SCOTTISH FOOTBALL (2)

Back in January, I said that Scottish football was rather dull, since the two Glasgow clubs, Rangers and Celtic, have had, and still have, an effective duopoly. Since then, it has become even duller.

Basically, Rangers went bust. It was a protracted affair, but that was the end result. A new club was formed out of the ashes, but under the rules of the system, it was not allowed to participate in the Scottish Premier League. It then applied to join the first division of the Scottish Football League, the next best tournament, whose winner gets access to the Premier League. The SFL said that Rangers could join, but only in the third division. Which means that Scotland's most successful football club won't get back to the SPL before August 2015 at the earliest.

Not surprisingly, in Rangers' absence Celtic are already top of the SPL, with a game in hand. Yawn.

Walter Blotscher