote it through.

 

[Reiver]

I think defo that an expanded top league playing each other twice would be better. The problem used to be clubs didn't want to lose the benefit of having extra Old Firm games at home boosting gate receipts, although I think that less of an issue now as some clubs started slashing their allocation anyway. So I'd imagine the main stumbling block now is trying to get Sky / TV companies to be happy with less Old Firm games a season, which isn't great when trying to negotiate TV deals.

Yeah, this was a big factor too. Clubs outside the Old Firm, the Edinburgh clubs and Aberdeen would definitely lose out financially if they didn't have as many home games against Celtic and Rangers

 

[GoonerBear]

2 of their players are on loan and will return to their parent clubs. I suspect rangers will once again sniff around shankland. I’ll be surprised if the team doesn’t lose 4-5

I've heard talk that Rangers are interested in Cammy Devlin, not sure how true that is.

Tony Bloom bought 29.6% of the club but non voting shares, although he did get to choose a member on the board.

And he's involved enough to enjoy a pint or 2 in the local.

 

[BeforeKeanetherewasRobson]

Haven't the SFA come out and said the final whistle was blown? Thought I read it somewhere

I thought I’d read similar and them saying ref told them he’d blown final whistle… which is bollocks. They had over half a minute when goal went in and 8 minutes is a minimum anyway.

Also saw something saying ref said he’d blown for safety reasons. If nothings done, sets a precedent for fans of clubs when team winning late on.

 

[Drainy]

Judging by a Hearts supporters reply further back they are not, they’re losing half their starting 11. I personally believe it was a once off. Celtic had a manager for a month that wouldn’t look out of place in my local football club and still won the league.

thats the business model

Buy for a dollar sell for two

The replacements will be data led undervalued signings and knowing Tony Bloom's data company probably just as good or better than the current side as the budget increases from profit from sales

 

[Ish]

If I remember correctly, the stake Bloom has is 1% short of the amount that would count as him being being an owner/co-owner. For the purposes of avoiding any issues if we meet another of his teams in Europe. I might be wrong. The Foundation of Hearts wrote to members explaining it when they needed us to vote it through.

Aargh thanks bud. Makes a lot of sense

 

[Krny]

Also why were Hearts given only 800 seats?!

Other way round and Celtic would get an entire stand.

They wouldn't.

Celtic get around 650 tickets at tynecastle

https://www.skysports.com/football/...e-away-tickets-for-scottish-premiership-match

 

[Krny]

Just by all the people reporting from the game. Unless they are lying?

They were literally lieing.

A couple of fans goaded shankland and shankland reacted and he (shankland) was the one who got physical. No celtic fan assaulted him or initiated and sort of physical contact. They just took the piss out of him and shankland resorted to physical contact. So yes, they all lied.

You could have guessed they were liars when they reported it without any evidence other than literal hearsay/lies

 

[Gio]

I thought I’d read similar and them saying ref told them he’d blown final whistle… which is bollocks. They had over half a minute when goal went in and 8 minutes is a minimum anyway.

Also saw something saying ref said he’d blown for safety reasons. If nothings done, sets a precedent for fans of clubs when team winning late on.

Aye it was a story leaked/briefed into the media to try and dampen the issue. No clear quotes or official sources. In any case, it doesn't stand up to any form of scrutiny.

Ultimately the rules are clear when it's an abandonment - match void and replay.

 

[FriedClams]

Aye it was a story leaked/briefed into the media to try and dampen the issue. No clear quotes or official sources. In any case, it doesn't stand up to any form of scrutiny.

Ultimately the rules are clear when it's an abandonment - match void and replay.

I’m sure you’d be saying the same if your own team had just gone 3-1 up to win the league with 30 seconds to go and your opposition fecked off onto the bus?

 

[Krny]

Just by all the people reporting from the game. Unless they are lying?

They were literally lieing.

A couple of fans goaded shankland and shankland reacted and he (shankland) was the one who got physical. No celtic fan assaulted him or initiated and sort of physical contact . They just took the piss out of him and shankland resorted to physical contact. So yes, they all lied.

No evidence that fist connects.

It didn't, he was giving shankland the w**ker gesture. Shankland is the only one who resorted to touching anyone physically

 

[Gio]

I’m sure you’d be saying the same if your own team had just gone 3-1 up to win the league with 30 seconds to go and your opposition fecked off onto the bus?

Obviously not as a fan, but it's not up to fans to determine the rules or when the game finishes. That's for the authorities to implement the rules.

As we know there's been a lot of hiding behind rules over the last couple of weeks, however ridiculous that position has appeared to the wider world.

 

[Krny]

Isn’t that 14 of the last 15 titles? ‘Buzzing’, really?

Yes, celtic winning the league means more to Celtic fans than the likes of Leicester /arsenal, liverpool /city winning the passionless pit down south does to Leicester fan etc

 

[LochGormanAbú]

Any videos of the alleged assaults?

no cause it didn't happen, the pitch invasion shouldn't have happened till the final whistle, but this assault story is nonsense

 

[Krny]

That's a race to the bottom. The end of that game was disgraceful. No arguement or mitigation.

End of the game was great scenes, that's what you want to see. Passion, celebration, the craic, opposition players getting goaded and the piss taken out of them etc. even when ny team gets beat i do enjoy the piss take after. It's all part of the craic , Passion and rivalry. (These could be foreign words to EPL fans to be fair)

Only in football do people clutch their pearls at pitch invasions. These are scenes you want to see , no matter how many times Sky repeat that we don't.

Leave all this faux respect, fake arse licking, We're all mates muck to the pish drinkers who follow rugby.

 

[moses]

End of the game was great scenes, that's what you want to see. Passion, celebration, the craic, opposition players getting goaded and the piss taken out of them etc. even when ny team gets beat i do enjoy the piss take after. It's all part of the craic , Passion and rivalry. (These could be foreign words to EPL fans to be fair)

Only in football do people clutch their pearls at pitch invasions. These are scenes you want to see , no matter how many times Sky repeat that we don't.

It was a pitch invasion before the final whistle.

 

[Red00012]

Also why were Hearts given only 800 seats?!

Other way round and Celtic would get an entire stand.

No they wouldn’t

 

[Frosty]

Obviously highly unlikely it makes any difference, but the rules are clear that game abandonments due to pitch invasions should be sanctioned. Standard practice is replay or forfeiture. Particularly when the same thing happened on Wednesday night. And especially when it's the club's third major pitch invasion in a matter of weeks. Clearly the club's weak comments indulging the invasion after the first incident at Ibrox have helped to create an invincible attitude amongst the invading fans. The lack of official response to Wednesday's invasion, probably swept aside by the furore over the penalty award, has further enabled a zero-consequences attitude.

It's unlikely in both games that Motherwell and Hearts find an equaliser. But twice there's been a minute or so to play and it's the Celtic fans who've decided to end the game and then the referee having to react and take a safety-based decision to blow his whistle before time is up. Yesterday there was no safe way the game could be restarted so it must go down as an abandonment despite the attempt to cover tracks that took place last night.

It's a basic principle that pitch invasions during the game that force the game to finish are punished with a severe sanction. There was literally the same example last week in the 97th minute in Czech football that saw the game abandoned, the club fined, awarded a 3-0 defeat, and are to play 4 games behind closed doors. The Scottish FA's judicial panel protocol sets out that the punishment is a fine up to £1m and the game must be replayed due to pitch invasions forcing the abandonment.

Have to agree with all of this, although it is clear nothing will be done about the events this season.

The SFA must get tough going forward with serious penalties, including points deductions. Allowing games to end after a pitch invasion is simply inviting fans of all clubs to repeat this kind of behaviour. It doesn't matter whether any Hearts players were touched yesterday. The point is that players could be placed in danger in the future.

 

[Xaviesta]

Statement from the SPL with the important bits in bold:

Firstly, we send our congratulations to Celtic on winning the William Hill Premiership in the most exciting of circumstances and send our commiserations to everyone at Heart of Midlothian following an incredible campaign.

We would also like to thank the referee and his excellent team of match officials for their cool heads on such a dramatic day. Given the speculation about the conclusion of the game, we would like to make clear that, prior to awarding the trophy, we were informed by the match referee that the match had ended and had not been abandoned.

Yesterday’s match showed off the very best of the Scottish game and the drama and excitement that it is rightly famed for. The eyes of the world were on Glasgow and the climax of the William Hill Premiership, with millions of viewers watching the match on Sky Sports and across the globe.

However, we utterly condemn the scenes which saw a number of Celtic supporters encroach onto the field of play. We await the report of our match delegate regarding any specific incidents that took place but, regardless, supporters entering the field of play in any circumstances is wholly unacceptable and puts those participating and working at a match at risk. We note that entering the pitch in England and Wales has been a criminal offence since 1991. We urge anyone with information about any alleged criminal activity to contact Police Scotland.