Scott Brown claims he would accept Rangers as champions if title race roles were reversed
Celtic captain Scott Brown has claimed that he would accept Rangers as champions if it were his side who were 13 points behind in the title race.
The Parkhead skipper made the claim during a conversation with Chris Sutton for BT Sport, and also dismissed suggestions that the Hoops’ ninth consecutive title would be tainted if it is handed to them on the basis of a points per game average.
It is understood that Scottish football is edging towards a situation whereby the Premiership season will be ended early, with Neil Lennon’s men likely to be declared winners as a result.
And Brown has claimed that the Gers need to accept his side as champions.
He said: “We’re in a strong position, we know we were going to go on and go 16, 19 points clear because we’re a top quality team.
“They [Rangers] came back, they had their opportunity to push on and they didn’t continue their run that they had.
“So I think from my behalf if I was in their situation, yes, I would [accept Rangers as champions if roles were reversed], especially when the season was already won at the end of December.”
When asked by Sutton what he would say to people who branded the title “tainted”, the midfielder responded: “I’d tell them to come around and see my trophy.”
Would Brown really accept Rangers as champions?
The truth is we’ll never know.
This is an unprecedented set of circumstances for Scottish football, and one you would hope is never repeated.
What is for sure, however, is that it’s very easy for Brown to say things like this in an attempt to make the Gers look like sore losers when it’s not his team who are negatively impacted by things beyond their control.
Obviously, the Gers have dominated headlines north of the border ever since they chose to challenge the SPFL over their controversial vote to end the lower league season early.
Even though we didn’t get our wish for an independent inquiry, the fact that almost 31% of clubs voted with us shows that there was enough doubt to justify us asking questions of the governing body in the first place.
What we have to be careful of now, in the aftermath, is a campaign to devalue and belittle our legitimate concerns until they look like nothing more than pettiness.
Rhetoric like Brown’s will go a long way towards doing that unless it is called out.
In other Rangers news, ‘Tweet of the day’ – Many Rangers fans delighted by Bradley Wiggins photo in classic Gers shirt.