Scottish football has been dominated by two clubs since forever. The country’s first season of top-flight action in 1890-91 saw Rangers share the crown with Dumbarton as joint-winners, while Celtic finished third in the 11-team division. Since its inception, the title has only gone to a team outside the Old Firm 19 times, with the Glasgow duo taking home the remaining 110.
Delve deeper into those statistics and you understand their dominance on a different scale. Not since 1985 has another team pipped them to first place, with Sir Alex Ferguson’s Aberdeen side still retaining that honour to this day. Since Rangers returned to the Premiership in 2016, four years after their original company liquidated and the team were demoted to the bottom of the Football League, just twice has an outsider finished as runner up, and even those instances came in the Ibrox outfit’s first two years back in the top tier.
But that era of dominance is under serious threat. To varying degrees, Celtic and Rangers have both started the 2025-26 season horribly. Off-field troubles have exacerbated those on the pitch and vice-versa. They are stuck in cycles of calamity, hopeful the next hair-brained scheme will be the one to get them back on track.
Amid the chaos, a new contender for the title has emerged, with links to one of the Premier League’s great overachievers. GOAL tells the story of the recent fall of the Old Firm and how they’ve found themselves in this situation: