Celtic are champions. How do third place losers get to open the season?

Celtic’s season begins on Monday night. Everyone else plays before us, with the Ibrox club actually opening the Premiership campaign on Friday evening.

That is a joke. It is ridiculous.

Celtic are the champions of Scotland. We earned the right to unfurl the league flag in the opening fixture, yet we have been placed last on the opening-weekend schedule. The club which finished third last season has been handed the curtain-raiser, while the champions have been told to wait until Monday.

What a grotesque situation that is. Shame on those who proposed it and those who agreed to it. It makes Scottish football look absurd.

So, Dundee United host the Ibrox club on Friday night. Four more matches take place across Saturday and Sunday before Celtic finally begin their title defence against Dundee at Celtic Park on Monday evening.

Whatever excuses broadcasters or fixture planners offer, I find this decision idiotic and disrespectful to Celtic supporters. Scottish football had the perfect opportunity to begin its season with the champions unfurling their flag at Paradise.

Instead, the spotlight has been handed to the third-best team in the country.

I have spent the entire summer waiting for Scottish football to return.

I have been waiting for Paradise to come alive again, for the roar of the Celtic support and for that beautiful, emotional moment when the champions walk onto the pitch and the league flag rises above Celtic Park.

That is how the new season should begin.

The first image of the Premiership campaign should be the reigning champions celebrating what they achieved and reminding every other club exactly who they are trying to catch. Instead, we are told to wait while everyone else gets started.

The more I think about the decision, the less sense it makes.

The more explanations I hear from broadcasters, fixture planners and those determined to defend it, the more ridiculous it appears. I simply do not accept that television scheduling should override the most obvious sporting narrative available.

Some traditions deserve to be protected because they mean something. The opening weekend should belong to the reigning champions. It should begin with the unfurling of the flag and with the team sitting at the summit of Scottish football.

That is not entitlement. It is recognition. It is respect.

Instead, Celtic supporters must sit through five other Premiership matches before our team is finally permitted onto the stage on Monday night … and what kind of time slot is that for defending champions anyway?

Which bunch of pricks came up with that?

What possible footballing argument makes that a better way to launch the season?

The broadcasters will undoubtedly talk about programming, television audiences and the desire to show every opening fixture live. What does that have to do with it? If all the games are live, surely no-one misses out if the Champions go first?

Sky Sports has indeed scheduled all six Premiership matches across four days, beginning on Friday and ending with Celtic on Monday.

But that make their argument worse, not better.

Sometimes the occasion itself should dictate the schedule. Sometimes sporting achievement should matter more than filling another convenient broadcasting slot. Sometimes the champions deserve to be treated like champions.

Apparently, this season they do not.

I find that astonishing, insulting and offensive as a Celtic supporter.

The curtain-raiser should have belonged to Celtic, not simply because I support the club but because Celtic won the league. That should have settled the matter.

Instead, Scottish football’s broadcasters seem to think the third place team are the ones who deserve opening night. It’s like dedicating the evening of a movie premier to the supporting cast rather than the lead actors.

The team that finished third. Let that settle for a moment. The third-placed team has somehow been given the opening spotlight while the actual champions are left waiting until every other support has watched its club begin the campaign.

Someone can perhaps explain how that celebrates sporting excellence. From where I am standing, it does precisely the opposite.

It diminishes the significance of winning the title.

Flag Day is one of the most emotional occasions of any campaign. It is the reward for months of pressure, sacrifice, consistency and determination. It belongs to the players, the manager and everybody who worked throughout the season.

Above all, it belongs to the supporters who lived through every kick of every ball.

That moment deserves to be placed front and centre. It should not be pushed back to Monday because television executives decided that another arrangement better suited their schedule. That is not how champions should be treated.

Perhaps I feel so strongly because I love Scottish football as much as I love Celtic. I want our league to celebrate excellence. I want success to mean something, and I want the title winners to receive proper recognition.

Surely that is not asking too much. Instead, I look at this fixture list and shake my head. What message does it send?

Win the league. Lift the trophy. Earn the right to unfurl your flag. Then politely stand aside while somebody else receives the opening night. It is abysmal.

My Ginger Witch cauldron boils with the anger of my fury. Nothing about this sits properly. The decision stinks, and you can smell it from miles away. No amount of polished explanation will convince me otherwise because this was never complicated. The correct arrangement was staring everyone in the face.

Open the campaign at Celtic Park. Let the champions unfurl their flag. Celebrate the title winners. Then restructure the rest of the damned games as you see fit, after the winners have had their special day.

Simple, elegant and respectful.

Instead, we have ended up with something unnecessarily contrived.

Of course, once the whistle blows, the schedule itself will no longer matter.

Celtic still have 90 minutes to remind everyone why that flag is flying above Paradise. Three points are worth exactly the same whether they are earned on Friday evening, Saturday afternoon or Monday night.

I know that. You know it, and the players certainly know it.

But symbolism matters.

Football is built on traditions, rituals and moments which connect different generations of supporters. Flag Day is one of those occasions. It deserves pride of place at the beginning of the campaign, not a position at the back of the queue.

Celtic’s achievement cannot be diminished by a fixture list, but Scottish football can diminish the way it chooses to acknowledge that achievement.

The league title still belongs to us. The flag will still rise over Celtic Park. Paradise will still roar, and no broadcaster or fixture planner can take that feeling away.

But that does not mean we have to pretend the scheduling makes sense or that it’s not a gross insult. It does not make sense. It is a gross insult.

We do not have to smile politely and accept every decision simply because somebody somewhere can produce a broadcasting explanation for it. The game is supposed to be more than television content divided into convenient programming slots.

It is supposed to celebrate competition and reward success.

Last season, Celtic earned the right to stand above everyone else. The club came through a campaign filled with pressure, uncertainty and drama, then found what was required to finish as champions.

The opening night should have acknowledged that.

Instead, the Ibrox club has been given the first stage of the new campaign despite finishing behind both Celtic and Hearts.

That makes the decision even more baffling. It is not merely that another club has been selected ahead of the champions. It is that Scottish football has chosen the team which finished third to provide the grand opening.

What precisely is being celebrated there? Certainly not excellence.

Perhaps broadcasters believe the Ibrox club provides the most attractive opening television audience. Perhaps they wanted a Friday-night game and regarded Dundee United against the third-placed side as the best fit.

That may explain the calculation. It does not make it right. Because if winning the championship does not earn a club the privilege of opening the following season and unfurling its flag before anyone else plays, then what exactly does?

The opening fixture is not just another match. It establishes the tone of the new campaign. It tells supporters what Scottish football considers important. This schedule tells us that television order matters more than sporting order.

I reject that completely.

Celtic will still walk out on Monday evening as the champions. The players will still receive the reception they deserve. The supporters will still celebrate the flag and remember everything required to win it.

Paradise will still look and sound magnificent.

Perhaps the wait will make us even louder.

But the opening night of the Scottish Premiership should have belonged to Celtic Football Club. The champions earned that honour on the pitch, where these things are supposed to be decided. Instead, they were told to wait while the third-best team took centre stage.

For me, that is ridiculous. It is disrespectful, unnecessary and impossible to justify from a sporting perspective. No number of broadcasting excuses will ever make it feel right.

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