UEFA has stated that European leagues must be played to a conclusion if possible, although they have provided certain caveats that could help end the Scottish Premiership season and crown Celtic as champions.

The European governing body outlined their two potential solutions for completing the 2019/20 campaign:

“The ideal scenario, should the pandemic situation permit it, is to have the currently suspended domestic competitions completed enabling football clubs to qualify for UEFA club competitions on sporting merit in their original format.

“Should this outcome not be possible, in particular, due to calendar issues, it would be preferable that suspended domestic competitions would restart with a different format in a manner which would still facilitate clubs to qualify on sporting merit.”

However, they also said that if either scenario is not possible then the country’s football association would have to pick who would enter European competitions for next season.

What all this means is that Celtic are unlikely to be handed their ninth straight league title in the immediate future. There was hope that a meeting with the SFA and SPFL after April 23rd could lead to the top flight season being ended and see the Hoops being crowned champions, but UEFA want to make sure all leagues are completed based on “sporting merit”.

How “sporting merit” is defined will be the essential component for how the Premiership season is completed. The SPFL could argue that awarding positions based on points per game qualifies under that definition but we shall have to wait and see.