Former Celt questions financial doping
The German picked up an SPL winners medal in 2008 but had to settle for second place in the following three seasons.
While Gordon Strachan spent modestly in the summer of 2008, signing Georgios Samaras and Shaun Maloney, Walter Smith went on a signing spree despite Rangers getting dumped out of Europe by Kaunus.
Kenny Miller, Kyle Lafferty and Andruis Velicka were snapped up in June with Pedro Mendes, Steve Davis and Maurice Edu taking the spending to over £15m following the European exit.
Rangers went on to win the title for three years running with the final championship, won by a point on the last day at Kilmarnock, especially painful for Hinkel.
“When we lost out on the SPL title at the end of 2010/11, it was so tight,” he recalled. “It was Neil Lennon’s first year in charge of Celtic and what he did was great.
“Now you can see it really is a shame the way it worked out. It is a shame Rangers spent so much money when they didn’t have any.
“I could have had more titles because it was so tight, I don’t know if it is cheating, but it certainly isn’t right.
“There have been big changes in Scottish football. It’s quite difficult to see what is going on but there are times when you have to make decisions.
“There are rules and how can you explain to the world, even in the financial crisis, if you don’t punish clubs who break the rules?”
German football has always been strictly regulated with clubs relegated due to licencing issues before UEFA adopted Financial Fair Play.
The full-back co-commentated on Celtic’s pre-season match with Stuttgart Kickers for German television where the discussion constantly turned to the liquidation of Rangers.
Foreigners have a fascination for the derby clash which dates back over 100 years and attracts a television audience expecting to see fireworks.
Scottish football without the Celtic v Rangers fixture is like Loch Ness without the monster with Hinkel finding it hard to explain why the fixture won’t continue.
“The Old Firm match made an impact all over the world,” he added. “Everybody around the world watched the game. It will also be difficult for Rangers by the time they get back up to the SPL.
“I am not sure they can get themselves up to Celtic’s level right away. Celtic can go on and make it ten-in-a-row.
“When Rangers come back up they won’t have the same finances and Celtic will continue to grow.”
“It is a big attraction to go and play in these big Old Firm games. It’s going to be difficult for Celtic to sign big names and big players if they don’t have the big games and the money to attract them.
“Things have changed a lot, even from when I signed for Celtic. We had Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink and Shunsuke Nakamura. These guys were world names.
“If you speak to many German fans, they don’t know many of the current team, apart from Georgios Samaras, although I know them all.”
CLICK HERE for Green confirms Ibrox job losses
Follow Video Celts on Twitter and Facebook