LAST week the debate reopened about Rangers and Celtic joining the English Premiership. Bolton chairman Phil Gateside drew up plans for a two-tier League including the old firm clubs.
His proposal was made up of six key points. The main four were, increasing the number of teams in the premiership, split the league into two tiers, invite Rangers and Celtic to join lower tier, and use extra TV revenue and the 36 million pound parachute payments to fund the expansion.
These ideas need to get a majority vote from at least 14 of the 20 premiership clubs. Already Stoke chairman Peter Coates has disapproved of the idea of Rangers and Celtic joining the premiership saying, "We have 20 great clubs in the league already and they are all tough games.We have a system which works in a competitive sense."
I understand if they were to join, a restructure of the league would be necessary, as it would be unfair on championship teams. But why fix something which isn't broke? The league is still regarded as the best in the world.
Also why would teams at the lower end of the league want to see their potential parachute payment spent on readjustments to the league?
If they were to join the premiership, I don't think they would break into our top four either. Rangers are a club struggling financially and Celtic failed to qualify for the group stages of the champions league. So how would they compete with the big four to retain there European statuses?
As for the Scottish league, how would it survive without the two top clubs? Imagine La Liga without Barcelona and Real Madrid. It would have massive financial consequences.
The idea will continue to be debated for years to come. But I can't see it happening anytime in the near future.
No comments:
Post a Comment