Hearts playing their final Scottish Premiership match at home was ‘mathematically impossible’, according to an expert.
Gavin Noon, AKA Scotland’s Coefficient on Twitter/X, made the revelation after Ewen Cameron’s furious reaction to the post-split fixture list.
Celtic will host the Edinburgh club on the final matchday of the season in a break from recent tradition of the team leading the league at the time of the split (currently Hearts) being given the last game at home.
Amid all the conspiracies of a pro-Celtic and anti-Hearts agenda, Noon has now explained why the SPFL were left with no choice.
Your first thought when you see the fixtures…
How many points will we pick up?
Several factors forced SPFL to give Celtic home finale instead of Hearts
As revealed on Scottishfootball.info, the SPFL must guarantee a multitude of things when releasing the post-split fixtures, not just every team finishing on 19 home games and 19 away.
For obvious reasons, they also have to void derby matches being played on the final matchday (especially in this case, where Glasgow and Edinburgh Derbies are due to be played).
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They also must ensure that each team plays home and away (or vice-versa) in their last two games, instead of finishing with two home or two away.
They also can’t allow any team to play three home or away games in a row.
And lastly, given the tightness of the title race (as well as the potential race for fourth), the league had to make each team kick off at the same time on the last two matchdays, as is commonplace in many leagues throughout Europe.
Noon – a renowned expert on permutations, technicalities and stipulations – has insisted that “literally no set of fixtures” could’ve ensured all of these factors with Hearts finishing the season at home.
Unfortunate? Perhaps, but champions don’t look for excuses…
The clash between Martin O’Neill and Derek McInnes’ teams on matchday 38 could end up being the most showpiece final-day fixture in Scottish football history.
That is, of course, if both teams are still in the race by then. There are plenty of banana skins ahead for both sides.
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Celtic’s previous performances against their post-split opponents
Celtic’s five post-split fixtures will, of course, be repeats of clashes that have already taken place this season.
In fact, the Falkirk game – the first after the split – will be the Bairns’ third Parkhead visit this season. Both Brendan Rodgers and O’Neill have prevailed in the two preceding Glasgow encounters.
Both Hearts and Rangers have already won at Celtic Park – but of course, both of those games fell during Nancy’s tenure.
The Frenchman also took charge of Celtic’s only visit to Fir Park this season, which he also lost.
Under O’Neill, Celtic won their trip to Easter Road in November.
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