CHAMPIONS Celtic MUST be awarded the title, insists St Mirren supremo Tony Fitzpatrick.
The Paisley side’s chief executive also believes no team should be relegated this season.
Amid the uncertainty of the league campaign being concluded due to the coronavirus pandemic, Saints legend Fitzpatrick reckons it’s inevitable the season WILL be cancelled and the only destination for the championship is Parkhead.
Neil Lennon’s side are 13 points ahead at the Premiership pinnacle with only eight games to play and also possess a superior goal difference of plus 25. They would need to suffer a form collapse in the seismic category to fail to clinch their ninth successive crown.
Fitzpatrick thinks the flag should be handed to the Hoops and told the Glasgow Times: “This season is done. People don’t like it, but it’s done, so why not make the decision?
“I can understand how difficult it must be for the SPFL and the SFA, so I’m not criticising anybody, but I really think we need some clarity now. I know there is going to be consequences with those decisions, but I hope within the next week or so things are clearer.
“I know that everybody is saying we will play the games, but it’s impossible, I think, if you are listening properly to what is going on.
“There have been 30 games played, so I’m not in favour of making the season null and void, that would be criminal.
Fitzpatrick, a former skipper and manager of the Buddies, added: “I think this is maybe an opportunity to try out something different.
“I’d like to see a 16-team Premiership, but even if it was just Dundee United and Inverness Caley Thistle who came up, we do away with relegation and give Celtic the title, that would work for me.
“Rangers have been incredible in terms of where they came from to where they are now, but I think, if we’re being honest, you couldn’t see them catching Celtic. It’s more difficult I think to put teams down, so why not bring the two teams up?
“I would go further and make it 16 teams. I think a real revamp of Scottish football is needed and why not take the opportunity to have a look at it?
“When you see what the likes of Barry Hearn did with darts and snooker, we need to have that creative thinking, too, to come up with a product that the big TV companies are going to pay top dollar for.
“Hopefully, this is once-in-a-lifetime event, who would have thought a virus would stop football completely all around the world in our lifetime? It’s a horrible thing to happen and there are no words to express the impact it is having on people’s lives and how much we wish this didn’t happen.
“All we can do is try to look at the positive side coming out of it and what opportunities are there to really revamp things.
“We have to come together and think of the greater good, not just our own self-interest. I think that is what this whole situation is teaching us, in general.”
