Stubbs: Celtic deserve title despite obsessed Rangers fans’ views

Alan Stubbs claims that Rangers and their fans are so obsessed with stopping Celtic winning nine and 10-in-a-row, that they want this season to be ruled null and void because Steven Gerrard’s side couldn’t do it on the pitch.

The Ibrox club are currently at war with the SPFL, opposing their motion to finish the season early and demanding that chief executive Neil Doncaster and legal advisor, Rod McKenzie, be suspended pending an independent investigation into alleged wrongdoing.

However, Stubbs – who guided Hibs to their Scottish Cup Final win over Rangers in 2016 – insists that if the season was allowed to finish, Neil Lennon’s men would move even further ahead of their closest rivals to make it nine in a row.

A section of the Rangers support want the SPFL to follow the example of the Dutch rather than the French.

The Eredivisie ended their season without crowning the club in first place – Ajax and AZ Alkmaar were level on points – or relegating anyone.

In Ligue 1, by contrast, the title was awarded to Paris St-Germain, who were 12 points clear of Marseille with a game in hand and 10 fixtures remaining.

Belgium’s Jupiler League ended four weeks ago, and Club Brugge – 15 points clear with one match still to play – were given the title.

For similar reasons, Stubbs insists that Celtic deserve to fly the flag again as well.

They’re 13 points clear of Rangers, who have a game in hand and another eight still to play, including derbies at Ibrox and Parkhead.

During the week, former Rangers manager Ally McCoist claimed there would always be an asterisk against Celtic’s name if the SPFL Board decides they are champions.

Stubbs – the last manager to lift a trophy before Celtic’s domestic domination over the past three seasons – insists this title won’t be tainted.

“I can’t see this season being completed, so Celtic should be announced as champions,” he said.

“If anything, if this season had continued, I could only see the gap between the two clubs becoming wider and wider.

“For me, it’s not even up for discussion because Celtic would have finished even further ahead.

“Rangers had been more or less admitting that their season was over before the lockdown even happened.

“Celtic deserve to be champions. They know how to win when it matters.

“Rangers, on the other hand, have lost two cup finals and five semi-finals since winning promotion to the Premiership in 2016.”

n Kilmarnock chairman Billy Bowie claims that there are much more serious issues facing Scottish football than reconstruction.

He’d rather the SPFL could find solutions to the economic nightmare its members are facing.

Neither the league nor the League Cup have sponsors lined up for next season and – 51 days into a lockdown which has seen both income and funds dwindle – Bowie fears the worst, unless new revenue streams can be found to compensate for the lack of match-day money.

Trucking magnate Bowie has ploughed millions into his local heroes but, even though Killie are one of the best-run clubs in the country, he admits they’re just three months away from sliding out of the back and into the red.

“The next thing we need to do is to decide whether the current season can feasibly be played to a finish or whether we just call it now,” he insisted.

“We must have a decision on that soon because that would help clubs – including ours – start to plan for 2020/21, whenever that might be allowed to begin.

“We need to think about when we can safely start to allow supporters back into our grounds.

“First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said the ban on mass gatherings might continue until early next year, which would be a problem for all of us.

“In terms of the money we currently have in the bank, we’ll be fine until August when it comes to paying the bills which need to be paid without season-ticket money or match-day revenue.

“After that, it will be difficult.”