It’s already been a poor season for Celtic. And it could end without a trophy in the record books, with only a small consolation that our rivals across the city could suffer too.
After being knocked out of the League Cup at home by Ross County and the Premiership virtually written off other than mathematically, there is only the Scottish Cup left for The Hoops to play for this season. But that’s now looking increasingly unlikely and it’s not necessarily a loss on the pitch that derails the attempt to win the competition for an historic 5th season in a row.
The Scottish Cup along with the lower leagues and women’s football in Scotland were all suspended on 12th January as part of dealing with the rising number of cases during the pandemic. That position is unchanged currently and won’t change for a while yet.
There is no sign yet of any potential date when those competitions may restart. And as the BBC report it’s likely be beyond the first of March:
"“The Scottish Football Association says it will remain in dialogue with the government and stresses that 1 March is not a proposed resumption time.”"
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Celtic could go trophyless this season
It’s clearly a critical time for lower level and women’s football. The ongoing suspension of the Scottish Cup has implications elsewhere too. The delay means it’s hard to see when fixtures could be introduced into an already packed season. That in turn has raised the question on whether it will resume at all this season. Speculation persists that as it is still only at an early stage it may be cancelled completely.
When football stopped last season there were only 3 Scottish Cup matches remaining, 2 semi-finals and the final. It was an easier task to accommodate those games into the current season’s fixture list and finish the previous campaign. Celtic were able to secure their win and amazing 4th consecutive treble as a result.
It’s slightly odd to think this may be a season where they might not even win a single trophy. Our only consolation is that if this happens, the Rangers wouldn’t be able to claim a double, and they’ve already blown their chance of a treble, showing how tricky a challenge that is for one season, never mind four consecutive seasons.