“This is not how it was supposed to be. This is not how the most gripping Scottish title race in two generations was meant to end, with Celtic fans on the pitch confronting Hearts’ beaten and dejected players and with sufficient chaos around the two dugouts for referee Don Robertson to effectively stop the match without blowing a final whistle. Hearts manager Derek McInnes had predicted ‘bedlam’, but not like this. McInnes’s captain, Lawrence Shankland, was one of the visiting players seen being goaded by triumphalist Celtic supporters. It happened during a spontaneous pitch invasion to mark Celtic’s third goal, which effectively curtailed a season that had hitherto brought the rare prospect of romance, a first Hearts title since 1960. …”
NYT/ATH
Guardian: Grim denouement of stunning Scottish Premiership title race must prompt shift in attitudes
YouTube: CELTIC WIN TITLE IN LAST-DAY THRILLER
Hearts, Celtic, Rangers. Bedlam
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From local grounds to vast modern arenas, stadiums remain places where communities gather, argue and celebrate together, including the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, where the United States hosted the 1994 World Cup final. Brazil’s victory over Italy marked the first time the World Cup was decided on penalty kicks.
“Stooped figures huddle into their overcoats as they make their way toward a football stadium. Under an overcast sky, they come in the hundreds, converging from every direction. The stands are beginning to fill with spectators, yet there is barely a glimpse of the football pitch itself. In the distance lie the faint outlines of an industrial landscape—mills, factories and towering smokestacks. This is the scene depicted in ‘Going to the Match,’ probably the best-known work by British artist L. S. Lowry. It captures the pre-match atmosphere of northern England in the mid-20th century. … Football is arguably the most popular sport on the planet, arousing strong and conflicting emotions. For artists, the game offers fertile ground, concentrating into 90 minutes a wide spectrum of human experience. That universality is what makes football such a powerful subject for visual culture ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the first to be hosted across three countries: the United States, Canada and Mexico. …”
“Football may be the world’s biggest game, but it is also thousands of smaller ones—played in dusty courtyards and abandoned lots, remembered in faded photographs, argued over in cafes and sung about in many languages. As the 2026 World Cup approaches, these four books explore how the sport travels across cultures, shaping art, identity and memory far beyond the stadium. Together they remind us that football is not simply entertainment but a carrier of the human experience. … 2. Picturing the Beautiful Game: A History of Soccer in Visual Culture and Art. This richly illustrated anthology explores how football has been seen, drawn and interpreted across visual culture—from early newspaper illustrations to contemporary art and digital media. Daniel Haxall organizes the chapters around themes such as memory, politics, gender and commercialism to examine how artists and photographers have responded to the sport across different eras and societies. In this book, readers begin to see that how football is pictured often reveals as much about society as it does about how the game itself was played, and how it continues to be remembered. …”
“Failure to wrench the title from the Glasgow giants is no cause for remorse given that Celtic and Rangers have been shaken from their lethargy. Another final-day showdown, another final-day heartbreak. The pain has been spread over 61 years, but that won’t make it any easier to bear for Hearts who, having been top for 250 days of the 
“Robert Lewandowski has confirmed he will leave Barcelona this season and is set to play his last game at the Camp Nou on Sunday. Lewandowski, 37, delivered an emotional speech during a training session this week to his team-mates and the backroom staff, highlighting that it has been a pleasure for him to be a part of the club and this Barca squad. He confirmed the news in a social media post on Saturday in which he said ‘the mission is complete’. The Poland striker’s next destination is unclear at this stage, but he is set to play his final home game for Barca against Real Betis on Sunday. On Saturday, head coach Hansi Flick confirmed he would start that match. …”
Scissors Kick 