Former Celtic star Jota has apologised to fans after Al Ittihad's trophyless season was confirmed.

The winger joined the Saudi champions last summer in a £25m move from the Hoops.

The 24-year-old has struggled for game time during his debut campaign in the Pro League, and it was well-documented that he was excluded from the club's domestic squad during the early stages of the campaign.

This limited his appearances to the domestic cup competitions, as well as the Asian Champions League.

However, Marcelo Gallardo decided to give the Portuguese player a second chance in the side post-Christmas. 

Despite that being pleasing on a personal note for Jota, with regards to the team, it's not been a season to remember.

They will finish the campaign without any silverware in the trophy cabinet.

This was confirmed after they saw their chances of winning the Kings' Cup of Champions ended by Al-Hilal last week.

At the weekend, Jota got on the scoresheet, but he couldn't prevent Ittihad from losing 3-1 to relegation-threatened Abha.

Jota told Saudi outlet SSC: “We apologise to the fans for leaving the King’s Cup and the rest of the tournaments. We have to improve ourselves. We will work to correct the results in the upcoming matches.

"Al-Ittihad is a big club and will return to winning trophies. It is difficult to express what happened in today's match."

READ MORE: Referee & VAR officials named for Celtic vs Rangers clash

Meanwhile, the officials for this weekend's powderkeg derby between Celtic and Rangers have been named.

Willie Collum will be the man in charge of the fixture which could go a long way to determining the outcome of this season's league title.

Just three points separate the teams with as many games of the Premiership campaign remaining.

The teams will meet at Celtic Park on Saturday lunchtime in what is sure to be a drama-filled afternoon in Glasgow.