Ally McCoist explains real reason for split conspiracy comment after Rangers icon made bold Celtic claim
The Rangers legend claimed that Celtic were ‘running it’ upon the announcement of the split
Ally McCoist has revealed he was half-joking regarding his comments about Celtic having a hand in the split fixtures after claiming they were given a more favourable run-in than Rangers.
The Ibrox icon thought the Hoops were “running it” in the Premiership as they were awarded a home tie on the last game of the season against fellow title hopefuls, Hearts. Meanwhile, Rangers will travel to Falkirk on the final day, in a repeat of last Sunday’s fixture, where they prevailed 6-3.
With Hearts playing away from home on May 16, the SPFL have broken a 13-year tradition of the league leaders going into the split being rewarded with a home tie, however they have since claimed this decision was made to help ensure each team plays an equal amount of home and away fixtures.
A week on from his “running it” Celtic theory, McCoist’s comments caused quite the stir in the Scottish football community, with one Hoops media outlet describing him as ‘deranged’. The former Rangers striker has now admitted he aired the conspiracy partly to get under his co-presenter’s skin.
‘There was part of me winding up Brazil!’
Speaking on TalkSPORT, McCoist revealed he was half-joking when making the claim and that he was simply trying to antagonise his Celtic-fan pal, Alan Brazil, who claimed prior to McCoist’s video chat that he’d be ‘spitting feathers’ at the post-split schedule. McCoist said: “Shock horror. Ally McCoist getting stick from Celtic fans. Well, knock me sideways! As far as I can remember, it’s happened for the best part of 40 years, me getting stick.
“I mean, there was a part of me winding up (Alan) Brazil. He was doing the same to me. But listen, it’s not ideal. It never will be ideal. But as I said before, the one thing that it is, it is exciting. It’s not perfect. It’s never going to be perfect. You can make cases (for all teams). Hearts fans having to travel to Celtic for the final game of the season. And I did mention to you, this probably has less to do with the split... but Rangers go to Falkirk again for the final game of the season and Falkirk could potentially be in the Scottish Cup Final.
“So they could be well within their rights to play a weakened side. But I don’t think that’s got as much to do with the actual split, because that’s Falkirk getting to the cup final. It is what it is. Celtic have four of the last six at home, Rangers have four of the last six away. I’d imagine the police wouldn’t fancy a Rangers vs Celtic end-of-season game where the title could be decided. Call me old-fashioned, but I don’t think they’d want that on the agenda! So there could be a number of things.”
McCoist’s original comments on split debacle
Speaking to Brazil and Gabby Agbonlahor from his hotel room in Paris, McCoist didn’t hold back in his reaction to the fixture announcement. He said: “You couldn’t have bet on them (Celtic) getting a home game on the last day of the season, man!”
When asked by Agbonlahor why he thought that was, McCoist responded: “Well, they’re running the thing up here, aren’t they! They’re absolutely running it, mate. They’ve got four of their last six at home again! We’ve got four of six away! You couldn’t make it up, pal! They’re playing Hearts final game of the season, right? Imagine one of them needs to win to stop us winning the league. Do you think [that] will happen? You’d better believe it will happen!”