Barcelona based newspaper Sport have a big feature in their Tuesday edition on their local club being the European kings of domestic cups.
Barcelona are way out in front, show Sport, with 30 wins of the main domestic cup following their weekend triumph.
And that’s more than any… hang on. What about Celtic and Rangers?
Well, the two Scottish Premiership clubs recently fought a semi-final to see who could win yet another domestic cup.
Celtic put four past Rangers goalkeeper Wes Foderingham earlier this month, thanks to goals from Tom Rogic, Callum McGregor, Moussa Dembele and Olivier Ntcham.
Graeme Murty seemed to get things wrong for Rangers, and Ross McCrorie being sent off obviously didn’t help.
This all gives Celtic the chance to win their 38th Scottish Cup next month. Rangers have 33.
But neither of the Scottish clubs are included in either the major or minor leagues graph from Sport. Clubs from Norway, Belgium, Hungary, Switzerland, Romania, Bulgaria, Sweden and Denmark are, but not the Glasgow pair.
Sport’s reasoning is that Celtic and Rangers are an ‘exceptional case’ and should instead be grouped with Linfield. This is why the fact the clubs have won more cups than Barcelona is being talked down and even excluded from the graphs.
In reality, it seems like the Catalan media are skewing things to suit. For example, Benfica, with 29 cups, have been relegated to the minor leagues, because putting that at the side of Barcelona’s 30 would erode some of the impressiveness.
Scotland hasn’t been a one team league for much of history, hence both Celtic and Rangers having over 30 each. Sport say only two teams in Scotland really win the cup, so the tally can’t be taken as seriously as others.
But, since 2010, six different teams have won it. Celtic 3 times, and Rangers none.
Over in Spain, since 2010, four different teams have the Copa del Rey. Barcelona 5 times.
This is all somewhat unfair on Celtic and Rangers, and rather than the reasoning they’ve given, it’s clear Sport didn’t want the Scottish clubs to ruin their pretty graphs.
