On Sunday, just passed, I sat down to watch the CIS Cup Final between Celtic and Rangers, in the hope of witnessing an exciting, bruising encounter for which the Old Firm has become synonymous down through the years. Instead, I was served up a pretty average game disguising itself as an Old Firm Cup Final. There may be many factors as to why the players laboured so hard without much in the way of entertainment … the pitch being the main culprit (it was laid a week previously to the cup final) but in all harshness, it seems that these two warring rivals are simply just bored with playing each other too many times over a season.

Recent encounters have seen a similar style being played out : few clear cut chances created, both teams content to slog out a midfield duel, passing being limited, no real flair, no real anything. It is obviously that both the Old Firm have dumbed down their squads in terms of quality. Which is why the other provincial teams are having success against the Old Firm in the league. However, that said, this was a Cup Final, a one-off, a chance to grab some silverware and flaunt it under your nearest rivals noses. You would think that would have been inspiration enough. Alas, it wasn’t. The game on occasion rose above tepid but the overall performance of quality was a poor advert for the Scottish game.

Nobody, really seems to know how to change things regarding Scottish football. The moneymen want to see these two Scottish giants go head-to-head as many times as it is possible within a season for obvious reasons. However, the average punter, and I’ll include a majority of Old Firm fans in this as well, are bored rigid, including by the looks of things the players as well.

It’s a catch 22 situation. Bring in teams from the lower division to stop the needless play 4 times in a season nonsense and you end up diluting the strength of the league. Continue down the same road and you will turn fans away from the game, tired of paying good money for groundhog day matches. The scary thing is, if someone doesn’t do something soon, then the advertising money could well shrink in size as well. Without a doubt, the state of Scottish football is at its most worrysome for years and there seems to be no knight in shing armour willing to come forward and get us out of this mess!