An interesting article in The Daily Mirror about parachuting the SPL into England.

[Joe O'Rourke]

This is a very interesting article by Oliver Holt of The Daily Mirror. I’m not sure about parachuting the whole SPL into English League Football, but I suppose it could work.

We have once again proved by qualifying for the group stages of the Champions League, that we could live with the big boys if we were given the opportunity.

We are stagnating in Scotland, the drop in crowds at Celtic Park for domestic matches is worrying, we need a way of getting back to full stadiums on a weekly basis. I think a move to England would stimulate the interest of the supporters, and given the increase in revenue we could maintain and even improve our playing squad. Have a read at the article below.


They were thinking big at Celtic Park on Wednesday night.

Spartak Moscow had been vanquished, Celtic had defied the odds to reach the last 16 of the Champions League and ambitions were soaring.
As the fans streamed happily out of the magnificent stadium into the night, the punchy, staccato beat of London Calling blared over the loud speaker system.

London calling indeed.

On one level, that means the dream of making the Champions League final at Wembley on May 25.

Impossible? Well, maybe, but everyone said beating Barcelona a few weeks ago would be impossible, too, and Celtic managed that.

But on another level, London calling means something altogether more radical. Something revolutionary, in fact.

London calling means that the conversation about Celtic taking a place in the leagues south of the border is getting louder and louder.

London calling means we are reaching a point where it is becoming more and more obvious that incorporating Celtic and Rangers into the English leagues would reinvigorate the game on both sides of the border.

And it means that perhaps we need to widen our horizons, to include not just the Old Firm but ALL of the Scottish Premier League in a new five-division system in English football.

Because, at the moment, the reality is this: Celtic are a giant stranded in a moribund league.

They play in one of the best, most atmospheric football arenas in Europe, in front of gates habitually close to 50,000.
But they have no one to play. Not really.No genuine challenger.

Not since Rangers’ implosion saw them exiled to the wastelands of Scotland’s Division Three.

So when Celtic boss Neil Lennon said in the aftermath of victory over Spartak that his club had wrought a miracle, he was right.
The problem is that miracles don’t happen often.

And if things don’t change soon, Scottish football will stop believing in them altogether.

Celtic are part of a 12-team league that earns a paltry £13million a year from its television deal.

Their fan-base still enables them to attract some leading players, but they cannot hope to compete financially with Europe’s top clubs.

Celtic's domestic rivals, demoralised and demotivated by the dominance of the Old Firm, provide only nominal competition.

And Rangers’ disgrace has plunged a league that was already on the slide into a sharper decline.

It got to the point some time ago where it became obvious that Celtic and Rangers craved a move to the Premier League.

It was equally obvious that they faced a roadblock in the form of the self-interest of existing Premier League clubs.

Why would they admit Rangers and Celtic to the promised land when it increased the chances they would be banished from it themselves?
And when Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore expresses reservations about the idea, it is hard to blame him.

Why take the risk? The austerity-proof Premier League earns more and more television money every time Scudamore negotiates a new deal.
But there is a better way of doing it than just trying to parachute Celtic and Rangers into the Premier League.

A better way for everyone.

A more acceptable way.

A way that might negate concerns in both England and Scotland:

Keep the Premier League as it is.

In fact, keep the Championship as it is, too.

Draft the top four clubs from the SPL into League One, the next four into League Two and the next four into the newly-created League Three.
It might be seen as rather humbling for Celtic and Rangers to begin with, but my bet is that they would accept it.

And admitting all 12 SPL teams into the English divisions would ease Rangers’ and Celtic’s exit from Scottish football and their entrance into the game south of the border.

If they worked their way up to the Premier League, they would have their places there on merit.

There would be drama in their ascension and there would be cash, too. For Scottish and English football.
Let’s not pretend England’s lower leagues don’t need help.

They do, desperately.

The same day Celtic beat Spartak, League One Coventry were threatened with a winding-up order if they fail to pay overdue rent on their Ricoh Arena home.

And there are plenty more stories where they came from.

Most Football League clubs have felt the icy grasp of penury in one form or another in recent years.

The admission of Scottish clubs to the pyramid would not be a panacea but it would help.

Celtic and Rangers, in particular, would bring huge visiting support everywhere they travelled.

Their presence would increase the interest of television companies considerably and inflate the amounts they would be willing to pay.

There would, of course, be many, many obstacles to overcome and radical change like this would be unlikely to happen until 2015-16, even if formal discussions began tomorrow.

But by then, Rangers should be back in the SPL and, who knows, the Premier League may not be austerity-proof any longer.
For now, Celtic and Rangers need English football more than English football needs them.

But to be at Celtic Park on Wednesday was to know that a club that has embellished its rich European heritage this season would be a valuable asset to the English leagues.

The world is shrinking. Football economics are changing.

There have been open discussions about merging the Dutch and Belgian leagues.

Same with the Czech and Slovak divisions.

It is time to start think about embracing Celtic, Rangers and the rest of the SPL, not excluding them.

It is time to see it as the way forward.

And it is time to accept that, even though we in England have a great league, it could be even better

[Guest]

Hi Joe, I'd still prefer a European league in preference to the EPL.

As it stands though I'd be up for that and we would attract increasingly better players as we move up the leagues. Max crowds at CP and 10,000 away fans at every stadium that had the capacity.

I'm not sure our board would go for it though, they must expect CFC to have a decent run in the CL over the next 5 years or so, a big loss initially but longer term it would be the right move.

I'd still prefer a European league in preference to the EPL though.

V

[Guest]

It's an interesting article indeed. It's a new slant on the Celtic in England debate. One worrying thing though is the innaccurate postings by some of the repliers to the article about Celtic fans away game behaviour in England and Europe. They seem to think Celtic fans and Rangers fans are the same guys. http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/time-celtic-and-the-rest-of-the-spl-merged-1476949

[Joe O'Rourke]

I believe the Board would be up for it.

[Kiwibhoy]

This is a point I've been making for all the time I've been here - football is a commercial business, and clubs get into awfy trouble when they forget that. And the trends in the SPL since the ignominious departure of our Ibrox "friends", make that point clear as well. If the product isn't any good, it won't have any customers. It's only the Champions' League which has saved Celtic's commercial bacon this year.