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.
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, 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; 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. 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.
Background: 1890s to 1960s
From the formation of the Scottish Football League in 1890, Celtic and Rangers based in Glasgow were among the dominant clubs along with Edinburgh-based Heart of Midlothian and Hibernian – amateurs Queen's Park, also based in Glasgow who had dominated the Scottish Cup up to that point, declined to enter the new league in its first decade and were never to be a significant force in the future, with their most significant role being to provide their large ground Hampden Park for use as a neutral venue for cup finals. Rangers, founded in 1872, set the standard for SFL performance with a perfect season in 1898–99, winning all 18 league fixtures to eclipse the achievement of Celtic who had gone through the previous campaign unbeaten, but had drawn three matches. However, Rangers were weakened economically from 1902 when a new wooden stand collapsed at their Ibrox Park ground during a Scotland fixture, killing 25 spectators and injuring several hundred and necessitating more investment to rebuild the venue again. After another Glasgow team, Third Lanark, won the league in 1903–04, Celtic – backed by a large following among the Irish immigrant community in the West of Scotland from their formation in 1888 – took the initiative and won six successive championships between 1904–05 and 1909–10, guided by 'secretary-manager' Willie Maley who remained in charge for 40 years. Rangers recovered to win the next three titles, then Celtic won four in succession during the atypical conditions of World War I, when the league took the decision to keep running. That period also saw the start of the Old Firm rivalry between the two clubs, initially on the basis of sporting popularity then along sectarian lines, with Rangers becoming identified as the Protestant and Unionist antithesis of Celtic, whose supporters were largely Catholic and sympathisers of Irish nationalism, an issue which became more prominent and violent from the 1910s. At the same time a large contingent of Ulstermen, many of them Orange Order members, moved from the Belfast shipyards to work in those of Govan where Rangers were based, attaching their cultural conditions to the club including the exclusion of Catholics from their workplace, a policy unofficially adopted by Rangers for decades to come and further entrenching the position of the two as polar opposites in Glaswegian society.With Rangers and Celtic each enjoying the support of effectively half of Glasgow and half of Northern Ireland, their financial strength ensured they stayed near the top of the Scottish League almost every year, although in the period between the wars, Rangers under Bill Struth were very much dominant in terms of league success: from 1917–18 to 1938–39 they won 16 of the 22 titles, with occasional challenges from Celtic as well as Airdrieonians and Motherwell,.
The Gers continued to dominate in the unofficial competitions during World War II, winning all seven of the league titles and numerous cups. As they had won the last official championship before the war and also won the first after it, some supporters retrospectively claimed this sequence to be the first run of 'nine in a row'. Celtic won nothing during the period as their business model foundered. When the war ended, it was the Edinburgh clubs who challenged during the 1950s, with first Hibs then Hearts giving chase to Rangers and markedly stronger than Celtic while Aberdeen took a league flag in 1954–55 and the likes of Partick Thistle and East Fife also finished ahead of the Hoops more than once in what was a strong period for Scottish football in general but not for Celtic. That pattern continued into the early 1960s, with Rangers the most consistently strong team, with their achievements including a second treble in 1962–63 and a European Cup Winners' Cup final appearance in 1961, with Celtic providing less of a challenge than other smaller clubs: in this period Dundee – champions in 1961–62 – and particularly Kilmarnock who were second four times before taking the title ahead of Hearts and Dunfermline Athletic in 1964–65, the only occasion when neither of the Old Firm clubs finished in the top three.
The first Nine: Celtic, 1965 to 1974
Amidst this backdrop of long-term underachievement by Celtic, Jock Stein was appointed the club's manager in March 1965, replacing Jimmy McGrory and having previously been reserve team coach from 1957 to 1960. He had then moulded Dunfermline into the strong team they were at that time, and then enjoyed a brief but impressive period at Hibs. Celtic had several promising young players in their squad, as was their policy of the time, but they had not had sufficiently talented older teammates or a sophisticated tactical plan to lead them on to greater success; however, this group, including Billy McNeill, Bobby Murdoch, Tommy Gemmell, Bobby Lennox, Jimmy Johnstone and John Hughes plus the older Stevie Chalmers and John Clark did have several years of first team experience behind them. With an attacking playing system and strong man-management, Stein's impact was immediate, as Celtic reached the 1965 Scottish Cup Final and won it by beating Dunfermline, the club's first major honour since the 1957 Scottish League Cup Final.This squad nucleus won the 1965–66 Scottish Division One title and the 1965–66 Scottish League Cup with a win over Rangers, though they lost to the same opponents in the 1966 Scottish Cup Final after a replay and were narrowly eliminated from the Cup Winners' Cup at the semi-final stage. The battle for the league was a tight affair with Rangers, as it would also be for the next two seasons, with Celtic's higher scoring rate prior to the last game of the season ensuring they would be champions on goal average in any case; they still won the last fixture away to Motherwell to claim a first title in 12 seasons and overcome the psychological blows of losing the cup final and the European semi-final in the preceding weeks. Older hands like John Divers, and Jim Kennedy were allowed to move on, while Ian Young remained in the squad but played no active role in the following campaign.
In 1966–67, Celtic famously won every competition they entered, Stein compensating for an injury to McBride by signing the experienced Willie Wallace. The league race was particularly close, with Rangers in with a chance of taking the title with a win when the teams met at Ibrox on the last scheduled matchday; however Celtic secured a 2–2 draw which meant they could not be caught, and as in the previous campaign, a win in the re-arranged fixture put an additional points difference on the completed league table. The campaign climaxed with the 1967 European Cup Final in which Celtic recovered from losing an early goal to dominate the favourites Inter Milan 2–1 and win the European Cup, with the players immortalised as the 'Lisbon Lions'. In a demonstration of Scottish football's strength at the time, Rangers also reached the 1967 European Cup Winners' Cup Final, though lost to Bayern Munich.
1967 would prove to be the pinnacle of Celtic's achievements, but they were arguably stronger domestically in later seasons. In 1967–68 their winning margin was only two points over Rangers, who still had a strong team of their own – they beat Celtic in the early Old Firm derby and neither team lost another match for the rest of the season; however while the second derby was drawn, Celtic won all their remaining matches and again scored more goals than Rangers, who drew twice to negate their early points advantage. The Govan club had also decided to part company with long-serving manager Scot Symon mid-season despite leading the table at that point. Rangers' sole loss to Aberdeen in the closing minutes of a rearranged fixture at the end of the campaign not only ended the Ibrox men's hopes of the title but also prevented the unusual achievement of an unbeaten campaign without winning the title. Celtic's final-day trip to Dunfermline which once more put distance between the Glasgow teams at the conclusion of a very close contest, saw East End Park being packed beyond capacity to see the champions play the Scottish Cup holders, with crush barriers giving way and the game halted several times as a tragedy was only narrowly avoided.
In 1968–69 the Celtic winning margin was up to six points as another treble was secured, featuring a 4–0 win over Rangers in the 1969 Scottish Cup Final. In 1969–70 the gap was a huge 13 points and thus their loss to Aberdeen in the 1970 Scottish Cup Final was something of a shock. A second European Cup final was reached that season, with Celtic as favourites against Feyenoord, but this time were on the wrong end of the 2–1 scoreline after extra time.
Stein gradually began to introduce more youngsters from the reserve team, known as the Quality Street Kids due to their high standards. Including David Hay, Lou Macari, George Connelly, Kenny Dalglish and later Danny McGrain and Paul Wilson, this group became increasingly regular over the next few seasons alongside the remaining 'Lions', and signings such as Tommy Callaghan, Harry Hood, Dixie Deans and latterly Andy Lynch, plus long term squad members like Pat McCluskey and Jim Brogan. After Ronnie Simpson and his deputy John Fallon left the club, Evan Williams, Ally Hunter and Denis Connaghan all had spells as goalkeeper. Aberdeen got within two points of Celtic in 1970–71, with Rangers 15 behind in fourth. Aberdeen had an opportunity to take the title when they and Celtic met at Pittodrie in April 1971 but Celtic came away with a 1–1 draw, and although they dropped another point in the next fixture, they had two postponed matches to play and won them both to retain the championship. In 1971–72 the gap was 10 points, again ahead of Aberdeen, as the Hoops also reached another European Cup semi-final, losing to Inter on a penalty shootout. The early 1970s had been a turbulent period for Rangers, as they not only had to contend with a powerful Celtic but also with the traumatic events of another disaster at Ibrox in January 1971 when 66 supporters died in a crush on a stairway at the end of an Old Firm fixture. This led the club to overhaul the ground into an all-seater stadium over the next decade, overseen by manager Willie Waddell, though the financial impact of this undertaking was not obviously felt in the short term. On the field, the struggle to overcome Celtic's domestic run was offset by a victory in the 1972 European Cup Winners' Cup Final, confirming that Scottish teams still maintained high standards comparable to others across the continent despite the domestic dominance of one team alone.
The winning margin closed back to a single point in 1972–73 as Rangers grew stronger under new manager Jock Wallace. The Ibrox men had to recover from an early deficit and later went on a run of 16 victories including the return derby fixture, but it was not enough as Celtic won seven in a row to close their campaign while Rangers stumbled with a draw at Aberdeen, and the league flag was again on its way to the East End of the city. Rangers gained some revenge and a psychological boost with a 3–2 victory in the 1973 Scottish Cup Final between the pair. Celtic won the 1973–74 title by four points over Hibs and five over Rangers, equalling the post-World War II European record of nine consecutive championships. They also won the Scottish Cup and reached the European Cup semi-finals for what would be the last time, going out to Atlético Madrid following an extremely violent first leg in Glasgow.