A game. Not a lab test
I tried an experiment on Saturday afternoon.
What else is there to do with your time these days?
I watched Borussia Dortmund play Schalke without the presence of fans. A geiterspiel, or ghost game, as they say in Germany.
It was more like a laboratory test than a football match and my personal impression was that if you had to sit through an entire season of football behind closed doors the television audience would be considerably lower by the end of it than it would have been at the beginning.
And my personal verdict was underlined by the time I had finished watching the second part of my trial by television.
It was a recording of the highlights from Celtic's Champions League tie against Manchester United during Gordon Strachan's time as manager.
That night, thirteen years ago, was so powerful a retrospective watch as to make the sorrow for the state our football finds itself in now far more profound.
I'm talking about sixty thousand people giving full vent to their feelings.
The noise created by a belated penalty save to ensure Celtic would win the match greater even than the tumult created by the exquisite free kick goal that would put a down payment on victory.
It was what we once had. The people’s drama that we took for granted. The stuff that we would give anything within reason to have back again.
Nobody could possibly have foreseen what we now have to deal with on a daily basis.
Nobody knows when normality, the new one or the old one, will allow us to re-enter football grounds and be the way they were on that night when Cristiano Ronaldo was a fledgling multi-millionaire forced to take second prize.
What I do know as a result of the experiment is that what it says on the plinth of Jock Stein's statue outside Celtic Park is accurate.
Football without fans means nothing.
You can keep your empty stadia and matches played to avoid having to pay back millions of pounds to broadcasters for contracts unfulfilled.
Football isn't a laboratory test involving face masks, disinfected balls and players asked to show no emotion when a goal is scored.
It's about a wee guy from Japan gripping the club crest on his jersey and running towards a delirious crowd when he's scored, player and punter for once speaking the same language.
It's about a Polish goalkeeper taking the final whistle as his cue to run behind the net he had protected without flaw and being requested by a big Glesga polis to take a different direction of travel. Or else.
It is about going through the full gamut of human emotions in the company of like minded individuals.
But we need to deal with human tragedy and the safety of players and spectators before we can get all of that back again.
Putting money before life, which is what the laboratory test games are to my way of thinking, is not a proper response to what's going on.
PFA Scotland will this week canvas their membership on what they would be prepared to do to get back on the park.
If the players decide they want to wait until they feel there is no risk to them and their families before putting the boots back on then they should not be criticised, or penalised, for arriving at that decision.
Likewise, if the Premiership is called this week and Celtic are declared champions the fans the game can't do without will have to make a temporary emotional adjustment.
Supporters of Celtic and Rangers can never embrace a victory over the other lot until they are sure their joy is equal to misery being felt by the losers.
But there should be a more sober, reflective response to the title call this time.
An acknowledgement of the tragic circumstances which have taken us to this point.
And a fervent hope that one day things will be back to normal once again and the bragging rights can be assumed without any need for restraint.
Yesterday would have been the end to the season under normal circumstances.
Last night would have been The Scottish Football Writers Association's annual awards dinner.
We're socially distancing ourselves from all of that for the time being.
When this column returns next season I hope it'll be safe enough for all of us to re-kindle what we once had.
Stay safe.