Rangers coach, Michael Beale, has offered a radical potential solution to the Scottish Premiership title debate, as quoted by the Scottish Sun.
Football in Scotland and almost everywhere in Europe is currently halted amid a global health pandemic.
While the likes of the English Premier League and Spanish La Liga have only initially suspended their competitions until early April, the Scottish game is postponed ‘until further notice’ leaving great uncertainty as to when or if it will resume [SPFL.co.uk].
Following a UEFA videoconference yesterday, a resolution was passed with a commitment made to attempting to finish all domestic leagues by 30th June, should conditions allow a return to play.
If no further games take place, some have suggested that the current standings should be taken as final, while others have argued the proper thing would be to declare the campaign null and void.
Beale has an alternative, though.
“Unless the leagues can be split in a fair way, a league with fewer teams like Scotland can decide to not predict into the future – but go back to a point where each team has played each other twice and use that as a fair reference of the teams level over the equal part of the season,” he said, as quoted by the Scottish Sun.
“If the positions are the same as at that point I think it’s a fairer reference point as each team has played each other twice.
“But we must never determine relegation based on a points total where each team has played a different mix of games or opponents and nothing is mathematically decided.
“This would kill all sporting integrity.”
He goes on to suggest that if such a scenario isn’t possible, leagues will ‘stick closely to the rule books’ by postponing the season or cancelling it altogether.
Verdict
This is an interesting viewpoint from Beale and there’s certainly some logic behind the idea.
Clearly, a good portion of the season has already been played, but that doesn’t necessarily equate to fairer standings. Each team has a unique fixture list and will have different opponents outstanding.
However, it seems highly unlikely that many would accept the idea of essentially voiding all that has happened since each team played each other twice, and taking those standings as final.
There’s also the matter of Rangers’ outstanding game against St Johnstone.
The Gers are yet to play the Saints at home this season due to a fixture pile-up, and therefore there is, in fact, no such point in the season where each team has played each other both home and away.
