Global footballing attention will shift to Glasgow on Saturday lunchtime, where Celtic and Hearts are set to lock horns in a monumental showdown to determine the champions of Scotland.
If everyone thought Scottish football had produced crazy scenes after crazy scenes this season, then nothing has topped what unfolded at Fir Park on Wednesday night.
Celtic’s win over Motherwell, and the decision to award Martin O’Neill’s side a last-gasp penalty, resulted in the footballing world going into complete and utter meltdown.
This was brought up in O’Neill’s pre-match press conference before the Hearts game, and especially the reaction from the English media, and how he simply isn’t surprised by it all.
Andrew MacLean: “Have you been surprised just how strong the reaction has been, because, when you look at, even the media down south, there has been a lot of focus on it, which doesn’t happen all that often?”
O’Neill: “I am surprised? No, I am not surprised, because everybody wants Hearts to win. It’s really as simple as that. Everybody outside Celtic and the Celtic diaspora wants Hearts to win.
“If it wasn’t Hearts, it would be Rangers or somebody else. That’s the nature of it.”
Should Derek McInnes face punishment for his response to Celtic’s penalty call against Motherwell?
Martin O’Neill calls for handball rule change after Celtic penalty drama
The fact that O’Neill, even at the age of 74, is watching such chaos unfold for the very first time in his career speaks volumes about the sheer magnitude of what has happened in Scotland.
There has never been a reaction like it, and the legendary Irishman rightfully stated that ‘everybody’ wants Hearts to become champions of Scotland.
But while the dust still hasn’t settled yet from that penalty award for handball, O’Neill does think that a rule change should be in the offing.
Even though the Celtic boss feels the incident from midweek ‘is a penalty’, he thinks there should be a ‘major point of discussion’ across Europe about the handball rule.
Andrew MacLean: “Some of the focus has been shifted away from the game (against Hearts), just because of the penalty decision at the weekend.
“The fallout from it. What have you made of just the fallout over the last couple of days?”
O’Neill: “It has obviously been magnified because of the occasion, much as anything else. A couple of things. One, I think it’s a penalty. I think he has handled the ball. He also had his arm around his neck as well.
“But that is beside the point. When you see it again, properly, it is a penalty. In the wider scheme of things, I think everybody should be looking at this, throughout Europe, we have seen penalties given, when we all think, ‘that wouldn’t have happened years ago. It wouldn’t have done.’ It looks very, very harsh.
“A handball. This should be a major point of discussion in the summer time, to have a look again and to see what they are doing.”
MacLean: “Have you been surprised just how strong the reaction has been, because, when you look at, even the media down south, there has been a lot of focus on it, which doesn’t happen all that often?”
O’Neill: “I am surprised? No, I am not surprised, because everybody wants Hearts to win. It’s really as simple as that. Everybody outside Celtic and the Celtic diaspora wants Hearts to win.
“If it wasn’t Hearts, it would be Rangers or somebody else. That’s the nature of it.”
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
