The suggestion that Celtic and Rangers should join the Football League is, of course, preposterous. It has no basis in common sense. Not that we should not expect it to. The people who suggest this are those who, in England, advocated a ‘Phoenix League’ and in Scotland, an ‘Atlantic League’. As with those attempts, once again it’s all about money.
In the light of the ITV Digital Fiasco, I felt that football should use the loss of TV money as an opportunity to ask itself fundamental questions. It could provide the impetus for clubs to look at cutting player wages, perhaps think about part time football, and seek innovative ways of involving supporters in ownership and decision-making. Of course, if instead a perceived ‘quick fix’ came along to enable those who run football to shirk tough choices and continue to live unsustainably for a little longer, they’d be bound to jump on it. In seeking to change the make-up of the league, football clubs want to dodge the issue, avoid making the difficult decisions.
There is not a single logical reason for Celtic and Rangers to play in England. They are Scottish teams. There is a professional League in Scotland. What is difficult about this? They might not like it, but that’s tough. Across Europe there are wide variations in the strengths of leagues. Some do get better TV deals than others. That’s life. Along with the Premier League, Europe’s strongest leagues are Germany’s Bundesliga, Italy’s Serie A and Spain’s Primera Liga. Presumably Dutch, French and Portuguese clubs who feel they’re big fishes in weaker leagues should be moving? Perhaps Man U should move to Spain, while we’re about it, if that’s where the riches are?
Reverse the proposition and you’ll see how little sense it makes. Should Burnley consider applying to join the Scottish Premier League? It makes about as much sense.
Be sure, too, that the Nationwide League would never be the first choice of the Old Firm. If they could, they'd join the Premier League. But the Premier League wouldn't have them, and so they seize on the Football League as their way in. If they want to play in the First Division, it is only because they expect to win promotion from it. Such arrogance!
Suppose they were right. While Celtic or Rangers would be some way short of top class by Premier League standards – they have a habit of picking up people who have failed in England – in a cash-strapped First Division the resources they could command would put them in a strong position. Suppose they did dominate, spending the season vying for first and second. What an exciting season for the rest of us! Would we be expected to take a year off while they got to where they really wanted to be?
Just a thought, but assuming a TV deal was struck on the basis that Celtic and Rangers would play in the League, what would happen if they did get promoted? Wouldn't we back to where we started from?
There are strong and clear parallels with the attempts to buy Wimbledon’s place in the League and open up a franchise in Milton Keynes. As should be obvious, if people in Milton Keynes want a place in the League, they should do what everyone else does, and work their way up football’s pyramid system. So too for Celtic and Rangers. It clearly doesn’t make any sense for them to play in English football, but if they insist, let them claim their place the only fair way: on merit. They should start at the bottom, and if they’re good enough, work their way up. Perhaps the First Division of the Unibond League would be a good place to begin. Five promotions later, they’d have earned their place in the Football League.
No one should be allowed to jump the queue and muscle their way in. What would that say to Wycombe, Cheltenham, Rushden and Diamonds or Boston United, who all worked hard for their position in the Football League? What message would that give to Stoke, who toiled for 49 games over the course of this season to get to the First Division, or Brentford, who after 49 games just missed out? It would say that their hard work was unnecessary. All they needed was enough weight to throw around, and maybe they could have skipped the hard part. Merit is the fundamental basis of football's pyramid structure. No one should be allowed a short cut, not Milton Keynes, not the Old Firm.
Of course, once in the First Division, it would appear that the Old Firm would be happy enough to seek qualification for the Premier League on merit. Again, there’s no logic in it.
Presumably if Celtic and Rangers were admitted, someone would have to make way. Assuming the First Division was to be got down to a sensible 24, something would have to give. They could always restrict promotion from the second to the first and from the third to the second for one or two seasons. Exciting stuff, eh? Clubs could miss out on promotion and a chance to rise up the League on merit because some clubs would have got preferential treatment. That would mean a whole season written off for some clubs and supporters. And, presumably, ultimately two more clubs would have to drop out of the League altogether to make room. They’d have paid a heavy price.
So, it wouldn’t make sense, and it would be unfair. Ask yourself then where the demand is coming from. I detect no groundswell from match-going supporters. Sure, people who only watch football on TV might enjoy the novelty value, for a short while. It would be something new for a bit, until they got tired of that too. The only way TV football will regain its appeal is by getting back its rarity value, but of course that’s not an option.
I sense no surge from the people who go to games, but we have learned many times that we are always the people who matter least. Having to go to Glasgow would be just more bloody inconvenience. Don’t comfort yourself with thought of an enjoyable weekend away in what is one of the UK's great cities. If Celtic and Rangers came into our division, it would be to make the package attractive to TV. That would means they’d be on TV a lot. If we were having a decent season, chances are we wouldn’t play them on a Saturday. How does Thursday night in Glasgow sound? What would supporters do for Rangers v Ipswich on a Friday night?
It’s odd, too, at a time when people are starting to admit that football violence never quite went away, to suggest bringing in two clubs with a sectarian history and some amount of bigoted support, and adding English v Scottish nationalism to the equation. Unfair? Sure, most of the supporters would be as great as most Burnley supporters. But in general, would the potential for violence be reduced or increased? Anyone fancy Millwall v Celtic?
There are no convincing arguments in favour of it. It isn’t good enough to say that three Welsh teams play in the English League. There’s a historical legacy there. There has only recently been a Welsh national league in the form of the League of Wales, and it can still be considered fledgling. It wasn’t in existence when Cardiff, Swansea and Wrexham joined the Football League. Ideally, in my view, Welsh teams would play in their own league, but the status quo is that those three Welsh teams have been in the League for a long time and are part of the furniture. They’re an exception, which doesn’t provide an argument for making more exceptions.
It’s no surprise to find that the same people who advocated the ‘Phoenix League’ seemed to be mixed up in this latest wheeze. Don’t mistake them for people who care two figs about football's future. Once again, these were people who’ve made a mess and seek only an escape route. Prime mover and shaker, and apparent self-appointed spokesman for change, seems to be the odious Geoffrey Richmond of Bradford City. If I was a Bradford supporter, I’d be delighted by my Chairman's high profile at a time when the club was going nowhere. This is a man whose ability to think in the long term was demonstrated by his handing out of lucrative, long term contracts to the likes of Carbone, Petrescu etc when Bradford were briefly in the Premier League. A couple of years on and several quick managerial appointments later, Bradford are broke. They’ve blown every bit of Premier League riches they’ve had, they’re massively in debt, they're still paying Carbone's wages, and at the time of writing, OFEX has just suspended trading in Bradford City Holdings’ shares. And these are the role models that are leading the way! Having dug themselves into a whole, clubs like Bradford are clearly desperate. They’ll clutch at any straw. This is only the latest.
In a nutshell, then, it’s short-sighted; it won’t solve anything; it’s logically flawed; it’s unfair. While writing this the FA seems to have come down very strongly against it. This is welcomed. What a shame the Football League, with mixed messages coming from different people, has not been so unambiguous. This should be a time when we all support the Football League in their legal action against Carlton and Granada, but they make it hard for us to back them.
That may be it, then; the FA's statement may have halted the momentum, at least for a while. But don't count on this never coming back. We must be vigilant to resist it, and throw light on the reasons why it doesn't stand up. If it ever does come as far as a vote of Football League clubs, Burnley FC should do the decent thing and vote against.
