For a reason we haven’t been able to absolutely nail yet, there seems to be a Belgian chip on the shoulder over the Scottish Premiership. If a Belgium based player is linked to a Scottish club, usually Celtic, there’s often comments about how it wouldn’t be a step up.
Belgium’s league has grown in prominence in recent years and it’s now almost certainly seen on a much higher level, around Europe, than the Scottish Premiership. This has been used to defend Belgium’s play-off system.
Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic once again ran away with the league this season. Rangers will hope for better next season under new manager Pedro Caixinha, but the Ibrox club only managed to come in third place, behind Derek McInnes’ Aberdeen.
In a column for Het Belang van Limburg, former Belgium international Marc Hendrikx has used Celtic and the Scottish Premiership as an example to answer critics of the Belgian play-off system. In March, the top 6 of the league split away and then fight it out between each other for the title, carrying half of their points over.
“There are many complaints about our play-offs, but abroad is not always better,” explained Hendrikx. “In Scotland, Glasgow Celtic became champion for the sixth time in a row. This season, they even remained undefeated.
“This, of course, also has to do with the fall of Rangers. They have to think about joining the English Premier League, something they did not see in the past. A historic big club like Celtic, now, for example, has a much smaller budget than a low-fly in the Premier League like Swansea.’
There’s no signs of Rodgers and Celtic pushing for inclusion in the Premier League, but 
Hendrikx is right, in that Rangers’ problems have made the Scottish Premiership even more one sided.
In the top 10 scorers in the league this season, Celtic have four players.
Scott Sinclair, Moussa Dembele, Stuart Armstrong, and Leigh Griffiths, are joined by just Adam Rooney from Aberdeen, and Kenny Miller from Rangers.
Maybe Scotland would work better with the Belgian play-off system, Hendrikx certainly seems to be advising so.
