The Scottish Football Show
Join Andrew Slaven, Laura Brannan, Findlay Marks and a whole host of guests on The Scottish Football Show podcast every Tuesday, to discuss the biggest, the baddest and the daftest talking points from the wonderful world of Scottish football.
The Scottish Football Show
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More twists and turns than Oliver Twister doing a handbrake turn whilst playing Twister and eating a Twister - the best title race we've seen in Scotland shows now sign of slowing down after another massive weekend in the top flight. Who's going to end it on top? And will they "deserve" to win it?
And if you think the title race and all its permutations is complicated, wait til you get a load of next season's European qualification process for Scottish teams! Far too much for us to get our heads around, so we invited to brilliant Gavin Noon, AKA Scotland's Coefficient, to help us unravel it all.
All this and so much more as we delve into the Player of the Year nominations, the seemingly never-ending Old Firm away fans pantomime, and Scott McKenna actually being quite good!
Join Andrew Slaven, Laura Brannan and Findlay Marks once again as they tackle the big talking points from the last week in Scottish football.
RUNNING ORDER:
00:00: INTRO: Pundits swapping clothes, disappearing pens and World Cup kits for dugs.
07:10: DAZN48: Are you a content creator looking for an opportunity to cover this summer's World Cup as a Scotland fan? You could be working with Andrew...
09:26: JAMES TAVERNIER: One of the longest serving players in the top flights prepares to depart, but how will he be remembered?
14:01: PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Which Hearts or Motherwell player deserves the honour most?
17:26: SCOTT McKENNA: The Scotland defender's just won another league title abroad - is he actually quite good?!
19:29: DUNFERMLINE: Should the Pars be given an equal distribution of tickets for the Scottish Cup Final in May?
22:17: CELTIC v UNION BEARS: Are The Hoops right to demand that Rangers' ultras aren't given tickets to the final Old Firm match of the season?
28:40: SCOTLAND'S COEFFICIENT: Gavin Noon from Scotland's Coefficient helps Laura and Fin to get their heads around the increasingly complex qualification process affecting Scottish clubs playing in Europe.
35:32: SPFL ROUND-UP: From the heights of the thrilling Premiership climax to a potential new League Two champion, we look at what to expect this coming weekend after the last round of action.
51:18: OUTRO
Hello and welcome to this guy's triple show. Here's what's coming up right now. The title is for twists and turns and all of a twist. Will be turned around and twisted. It's very twisty. Obviously disappointed. James Savannah announced his departure from IBRS after 11 years. And the player of the year nominations have been announced. Return of the Saints, Pets are gonna see Premiership action next season at St. Johnston Clinch the Championship. Finley Marx, Laura Brannon, you're back with us. I'm skipping the intros because there's so much to talk about. Finley, firstly, how are you? How are you? How's your car compared to mine?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it's good. Thank you. I love how you just like let's skip the intros. How are you? Let's just have a quick picture.
SPEAKER_05Well, you know, I always give you like the the the Baldy Bane and Paisley or something like that. Um and Laura, the the the pound the pound shop Chris Sutton.
SPEAKER_03Can we just for context explain here for the people do not watch this because we no longer put the YouTube ed out because we're all so busy and can only listen to us now. Andrew and Finn both record this podcast sitting in their cars because we are the highest end budget podcast you will ever hear. And we're all about the quality in our voices and our discussions and absolutely nothing in the production. That's right. I'm in the living room, it's all good, but you two are whipped.
SPEAKER_05Me and Finn are like those 17-year-old guys, like the the oldest in their year that passed it, passed a car driving test nice and early and just like rock up in their car all the time. Yeah, we've got cars, aren't we? Cool, Finn.
SPEAKER_04It's it's very much just for the boring fact of my my Wains are in the up yet, and your Wains have just gone to bed, Andrew, and this is the only place that'll the only place that'll gaze peace for half an hour without uh without being in the toilet, probably. So yeah, it's slightly, slightly comfier in the car. Better acoustics as well, so enjoy.
SPEAKER_05Indeed, you can cut this out by just a couple of mad shaggers, eh? Anyway, uh some some funnies from this week. Did you as I presume everyone has seen the the coverage of Sky Sports at the weekend at Celtic Park, James McFadden and Darren O'Day and their weird costume change in the middle of the broadcast?
SPEAKER_03This is amazing. Yeah, I was working during the Celtic Falkirk game one Saturday. Um covering the FA Cup semi-final, and I got sent a photo of this uh on Twitter, and it was if anyone didn't see it, um, one of them is wearing a beige jacket and navy blue trousers, and the other one was wearing a navy jacket and beige trousers, and someone had tweeted saying, I really hope they changed their jackets at halftime. And then I got follow-up tweets sent through, and they had changed their jackets. Now, as I say, I was working, so I didn't actually have this game on, but please tell me this actually did happen and it was not AI.
SPEAKER_04I I don't know, is that Andrew? You know, like well, I mean both of you working in broadcasts, but Andrew, you you you direct like outside broadcasts, so like is that something that that would have been raised as an issue? Look like why do they look like the inverse, like negative of each other? Maybe we should just get them to swap jackets so it's less noticeable. Like, what's the thinking behind that?
SPEAKER_05There isn't one. I would imagine they've just decided between themselves.
SPEAKER_03Someone would have tweeted them, or like someone would have sent them that tweet, and they've probably just laughed about it at halftime between them and went, fuck it, let's just do that.
SPEAKER_05I think 100% that's probably what happened. I don't know for certain, but yeah, there's no way, there's no way they've gone like, I like they shut me. I was like, Do you want it? It just doesn't work that way, but it's always worrying.
SPEAKER_04It makes me wonder about these little things that people do in broadcasts kind of for their own amusement. I remember for years, I I don't know if you guys this this is before Limmy had his like proper TV show, and he used to do a lot of like videos and skits and stuff on his own his own website and on YouTube. And he noticed something that I can't remember the name of the the guy, John, someone he does does the STV news, but for years he'd done this trick for his own amusement on on live on air. You can go and see this on YouTube where he'll twiddle a pen or used to twirl a pen in his in his hand, then knock it down in the desk, and then it would disappear.
SPEAKER_06Oh, really?
SPEAKER_04Um, and he would like move his hands and there'd be nothing in his hands. And Lemmy did this whole thing about like, look at this pen, nay pen! And they actually called him out. And and this guy was like, Yeah, yeah, I just do it myself. It's for my own amusement. Yes, John Mackay, that's it. Yeah, yeah. Um, it's fantastic. You can watch this. And um, I think people do this on on broadcasts all the time, just to kind of like, I don't know, it's it must be a very dry play sometimes.
SPEAKER_05Well, it's like it's like whenever, whenever you this is this is terrible, but whenever there's like a really like tight decision or like there's a penalty in the last minute or a goal in the last minute, as soon as you see a child crying and the crack, you're like, camera for get away. Just like it's gonna get cut up. You know there's gonna be a camera going, it's gonna start crying soon, and they'll tell the director and then it'll feed through, and then you'll see it in replays, just like not too long ago. Um, remember when oh god, I think it was TNT's coverage, and Spurs lost a match, and it was just like the fastest choppy run around the grounds. All of the Spurs reactions, it was so fast, and uh I I assumed someone was having fun in the trap. Uh what else was going on? Um, we were talking about costumes there just a second, weird costume changes. Adidas have brought out World Cup kits for dogs, Laura. This sounds right up your street. I'm not suggesting you're a dog, but you like dogs.
SPEAKER_03Actually, this is completely not up my street at all. I love dogs to the extent where I don't want to dress them up in human clothes. Really? And also I like to give them their own choice of who they want to support and give them their own voice. No, I will not be dressing up my dog. Well, I don't have a dog, but I will not be dressing up my cat in a Scotland top for the World Cup. Mainly because I got him in England and he's English and he wouldn't actually approve of that. And I don't want to force it on him, but no, no, no, no, no. I'm not for dressing up dogs. Um good novelty, but not for me.
SPEAKER_05Not for you. Uh Fenn, you're a fan of Dugs on Adidas. Couldn't I care less?
SPEAKER_04If you want to dress up the dog, dress it up.
SPEAKER_05If you don't prime my Dudson Terry, though, I'll take that.
SPEAKER_04Uh as we were saying a couple weeks ago, though, I I do think of the World Cup kits, we'll probably get into this closer to a tournament, but Adidas for me have won the run of the World Cup kits anyway. So at least if uh if you're country. No, I know I know you disagree. I know you disagree. No, no, no.
SPEAKER_03I'm not saying I cannot wait till we get into this. This is gonna be like definitely something we touch on in the podcast in a couple weeks' time, but I'm so excited for this because we always love dissecting them all because you guys have awful tastes in kits.
SPEAKER_04There we go. What can we say?
SPEAKER_05The only kits out here are sing kits, Laura. You know that.
SPEAKER_03I know you don't like kit chat, Andrew. You're weird. You just what do you want to talk about? Queen the South and the playoffs. That's it. That's the only thing you ever want to talk about. Um, but you're are you not working on stuff over the World Cup?
SPEAKER_05Uh yeah, I've got a World Cup project that's keeping me from actually going to the World Cup. Which is devastating. Like, if if anything, if I if I'm not doing anything in the summer, I'd rather be doing something. Uh, and to be fair, it's a pretty big project. Um at the Zone, the Zone have just launched on Friday there a campaign to look for like content creators across the whole world. And um, if if I'm honest, if you are listening to this podcast, it's a really, really good opportunity to try and launch yourself with a you know a major broadcaster, a global broadcaster. So I'm basically production lead on. So you're looking for influencers. I'm looking for social media content creators to be the voice of their nation during the World Cup, and that is you know, creating content that tells uh the someone who's watching about the culture back at home. Do you know what I mean? So it's not just about being in uh in America or or over there during the World Cup, it's about tapping into the local atmosphere and how you um kind of digest football and how you how you're emotionally affected by the results and stuff like that. So it's something that if you don't know about it, go on to dezone.com forward slash for the zone 48. That's how you get on to it, or you can go just look at the zone. Um, there's hunters of uh of uh accounts.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I know you were wearing their cap last week, now you're plugging their website.
SPEAKER_05Well, the big thing is because I want to get the best Scottish person on it as possible, and I can't do it because I work for the zone, so I'm not gonna do it.
SPEAKER_03That would there's a good few content creator potentials out there, so I'm sure they'll be listening.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I'm not having you, Laura. I'm not having you.
SPEAKER_03Don't worry, I'm not getting I don't want to get paid during the World Cup. I want to be drinking a lot of pints, not worrying about what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I mean I will still do some of that too. Um, probably at the volley.
SPEAKER_02Nice, I'll see you there.
SPEAKER_00The dogs bark and the caravan passes, the caravan keeps moving, the caravan keeps going.
SPEAKER_05Finn, let's go to you for the first bit of news that we need to rattle through. James Tavenier's uh Leave and Eyebrooks, sum it up. How how bad is it? Or are there some um happy Rangers fans out there? He's not really played much this season, and I'll I'll tag this with by saying, keep it brief.
SPEAKER_04Obviously disappointed. So um yeah, it's it's pretty seismic news. It is because he's he's been at the club for uh I think this is his 11th year, so like 10 seasons, and he arrived as a 22-year-old, 23-year-old, having already played for something wild, like seven clubs. To try and be as brief as possible. I think both things can be true at the same time, where it it will be a big loss to Rangers, losing someone who's been part of the furniture and been the captain for the majority of that time as well. I think if you just look at James Tavenier, the player, he's been an exceptional servant to Rangers. What was it? 550 odd games, 150 odd goals as well, 140 odd goals. He believes as the highest scoring British defender of all time. He overtook your mate Graham Alexander a few years ago, Laura. Um, he was the top scorer in the Europa League when Rangers made it all the way to the final in 2022. He's won every major honour there is to win in in Scotland, led his team to a European final. He's been Rangers talisman, uh, less so over the last 18 months, but the amount of times that James Tavanier's like dug Rangers out of a hole in matches has been incredible. I think Connor Goldson said after his uh winner when Rangers won the League Cup under Clement, well, that'd be about 18 months ago, Rangers won't realise how much they they'll miss James Tavanier until he's not there. He will be a huge loss. I do think it's time though. Uh I think it's not just for the fact that he's not been the same player for the last 18 months, two seasons that he has been. I think it's really the spell under Gerard, particularly, is really like the peak, I would say, of his Rangers' career when he was in full flight as an attacking right back, and it was kind of mirrored with Bonabarasitch in his prime on the left. I think as a captain, that'll probably be the question mark that people have because as a captain of either side of the old firm, you're always going to be judged on the event of silverware. You win. And quite frankly, James Tavernier hasn't won enough. He's won some big ones, he won a very important league title, he's won a Scottish Cup, he's won uh a League Cup. And could yet we'll get into this in a minute, could yet potentially walk away on the highest of highs. But I think uh I think that will be something that kind of colours his overall spell. That said, I think in time he will be remembered fondly by the Ranger support for for the service that he gave, for what he did achieve, and and for the memories that the Ranger fans have got with him. But yeah, it's it I mean it's it's a huge change. Um it is rare anyone does a decade of service at one club, so that has to be applauded. And yeah, it'll be a huge change. It'll be different seeing uh you know when all the captains line up next season and it'll be someone different in in the blue ranger shirt because he's been fixture for for rangers, but also just for Scottish football for so long.
SPEAKER_05I mean, that's a good question, and I don't want to dwell too much on it, but is there a other than I would probably say Nicholas Raskin, is there anyone else that would actually take up that armband?
SPEAKER_04I I I think uh interestingly, so this is a discussion obviously that's been going on amongst Rangers fans. One player that's on the pits shown to have quite good leadership capabilities, and if you if you read things like uh Range Sources Close to the Club, it is kind of reflected in what he does off the pitch as well. But Emmanuel Fernandez apparently um has has been one of the real leaders in the dressing room since he's kind of grown into that position in the Rangers team this year. So I think between him or Raskin, potentially even Jack. If he doesn't go in the summer, well, I mean that's a huge question as well. I don't know that Rangers aren't in a place where they want to sell them, it would take stupid money, I think, to prize them away from Ibrox. And again, that would be another reason potentially to incentivize staying is to give him the captaincy. So I I'm not too sure. I think Raskin would probably be the front runner, but also, you know, they could look to bring in an experienced head this this year as well. I don't know what Danny Role's plans are this summer, but yeah, it'll be strange seeing somebody other than James Tavany wearing the captain's armband next year.
SPEAKER_05Player of the year nominations. Um, Laura, who who do you think should be getting this award this season?
SPEAKER_03Like, it's refreshing just for a change to also the four that are nominated two motherbull, two hearts players. When on earth would that ever have happened in any other season? Uh it's well earned. Exactly. It's it's not even surprising. It's it's worth celebrating, but it's not surprising. Um, Claudio Braga, Lauren Shankland, Elliot Just, and Twanda Masvanisi. Um, look, if you want to go by stats, Masvanese sit on top of the table in terms of goal scorers this season. Um, Elliot Just just it just has been incredible since coming into Mother Bowl. But then Braga and Shankland. Shanklin, I don't think, is his up there because he's only because he's missed out on injury uh through injury and he's not played the full season. But I think you could have chosen a lot of Hearts players, to be honest. Um, I think the votes might have been split across them, um, and the two of them have just sort of got in because of numbers rather than fully on merit, if that makes any sense. Uh, whereas the the Motherwell boys are just absolute standouts. I I wouldn't knock any of them win it, though. It's just so refreshing to see this. Um, some something different in the lineup this year.
SPEAKER_05Well the the awards the awards are on the 3rd of May. So like it feels it feels a little bit unfair if like Shankland as captain of hearts leads them to the first team to win the championship well the premiership, sorry, um since 84 or whatever. Like it seems a little bit of a shame in a way for me, especially. I mean, I'm a bit of a a lover of Shanklin's journey through Scottish football anyway.
SPEAKER_03Um it's just it's mental that the the awards ceremonies have to take place at this part of the season as well. Yeah, um it's just look the reason for it is just because of players' contracts that they and well, players in general, they want to go on holiday the second the season ends, they don't want to come back on the Monday after the last game of the season. It happens at every club and every division uh that I've ever been exposed to anyway. And they for that they have to make these um ceremonies at any possible given weekend before that, and because it's such a tight part of the season with so much riding on it, they've got to be careful of also what day of the week they they plan it on as well, because they don't want the players outlet, they don't want them drinking and taking part in things like this. And we saw the weekend the Ranger squads had their play of the year awards after losing in the last minute to Motherwell at home, and they had to have, and it's it's still April. Why are you having play of the year awards? And they're having to go in a somber mood to these awards. I mean, like it happened, I worked at Celtic and it happened exactly the same. It was like it was the day that um I think you remember it as the day that Neil Lennon kicked over the water bottle at Inverness, um, when they essentially lost the league that year, and they had to go down the road and go straight to the Play of the Year awards. Um, it's never like if you lose a game at a time of year, the chances are you're gonna end up with some awkward commercial event that you're forced into, and you've got to sit there and look happy or appropriately, appropriately um facial expression. So you're not looking too happy, but you're also not looking too sad for the people that have paid their money to be there. Very awkward.
SPEAKER_05Very awkward. Uh what's what's becoming a bit of a a theme these days is uh Scottish players winning titles abroad. We had uh Scott McTominay and Billy Gilmore last season at Napoli. We even had Lewis Ferguson picking up a cup in Italy, but we've got another Scott that's picked up a title. Do you know who it is?
SPEAKER_03I do. Is that because you wrote the script? Because I've told you to mention it in this week's show. Yeah, it's got McGann. It's got McAna. Winning the creation title Edino Zagreb. Very well done, Tim. To be fair. It was only not that long ago that I was sitting here saying he's not a footballer, he's an absolute shampoo. Um, to be fair, he's done very well for himself in uh the last kind of recent months, even years. And he's been timid for a big move. Prove me quite wrong. I'll I'll hold my hands up there. Um, I wouldn't be adversive in playing in the World Cup as a start in a starting 11.
SPEAKER_05So he's fair play too. Look, Scott McKenna is is weirdly quick. And I say that because he doesn't look like he should be fast, but he's pretty fast, and he's he's valued at like 10 million now. He's he's rumoured to be getting a tasty little move in the summer. Um, but that's just rumour. Who knows? Maybe he just really likes Gorisha.
SPEAKER_04I've always thought that Scott McKenna is a pretty underrated player, and it's uh he's got a really interesting career path the last number of years. Like obviously he was at Nottingham Forest for quite a few years and did quite well there, but you know, of a lone spell at Copenhagen for like half a season, and he actually did really well, yeah. And then he was in it was I think it was Las Pamas in La Liga. And then he's been at Dinamo Zagreb and won a title. Like, fair play. I I I think he's for Scotland, I think he's always been decent. Like I know you think he's a bit of a bomb scare, Laura, but whether he's starting or or or even just kind of part of the squad, I think he's a pretty decent member of the defence to have. So yeah, and fair play to him, and hopefully that that big biggens him up for the for the summer with the World Cup.
SPEAKER_05Uh there's lots of big weekends coming up, not just domestically. Uh, but the Scottish Cup is just round the corner as well. And Dunfermline are um a little bit upset about their ticket allocation, Laura. They've been given, or they've I think they've sold already 10,500. Oh no, they sold they got 10.5,000 for the semi-final. They sold those. Um, but in 2007 they took 17,000 to the final. What have they got this? What have they been allocated this year?
SPEAKER_03I don't think it's been confirmed yet what they've actually been allocated. So the the the story this week was they want the maximum allocation they can get. Um well, when you take away sponsors and corporate and all that nonsense, it's probably around I would guess 20,000 each. Yeah, roughly. Um, I I don't know the exact number, but um, I I'm not sure if they've been told what the the starting allocation would be for them. But I just don't understand how we have this conversation every year when it's not Celtaker Rangers, um, or so the two of them in it together. Why a cup final does not start as a 50-50 split, and then if they do not sell a certain percentage, it then gets passed to the other team. Um is that not the most logical, obvious way to do it? How are we messing this up? How who on earth is running this?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, it's so sensible to give the teams a deadline to sell a certain amount of tickets and then you offer it to the opposition team. It is so sensible to do it that way. I don't know why, why doesn't it do it? Why doesn't it do it, then? I don't know.
SPEAKER_04It's too commonsensical. It's also it's it's in because Dunferman's like it's a big town anyway, and I think with the the populations of Den Ferman's probably bit like what like 60,000 or something like that, or certainly in the surrounding areas. They're also they're a big club historically, you know. They they they have made cup finals, as we were talking about last week, a number of times over the over their history and over the past 20 odd years or whatever, not not for a little while, but um and it was there was never a question about like what they're gonna sell of their allocation at at that point as well. So I think you know, if if if it's a tiny little place that makes it or travels difficult or something, but we're talking about a team from still from the central belt from a big town that are well supported, like it just it totally makes sense. And I agree with you, Laura, it's it's completely wild that it doesn't start. 50-50, and then okay, you're not selling it, or you're not selling quick enough, we're going to give a higher percentage to the other team. Just seems the fairest way to do it.
SPEAKER_05Um, I'm looking forward to seeing Jim Leishman on the telly again. That's for sure. Absolute legend of the game. I hope he has a nice day. Uh, do you know what else is really weird? You brought this up in our group chat, Finn. Um, Celtic are are threatening to ban all Rangers fans for the upcoming derby game after the split, unless they they guarantee that Union Bears won't come. Which, Finn, I have to come to you again. It seems like this has come off the back of the last game where it ended quite ugly in the Scottish Cup semi-final after penalties. This is not what we wanted to see.
SPEAKER_04Well, no, but I I I don't find it surprising in the least, because I I think Celtic have quite a demonstrable track record of um throwing their toys out the pram when it comes to all the stuff around away fans, particularly in the old firm games. Uh I I mean it is part of this whole pathetic pantomime that both clubs have been kind of dancing around for how long now? So many seasons. I and it's it's so pathetic because whether you whether you like it as a fact or not, the old firm fixture is the biggest selling point of the game in Scotland. Like it's it is the one fixture that people around the world are interested in that they'll watch and they'll tune into. And we've been over this before. I don't want to retread old ground, but the way that the clubs have kind of doubled down on each other, by like, oh, you're not getting it, oh, we've got safety concerns, oh, you need to put nets up, oh we're not gonna send anyone then if you're not only gonna give us 800. Like it's all the whole thing is pathetic, and it's such a blight on the fixture, and therefore a blight on our game, because you're diminishing what is one of the most incredible spectacles of not just our game, of world football. Like it is a fixture of an end across the world. And with the Scottish Cup game, again, not to reach federal ground, I I thought that we were maybe getting to a point where both clubs were giving an opportunity to behave like adults again, that there might be bigger allocations. Maybe not for the league games, I I think there might still have to be some compromise, and at least European allocations, if we're calling it that 5% or 10% of the stadium, seems to be uh some sort of compromise or workaround. But then once the supporters, and it is the supporters, are given an inch to take a mile, and at that game in particular, and I'm not trying to say it was only one side or the other, but the behavior of the Celtic fans at that game at Ibrox was disgraceful. They broke down the barriers, that then extra people came into the game that didn't have tickets, that becomes a safety concern. They were spitting on supporters, they destroyed the broomlown stand, they graffited around there, which in and of itself that happens on every ground. But the fact that they were like mocking the real deaths of real people in the stadium disaster that were there, they then charged halfway up the pitch. Then obviously, there was a retaliation from the Union Bears as well, whose behaviour was appalling when they went up the other end. I I and I think this is the whole thing that Celtic is just like, ooh, we've got safety concerns. It's like, no, you're not. You're trying to give yourselves a competitive advantage. I think it's two things. Celtic are worried that the Union Bears or the Ranger support in a wider context will come and do the exact same thing that the Celtic supporters did to Ibrox in the last fixture. And two, they're shit scared about potentially losing a game at Celtic Park that could have a huge impact on their season on Rangers.
SPEAKER_03I don't even think I don't even think it's as deep as that. I think they're just incredibly petty and just want to just rail people up and get one over on Rangers and feel like they're in some way superior to them, and they've got they feel they've got to make a point based on what happened. Very sinister to think like that. It is it's it's it's tiresome though. It's we we thought we'd turned a corner and it's just right back to square one again. And as soon as I think as soon as this happened, I think I was saying in the group chat, well, that's that gone then, because yeah, it doesn't matter who's it who's to blame or who's at the fault or anything, it's the authorities and the dinosaurs will take any opportunity they can to just ruin our game, and that is exactly what's happening all over again. Just grow the fuck up, please.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah, I tend I tend to I tend to agree with the with that idea. I mean, it's it's very it's very easy for everyone to just jump on the idea that it's like there's a sinister kind of thing going on in the background, and and Finn's right, like it's happened on both sides, it isn't right. We need we do need to have a big boy conversation. The fact that it all flared up on the first time that we've had um the opposition uh coming in their thousands rather than their hundreds, to have a proper atmosphere, to have something go wrong the very first time, it's so frustrating. And it shouldn't, it shouldn't then be the decision made that certain people should be excluded. The wrong people should be excluded. That's fine. People that cause problems should be excluded. Uh, you know, Celtic excluded their own fans this season because of some of the stuff that they were doing. Like it's just well, it's just stupid, right?
SPEAKER_03So also hold it, hold other people to account as well. Hold the police to account, hold the steward to account. That's it's not just fans that are to blame here. That it was a very poorly run game, and there was a lot of fault and a lot of poor planning in all areas, and they are not being held accountable for what happened, and it was a it was a complete joint effort of chaos, and it's still the minority, yeah.
SPEAKER_05So the majority have to suffer because of that. It's uh it's just stupid, absolutely ridiculous.
SPEAKER_04I mean, Rangers have called them out on it. I don't know what I mean. I think I know what will happen, which is as usual, Celtic will get their way. Rangers as a club won't back down and say, okay, we'll ban the Union Bears from getting any tickets for the game. It'll mean that Rangers have no allocation for the old firm game, which is uh sporting advantage to Celtic. It's a detriment to the fixture. I think that's what will happen. I would love to be proved wrong and think that there could be some sort of proper big boy compromise and working this out. I I will be shocked if that happens though, sadly.
SPEAKER_06I've said it time and time again. For a jobby team, we broke some good records.
SPEAKER_05Okay, with uh UEFA semi-finals happening this week. Now is a good time to talk about a weird anomaly that could benefit Scottish football before it's too late. Basically, if Crystal Palace puts Shack Dardanette out of the conference league and Rangers win the premiership, they would get an automatic qualification to the Champions League next season. Um, so as it stands, the premiership winner will have to go through the playoff round to qualify. So we'll be caught up with Gavin Noon, Mr. Coefficient himself, from Scotland's coefficient, I should say, to explain why or how.
SPEAKER_04There is a really peculiar anomaly that I'm wondering if you can kind of explain in terms of next season, which is um and this only applies to Rangers, it doesn't apply to Hearts or Celtics should they win the title, but there is a chance that Rangers can gain direct entry into the Champions League group stage. Is that correct?
SPEAKER_01Yes, so previously, if uh the Champions League winner automatically qualified for next year's Champions League through their domestic league, i.e. they finished in the top four in England or whatever, then they vacate a space because there's a uh the the holders are automatically re-entered in the competition. Previously, that was always given to the country in 11th, so it didn't matter the clubs within it. Whoever won the league in um the 11th ranked league got this spare slot. But when they reformatted the group stages, made the league phase and everything, one of the changes they did was that they felt that that penalized big clubs in smaller divisions, and Shaktar Donetsk are probably a key example of that, especially since the war. Ukraine have really slipped down the rankings, but Shaktar are a huge team. So because Ukraine are not going to get back to 11th in the rankings, that door was closed for Shakhtar as an example. So they've changed it to make it that it's the champion with the highest coefficient, irrespective of where your league ranks. Your league could be ranked 50th. As long as you are the top ranking in terms of UEFA's coefficient, uh, you would get that vacated spot. So because Rangers' last five years in Europe have been like historic in terms of uh they've never had this consistent run of doing so well in Europe, they reached the Europa League final five seasons ago, so that's still within their coefficient. They got to the quarterfinals last year uh out of the league phase the year before that, so they've done really well. Uh, they are actually right up there as one of the top-ranked champions. However, Olympiakos are ranked above them. So if Olympiakos win the Greek league, everything we're about to discuss is null and void because it will go to Olympiakos, regardless if Rangers win the league or not, because Olympiakos would be the highest ranked champion. Olympiakos are five points off the off the top spot in Greece at the time of recording, and so they may not win the league, which means it would then drop to the next champion. That would be Rangers if they win the Scottish Premiership, then that's all well and good for Rangers, you're automatically into the Champions League. However, Shaktar Donetsk are still in Europe, so they can still earn some more points, and they're really close to Rangers now. They're only three coefficient points behind Rangers, so it's two points for a win and one point for a draw. They've got a Conference League semi-final coming up against Crystal Palace. So they have to put Crystal Palace out and reach the Conference League final, but it it's possible that would then have them above Rangers in the rankings. So the same thing would then apply. Shaktar have to win the Ukrainian League. And they're they're only joint top at the time of recording with about eight games left. So again, it might not transpire that Shaktar win their league, but if they do and they're above Rangers, the point, the entry point would go to them. So to summarize, yeah, Rangers could get automatic Champions League uh qualification. They'd have to win the Scottish Premiership first. Olympiakos would have to not win the Greek League, and then either Shakta don't win the Ukrainian League or don't earn three coefficient points across the semi-final to overtake Rangers in the rankings.
SPEAKER_03Just quickly on the maths there for Shaktar Denesk against Palace, do they only get enough points if they reach the final or if they win the Conference League final, or is like one victory out of the three enough?
SPEAKER_01So they're exactly three points behind, and the tiebreaker when two clubs or two nations are have the same points in a over a five-year period is how many points were earned in the most recent season. And Shaktar obviously are in a semi-final, Rangers got pumped out in the league phase. I can't remember what position they finished. So Shaktar would win any tiebreaker if they're on exactly the same uh amount of points, and they're three points behind with two for a win and one for a draw. So if Crystal Palace put um Shaktar out, then they won't catch Rangers. Shaktar could reach the final through two draws, so they could draw both legs and go through on penalties, that would only be two points. There's then a 0.5 bonus for reaching the final, so at that stage they would still be 0.5 points behind Rangers, and therefore they would have to at least draw the Conference League final after 120 minutes. That's when the coefficient is taken, it doesn't matter the result of penalties. So yeah, they need three points across the remaining potentially three games, and if they reach the final, it's likely that they've done it by winning one leg and at least drawing the other. So they would probably have done it by the time they reach the final. But of course, there is a chance that they get to the final and only earn two and a half points, and at that stage, they would then need to not lose the final to overtake Rangers. So it's all ifs and buts. But this has been since the start of the season, this has been a possibility. So tracking it for like 15 clubs, now we're just down to the last ones. Well, Olympia's winning Greece, and well, Shaktar beat Crystal Palace, essentially.
SPEAKER_05And you can hear more of how all the coefficient mathematics work in a separate special episode with Gav.
SPEAKER_04I'd encourage people to listen to that because Laura and I did the chat with Gav, and um we could have just talked all day, all night, Laura. I think he's just he's so knowledgeable about all that stuff, and and it is quite complicated as well. So it's obviously it's not just talking about the permutations for Rangers, it's all Scottish teams and not just next season, but potentially going forward as well. So, yeah, we'd encourage you to listen and check that out.
SPEAKER_05Um well, let's can we just rattle through and talk about the title race in the premiership. I think I asked you last week, and both of you were like, it's Celtic, they've got the they've just got the nouse of doing it year in, year out sort of thing. Has your mind changed after the weekend's results? Obviously, Rangers losing to Motherwell, uh Harps getting a last-minute winner against Hibbs at Easter Road, Celtic with a pretty good performance against Falk, oddly.
SPEAKER_03No, I'm still sticking with Celtic, but I'm now I'm a bit torn because do you know what? No, this was the only weekend of the split where none of the three were facing each other. So it looks right now like Rangers are a huge disadvantage, but there is going to be so much more to come because they're all facing each other. Um, so I'm a little worried now that because Hearts Rangers is coming up as a next fixture that might kill Rangers off. And I really want this to go all the way to the wire to the very last day. Regardless of what order the three come in, I just want it to all come down to that one last day where it's all the tables just changing and the helicopters doing spinnies in the air.
SPEAKER_05So you're worried, you're worried that if hearts win, Rangers are then you think Rangers are out of the title race if hearts win in the weekend.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I'm kind of thinking that now. Um, but I don't want hearts to lose because I want hearts to win the entire thing. I don't want to do that.
SPEAKER_05You want a draw this weekend?
SPEAKER_03I think it depends. I want Celtic to then drop points before Monday's game, and I think that will make it clearer in my head.
SPEAKER_05Do you want three more draws, Laura?
SPEAKER_03Do you Yeah, I just want I just want all the drama. I want every like all the drama, and I don't really care. Then they just want just just yeah, it's just so much fun.
SPEAKER_05It's this is the thing, like every game's a test for hearts now. They they you know, they they had to really battle against eight men, Hibs at one point, to get that nine men, sorry, it was almost eight men, that's right.
SPEAKER_03Very much that's the thing, like you get to a stage where you're watching it going, if they can't turn this around now against nine men, do they deserve it? Like, this is the sort of game you have to get over the line. That's that's what makes you a championship winning team, is having that courage in a derby to overcome that because it would have been such a hard task to backs against the wall, sort of thing. So, yeah, they they've proved that they can do it.
SPEAKER_05I mean, Laura, you're a you're a neutral, Finn, you're a Rangers fan. Like I suppose the question is for me, being a Queen of the South fan, that you know, is all of Scottish football loving this? Or are you loving it? Or are you actually getting a bit too like this is too much?
SPEAKER_03The deal, no, no. I mean, I saw somebody tweet, it was it uh Nedy Topoker was tweeting saying um this is taking years off his life and he's not a fan of any of the three clubs. No, I mean I was saying like before how like English people are now like taking an interest in it, and I've seen more and more people saying the same thing, but even just in Scotland, I think unless and and everywhere else around the world, Laura. Yeah, I think unless you're English But what I mean is like even closer to home, unless you're a Celtic Rangers Hearts or or Hibs fan, how are you not loving this? How are you not enjoying every moment of this? Because it's just so unusual. It's the first time in our lives that this has happened. Do you know, Finn?
SPEAKER_05Laura's putting the Laura's putting the script here. Uh uh Andy Murray says it would be good if hearts win. Andy Murray's a Hibs fan. Laura's put, shut up, tennis boy.
SPEAKER_03Think it. Don't see it. He's right, he's absolutely right, but don't say it alive when you're a Hibs fan.
SPEAKER_04Everybody's got their own their own thoughts on it and their own feelings of it. And I think it it's because it's one of those things like some Hibs fans would be like, Oh, I'd never want Hearts to win the title. But then some are like, I would hate it, but also it's good for the game. Like something like this needs to happen.
SPEAKER_05Everyone hates Celtic and Rangers. That's a unified, that's a unified vote.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. But this but this this happens in leagues in sports all over the world. Like, we we all inherently, as long as it's not your team, love an underdog story, don't we? Like, and and and we get to experience that even as a I'm speaking as a Rangers fan, I get to experience that as a Scotland fan, and the whole notion of underdogs, and and and you see that reflected in other things. Because for the the vast majority, I mean, obviously, big clubs in in big leagues have big supports, but there are so many people that don't support big teams as well, that rarely see their teams win league titles, but maybe even trophies or get to finals. So it is to be cherished when when teams like that do. And hearts are a big team and they should be up challenging. But it's um, I think when you go like, are you enjoying it? At the moment, no, obviously, from my own point of view, but like it's that kind of sadomasochistic thing as a football fan. Like, you what makes the highs so brilliant and so high as a football fan are all the other lows. Like, you you can't enjoy the highs as much if you never experience the lows. And again, from my own point of view, as a Rangers fan, there have been plenty of lows in recent seasons, but that means in those moments when there are the highs, they're wonderful. So I'm very much hoping as an outside bet it might still happen. But it's regardless of what happens, like as you're saying, Lori, the drama's just incredible. Like, we've we've not witnessed this. I I'd I'd love to pick up on there. Was a word that you you mentioned, and it's just a kind of like throwaway word, but it's one that I've heard a lot of uh my friends talking about or using and things, and it's it's this whole word of deserve. Like, if hearts don't do this, if Celtic do do this, if Rangers do this or don't do this, do they deserve to win it? Like, to me, this is the beauty of a league format as opposed to a cup competition. Like, the team that deserves to win it is the one that finishes top on the final day, and you can't argue anyway. That is the whole point of it. It's who goes the distance, and if you collapse over the line, you've still won. So that's that's that's where the excitement and the drama all comes from.
SPEAKER_05There, that's that's it was me that brought that, it was me that brought that up because it's the idea of like, you know, Rangers lost at the weekend, and you would have just been like, Rangers don't deserve to win the title with the amount of games that they've lost this season or something like that because it's so abnormal. Like Celtic and Rangers haven't lost this amount of games in a sort of title race scenario, and so the team who does win it is is probably going to be a potentially uh quite a low points tally. I'm I'm not I'm maybe grasping its jaws as slightly. So that idea of like Celtic and Rangers fans turning around and saying, Oh, we don't deserve to win this title. If you win the title, you've deserved to win the title, you've ended up being the best. This whole chat needs to end. Uh it's really frustrating. At the at the wrong end of the table, I see Livingston only got their second win of the season, beating St. Mirrin. And and by the way, St. Mirrin absolutely pummeled their goal in the first half, by the way. Fair play to Livy. They're still not mathematically out, but they're pretty upscappered.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I think I think now it comes down to Kelly or St. Mirrin are really the kind of the two you're looking at, to be honest. Aberdeen pretty much safe. Like Dundee lost to Derby at the weekend, but I just I still think they're pretty safe as it is as well. I saw this that as well that that the Dundee Derby was the first bottom sixth tie to be televised since 2019. Seven seasons. Yeah, that is insane. There's guaranteed drama around the relegation battle every single season. Why why have we waited seven years for that?
SPEAKER_05And I think I think this is because this goes. Back to the BT Sport days when the rights were split between Sky and BT, and now Premier Sports I think just this season were allowed to broadcast games after the split. Before this season, they could only broadcast 20 odd matches before the split. Now I think they've got three or four uh picks, maybe, maybe, maybe it is five, and which is nice to see as a Scottish football fan.
SPEAKER_03Um, it's just way I would also say and I'm and they're in no way plu they are in no way sponsoring this podcast, but they're welcome to if they want to. Um if you're if you're based in London and you're looking for somewhere to experience the run-in, that there's a pub called The Volley, and they show all they show all the Scottish games. Um, so it's his own best Scottish guy, he'll put on any channel you want. So we watched all the Scottish games yesterday there, and it the Hearts Supporters Club based in London, go there as their base for watching games. And see someone in London who feels very left out of it right now, uh, not working in Scottish football, just having that touch at a weekend. No one I can go there and share it with other people who are so emotionally involved, it makes such a difference.
SPEAKER_05It's uh it's such a good uh boozer, and it sells tenants on draft. What more do you want in London? Um, I'm sure we probably get some stickers being three Scots in London and not being up in Scotland all the time. We miss it just as much as you enjoy it being there, and we probably follow it more because we're not there. Exactly. Uh, what's going on in the championship? Who can tell me that?
SPEAKER_03Right. So Ross County are taking it all the way to the final day. Um, they'd look down and out, but they're bottom of the table, aren't they? They're yeah, they're not down and out yet, but the best they can manage is a playoff spot. They're not going to get up to eighth, regardless of results on Friday night. Friday night is when all the championship games are happening. Their last day is on Friday night. Um, it's between Airdrie and Morton for 8th and 9th, and they're playing each other. Annoyingly, not on TV, but um, yeah, winner takes all in that match. Uh Ross County are away to Wraith. Um, so yeah. Ross County going down, if they do, back-to-back relegations. This is pretty damn big for a club of Ross County size.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, but I think you, you know, if you're a Wraith fan, if if you're a Ross County fan, you should look at the likes of Falkick. And yes, they were away from the top flight for a long time, and it was a grind. But sometimes you just have to go down a few levels to return bigger and better.
SPEAKER_03It's the money they've put into it though in recent years. That they're not a big club in terms of stature and history, but they've put so much into it that they shouldn't be where they are. The amount of players they have right now are players who have played at the highest, well, not the highest level in Scottish football, but they've played their comfortable premiership mid-table players that are now playing at Roscoe. I mean, they've got Declan Gallagher who qualified for the Euros with Scotland. Um, and he's by no means like on the verge of retirement. He's still a fit footballer that can do a job. They have got premiership players in their team, they cannot be going down. I mean, they wouldn't be going down to League One with those with those boys because they would leave, but they shouldn't be with a squad like that.
SPEAKER_04It's really grim for Ross County because, like you say, Laura, like that you know, drop it dropping out the top flight. If you've been a well-established top flight club for a long time, which Ross County have, you have to kind of cut your cloth accordingly after that. But going down again is I I I I was trying to run the numbers, and I think there can be as much as a 50% or more reduction in total revenue for clubs dropping out the championship to the third tier to League One. You have reduced broadcasting revenue because even fewer of your games will be televised. Obviously, Beep Salva covers a lot of the championship. You have far lower gate receipts from smaller away followings, fewer high-profile games. You have to make huge wage adjustments, and a lot of these players will have relegation release clauses because it was so unlikely that County would go down, and you have to make huge operational cutbacks as well. This is the first time potentially that Ross County will have dropped down to the third tier of Scottish football since the 2007-2008 season. And that's the line share of 20 years. They had a small dip into the to the championship at one point, but by and large, they've been a top fight club for almost 20 years. That's that's huge, and it could have really, really grave consequences for County if they go down again.
SPEAKER_05And and there's a there's a weird anomaly uh between Defelin and our both because they're going to play each other three times in seven days, so they're gonna play on Friday to determine who's at home first, or as SPFL Watch has said, so to clarify, the two teams will play off to see which order they will play in the playoff to get into the playoff for the playoff to get into the premiership. Which if you let if you if you've not skipped my intro, the twists and turns and all of our twists, and it's a twisty, twisty season. It's mad, isn't it?
SPEAKER_03Can't get enough of Dunfermline or Bros.
SPEAKER_05Can't get enough of Scottish football, man. It's bonkers, absolutely wild. Can I move on to League One? You mean Cali Thistle could have won the league on Saturday, but they ended up drawing well done Cali, a team that's gone from the premiership. Uh Ross County fans, all the way down to League One. They're now well, they only need a point, and then it's uh it's done, done and dusted. Uh Stenhouse Muir could only be the only team to really catch them, um, which has been a great season for Stenhouse Muir given they've just came up, they're on a real momentum. But can I just say that Queen of the South going ahead if we're touching the playoffs now, everyone in the top three, top four, are absolutely wildly out of consistency. They're like wins, losses, wins, draws, or like not exactly bang on. Queens haven't lost a game in maybe seven or eight matches. So, I mean, as long as Queens don't end up in a penalty situation, you never know. Could finish just in that. Well, we've we've got playoffs. That's fine. Right, Laura, I have to go to league two for you because East Go Bride.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so they could have they could have snatched it on Saturday, but um they were relying on results elsewhere. So they did their job, they they're one-not one over Dumbarton, but Spartans who are in second place, they um they needed Spartans to lose basically, but they pulled it back and drew with Elgin. Um, so it goes down to their last day. There's a three-point gap though. Um, something like I think five goals is the the the swing. So it looks like it's all in East Cobra's favour. Um they're but they're at home to Clyde who are in third place. Um, and Spartans are away to Sterling Albion, so it's not over, but it'll be exciting. As I say, back to bat promotions if they manage to pull it off. And um, yeah, special thanks to the club as well for sorting out my my mum and my mom pa, who were desperate to go to this game, but it sold out very quickly. Um, East Go Bay Diehards, and they'll be there. Oh wow, that's very they're very chuffed. So, yeah, thanks to the club for sorting that out because it's a massive one to be a part of, and I'll be getting video calls, no doubt, from them being uh in the stands and looking forward to it.
SPEAKER_05Oh, amazing. That's really good. Well, shall we end the podcast there? And we'll just say Cheerio, goodbye, have a lovely week, and enjoy the title race in the premiership. It's going down to the wire.