Article after article in Scottish newspapers has spoken to Celtics disastrous season and the Parkhead clubs loss of its stranglehold on Scottish football.
None of those articles have mentioned the Elephant in the SPFL: the Old Firm duopoly goes “merrily” on its way, 36 years of utter boredom in the Scottish Premiership, with absolutely no hope of any other club breaking the stranglehold the two Glasgow clubs have on the top league.
Scotland getting two representatives in the Champions League is a DISASTER for the ten Also Rans in the Premiership. It simply strengthens the duopoly, with both Celtic and Rangers potentially earning £30 million extra a year, instead of just one of them having that opportunity.
None of the other Scottish clubs in the lower status European competitions will qualify for the Group Stages, so they are most likely to actually LOSE money on their foreign “adventures”.
Before all that starts, of course, there is the little sideshow of the Scottish Cup final.
If St Johnstone win, there will be a few days of Scottish newspapers hailing an amazing achievement by a club that cannot get more than 5000 home supporters to attend their matches in the depressed city of Perth.
After those few days, the press will quietly forget about the nice little club. Even the Scottish media will not try to pretend the Saints will challenge for the Premiership title.
Hibs winning would be more interesting for the football pundits.
A Scottish Cup win + 3rd in the Premiership would be hailed as Hibs best season in 69 years.
Why 69 years?
Because, disgracefully, 1952 was the last time Hibs actually won Scotland’s top league.
However, rather than focusing on how it could be possible for a club of Hibs stature to fail to win the league for such a long period, the Old Firm worshipping Scottish media will hail the Easter Road club as genuine “challengers” in season 2021/22.
“Challengers”?
Hibs will finish around 40 points behind league winners Rangers this season, a deficit that would have seen them just above the relegation zone in many European leagues.
In other words, the Big Lie will continue – the Big Lie being that Hibs or any other Also Ran club can genuinely hope to break the duopoly of Celtic and Rangers.
At today’s prices, Hibs supporters have spent more than £400 million on home match tickets alone since their club last won the league.
And probably the same amount again on beer to drown their sorrows.
Since that Hibs title triumph, jet commercial passenger aircraft flew for the first time; man landed on the Moon; Concorde came and went; the Berlin Wall was built and knocked down; so many wars have taken place that they are too numerous to list; and so on…
The single constant?
Hibs haven’t won the league!
And, without change in the financial arrangements of Scottish football and the structure of the league competition, they NEVER will.
The Northern Ice Cap is forecast to have entirely melted by 2050, which will also be the centenary of Hibs last league win.
Whether or not the waters will actually be lapping at the door of the Leith clubs stadium by that stage is a matter of conjecture.
Sadly, their failure to enjoy league success is NOT.
Hibs – like the rest of the Also Rans – are failures now and still will be in 2050.
INEVITABLY.
Time for Change.
Scottish Football Matters 