Nine in a row

In Scottish football, the term nine in a row refers to winning the league championship in nine consecutive years. This has been accomplished twice by Celtic and once by Rangers. It has become a commonly-used phrase, and a topic which has drawn much attention, as has the goal of winning ten in a row.

Scottish football has been dominated by two clubs, Celtic and Rangers, both based in Glasgow and collectively known as the Old Firm, since the introduction of a national league system in 1890. While many league seasons have been closely fought between the pair, and have sometimes involved other clubs, there have been periods of dominance by one club, with three cases of nine championship wins in succession since the 1970s.[1][2][3]

The feat was first achieved by Celtic between the 1965–66 and 1973–74 seasons, during which they also became European champions in 1967. Their run was eventually stopped in 1975 by Rangers, who later received significant financial investment and matched the achievement between 1988–89 and 1996–97. Celtic won the next title in 1998 and prevented their record being broken. After the two clubs exchanged the trophy regularly for 14 seasons (the same period as had elapsed between the end of the first sequence and the start of the second),[4] Celtic then went on another run of championships from 2011–12 to 2019–20, with Rangers out of the top division for four seasons of that period after their liquidation in 2012. This was the only spell in the league's history that either club had not been in the top division. Rangers managed to strengthen sufficiently to 'stop the 10' in 2021 with an unbeaten season.

Similar and longer winning runs have been recorded in other countries;[5][6][a] however it is in Scotland that the specific term has become most commonplace, having been part of the nation's football landscape since the 1970s, remaining prominent due to the same mark being achieved twice more – but never bettered – in subsequent generations.[8] Celtic is the only European club to win nine consecutive titles on two occasions, and in no other country has such a total been achieved more than twice (either by a single club or multiple clubs).[7]

  1. ^ MTK of Hungary won ten consecutive championships (though interrupted by World War I), Bulgarians CSKA Sofia claimed nine in the early 1960s before Celtic did likewise, Rosenborg won the Norwegian title 13 times in succession in the same period as Rangers' run, Italian club Juventus claimed nine consecutive Serie A championships in the same seasons as Celtic's second sequence, Bayern Munich won their tenth Bundesliga in 2021–22, and in that same season Ludogorets won their eleventh Bulgarian title, having previously beaten the national record from CSKA the season before that.[7]
  1. ^ Celtic & Rangers: Why does 10-in-a-row matter so much?, Martin Watt, BBC Sport, 25 July 2020.
  2. ^ Stein, Smith or Lennon: whose 9-in-a-row was best?, Alan Pattullo, The Scotsman, 19 May 2020.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Immortality20 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference rsssfScot was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Record2016 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Europe's most league and cup wins, longest streaks, Paul Saffer, UEFA.com, 26 July 2020.
  7. ^ a b Trivia on Winning Domestic Championships | Consecutive National Championships, Karel Stokkermans, RSSSF, 12 May 2021.
  8. ^ The Celtic and Rangers All Star 9 in a Row XI as two legends pick their teams, Gary Ralston / Fraser Wilson, Daily Record, 1 June 2020.