Celtic retained the Scottish title after a final-day decider against Hearts at Celtic Park, sealing a fifth championship in a row in a finish that turned from tense to chaotic. Hearts arrived in Glasgow needing a point to make history, and with four minutes of regulation time left they were still on course to get it.
Then Daizen Maeda scored to stop Hearts from ending a title wait stretching 66 years, and Callum Osmand added a second for Celtic. The home fans flooded onto the pitch after Osmand’s goal, and the referee ended the match early as the players were escorted off the field and down the tunnel at 90+9 minutes. Reports later said some Hearts players were assaulted when supporters ran onto the pitch at the end, a grim end to a day that should have been decided by football alone.
Alistair McGregor, lifting the trophy after the Celtic stadium announcer counted down from 10 before reaching seven, called it “unbelievable” and said it had been “such a difficult season” with “so many downs,” but that the belief in the group was “special.” He said Celtic had expected to “string it out one last time” and thanked supporters for carrying the team through a hard year, adding that everyone should enjoy the night. He also said he never dreamed he would experience what he saw from the podium and described the club as “the most special place on earth,” saying the players and coaching staff had given him a reason to live.
The context was always brutal for Hearts. They had led the table every day of the season except one, according to a fan email quoted in the live coverage, and they came to Glasgow needing just a point to create history. For long stretches they looked set to get it, and that is what made the late collapse so painful: a season that had been built on control came apart in the final minutes, and it ended not with a chase to the line but with a pitch invasion and an early whistle.
Celtic are champions again, but the way the afternoon finished will linger longer than the medal ceremony. The title race was settled on the field, yet the last image was not the trophy lift. It was the scramble to clear the pitch and the sense that a dramatic finish had been swallowed by disorder.
