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Celtic/Rangers rejection makes sense, but so does two-tiered Premiership concept
Posted 12 Nov 2009 at 04:42 PM by Aaron Stollar
Tags celtic, new ideas, premier league, rangers
This week the Premier League rejected a proposal by the Bolton chairman to include Celtic and Rangers in a two-tiered Premier League with the Guardian saying that 14 clubs voted against it.
There are two ideas here that want to handle separately. First is the Celtic and Rangers problem. Clearly, they have outgrown the SPL and its financial limitation, chiefly television rights fees. From their perspective, I can completely understand their attempt to go anywhere in search of the cash to match their clearly lofty ambitions. But, from the Premier League's perspective, it doesn't make all that much sense to introduce one of the world's most poisonous, distasteful, and violent rivalries to a league and a country that has worked extremely hard over the last 20 years to reduce hooliganism. Bringing in Celtic and Rangers fans with their clear and recent histories of sectarianism and outright violence (Rangers fans marauding through Manchester a few years ago comes to mind) does English soccer no good whatsoever. While Rangers fans have probably been guiltier of violence lately, Celtic fans singing songs of IRA "heroism" present just as much of a problem from a PR perspective. They're both guilty.
All that being said, the more I think the Premiership would do really well to add a second tier and end performance-based relegation after that second tier. Meaning, you can get relegated from "Premiership 1" to "Premiership 2" but you cannot get punted out of the second tier based on performance alone. To see that happen, a club would have to have financial irregularities (bankruptcy/receivership) or some kind of other malfeasance. A two tiered uber-Premiership would give clubs relegated from the top one – as Bolton might see happen some season soon - a softer financial landing. It would also provide an ability to gather greater TV figures by ensuring that all of the British Isles' (you heard right) large market are included. Here was a quick sketch I did a few weeks back using this year's Premier League as a starting point.
Premier League 1
Arsenal
Aston Villa
Birmingham City
Blackburn Rovers
Bolton Wanderers
Burnley
Chelsea
Everton
Fulham
Hull City
Liverpool
Manchester City
Manchester United
Portsmouth
Stoke City
Sunderland
Tottenham Hotspur
West Ham United
Wigan Athletic
Wolverhampton Wanderers
Premier League 2
Leeds United
Dublin FC
Glasgow FC
Blackpool
Bristol City
Cardiff City
Coventry City
Derby County
Ipswich Town
Leicester City
Middlesbrough
Newcastle United
Nottingham Forest
Peterborough United
Plymouth Argyle
Preston North End
Queens Park Rangers
Reading
Scunthorpe United
Sheffield United
Sheffield Wednesday
Swansea City
Watford
West Bromwich Albion
Not accepted into new league: Crystal Palace, Doncaster, Barnsley.
This new league structure would incorporate clubs but all from two of Britain's 20 largest cities with only Edinburgh and Belfast missing out.
You probably have noticed three new additions at the top of Premier League 2. The first is Leeds United. Yup, they're poor now, but you're not going to leave Britain's fifth largest metro area out of the structure. The second addition is a hypothetical Dublin FC, playing at new Lansdowne Road in the Irish capital. Finally, there is the truly a creative idea which is Glasgow FC - completely new club based at Hampden Park that is free of sectarianism and founded with key missions of providing a safe, sectarianism-free fan experience and developing the Scottish player. Let Celtic and Rangers fight it out in their own parochial, sectarian cesspool. The future, and the entertaining non-crap soccer, will be elsewhere in Glasgow.
I have rather arbitrarily whacked Crystal Palace, Doncaster and Barnsley from the new league. I did this because they were the smallest clubs from the two urban regions (London & Manchester) with the most clubs.
About the only club/city I would like to see in this league, that I haven't been able to slot in is Southampton, Edinburgh and maybe Belfast. Regardless, I suspect the future of English soccer lies in a two-tiered Premier League that will look something like this one. With all the largest TV markets included, TV rights will continue to rise and with the risk of catastrophic relegation reduced through better division of TV money, club values increase across the two divisions.
Within these two divisions, you could get creative with promotion and relegation as well. How about guaranteeing promotion and relegation to the winner of PL2 and the bottom club of PL1 while sending the other four clubs at the top of PL2 and the bottom of PL1 into a playoff with each other? You could just throw all six clubs into a little round-robin if you wanted, but that risks the season running too close to international tournament-time in the summer. Anyway, you can play with pro/rel formats forever.
What do you think?
There are two ideas here that want to handle separately. First is the Celtic and Rangers problem. Clearly, they have outgrown the SPL and its financial limitation, chiefly television rights fees. From their perspective, I can completely understand their attempt to go anywhere in search of the cash to match their clearly lofty ambitions. But, from the Premier League's perspective, it doesn't make all that much sense to introduce one of the world's most poisonous, distasteful, and violent rivalries to a league and a country that has worked extremely hard over the last 20 years to reduce hooliganism. Bringing in Celtic and Rangers fans with their clear and recent histories of sectarianism and outright violence (Rangers fans marauding through Manchester a few years ago comes to mind) does English soccer no good whatsoever. While Rangers fans have probably been guiltier of violence lately, Celtic fans singing songs of IRA "heroism" present just as much of a problem from a PR perspective. They're both guilty.
All that being said, the more I think the Premiership would do really well to add a second tier and end performance-based relegation after that second tier. Meaning, you can get relegated from "Premiership 1" to "Premiership 2" but you cannot get punted out of the second tier based on performance alone. To see that happen, a club would have to have financial irregularities (bankruptcy/receivership) or some kind of other malfeasance. A two tiered uber-Premiership would give clubs relegated from the top one – as Bolton might see happen some season soon - a softer financial landing. It would also provide an ability to gather greater TV figures by ensuring that all of the British Isles' (you heard right) large market are included. Here was a quick sketch I did a few weeks back using this year's Premier League as a starting point.
Premier League 1
Arsenal
Aston Villa
Birmingham City
Blackburn Rovers
Bolton Wanderers
Burnley
Chelsea
Everton
Fulham
Hull City
Liverpool
Manchester City
Manchester United
Portsmouth
Stoke City
Sunderland
Tottenham Hotspur
West Ham United
Wigan Athletic
Wolverhampton Wanderers
Premier League 2
Leeds United
Dublin FC
Glasgow FC
Blackpool
Bristol City
Cardiff City
Coventry City
Derby County
Ipswich Town
Leicester City
Middlesbrough
Newcastle United
Nottingham Forest
Peterborough United
Plymouth Argyle
Preston North End
Queens Park Rangers
Reading
Scunthorpe United
Sheffield United
Sheffield Wednesday
Swansea City
Watford
West Bromwich Albion
Not accepted into new league: Crystal Palace, Doncaster, Barnsley.
This new league structure would incorporate clubs but all from two of Britain's 20 largest cities with only Edinburgh and Belfast missing out.
You probably have noticed three new additions at the top of Premier League 2. The first is Leeds United. Yup, they're poor now, but you're not going to leave Britain's fifth largest metro area out of the structure. The second addition is a hypothetical Dublin FC, playing at new Lansdowne Road in the Irish capital. Finally, there is the truly a creative idea which is Glasgow FC - completely new club based at Hampden Park that is free of sectarianism and founded with key missions of providing a safe, sectarianism-free fan experience and developing the Scottish player. Let Celtic and Rangers fight it out in their own parochial, sectarian cesspool. The future, and the entertaining non-crap soccer, will be elsewhere in Glasgow.
I have rather arbitrarily whacked Crystal Palace, Doncaster and Barnsley from the new league. I did this because they were the smallest clubs from the two urban regions (London & Manchester) with the most clubs.
About the only club/city I would like to see in this league, that I haven't been able to slot in is Southampton, Edinburgh and maybe Belfast. Regardless, I suspect the future of English soccer lies in a two-tiered Premier League that will look something like this one. With all the largest TV markets included, TV rights will continue to rise and with the risk of catastrophic relegation reduced through better division of TV money, club values increase across the two divisions.
Within these two divisions, you could get creative with promotion and relegation as well. How about guaranteeing promotion and relegation to the winner of PL2 and the bottom club of PL1 while sending the other four clubs at the top of PL2 and the bottom of PL1 into a playoff with each other? You could just throw all six clubs into a little round-robin if you wanted, but that risks the season running too close to international tournament-time in the summer. Anyway, you can play with pro/rel formats forever.
What do you think?
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You don't think maybe drawing the Old Firm into the Premiership would help them clean up their act? Its a whole different ballgame when you're not the two biggest kids in the nursery. England has shown itself fairly adept at dealing with Hooliganism and theres no reason to believe Rangers and Celtic present problems that could not be solved. Its certainly a better idea than some polly annish Glasgow FC founded on love, peace, and faith in the human spirit.Posted 12 Nov 2009 at 05:08 PM by Celtigo 
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This proposed Glasgow FC would likely have attendance figures comparable to the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Posted 12 Nov 2009 at 05:42 PM by Adiaga Two
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Doncaster and Barnsley are nowhere near Manchester.Posted 12 Nov 2009 at 06:20 PM by SheffWedFan 
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New Generations of Scottish Children could embrace Glasgow FC and be an example to the rest of the country.Posted 12 Nov 2009 at 06:24 PM by Ron86
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So you're for it?Quote:Originally Posted by Adiaga Two
This proposed Glasgow FC would likely have attendance figures comparable to the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Jacksonville's average attendance this year is around 45,000 fans a game. That's very low for the NFL, but it would be the fourth-highest in the Premier League this season.Posted 12 Nov 2009 at 06:25 PM by chapka
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Also, Dublin is in a completely different independent country from the rest of the UK. Belfast, by all means; Dublin no.
From your list, I would take off Dublin, Scunthorpe, and Peterboro (by FAR the two smallest markets), and re-add in Palace, Belfast, and either Norwich or Southampton from League 1.
or; move Newcastle and West Brom back to Prem 1, add in Palace, Belfast, Norwich, Southampton and Barnsley, and you've got yourself two 22-team divisions.Posted 12 Nov 2009 at 06:27 PM by SheffWedFan
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Wouldn't it be simpler just to keep the current Premier League, but move to a more restrictive system of promotion and relelgation? Start with something like the Mexican league, where relegation is determined by the average of the last three seasons; send only one team down; and hold a playoff with the promoted team rather than making the relegation automatic. That way one bad year doesn't send the team down automatically (and crash it out of the TV money) like it does now.
As for inclusiveness, this still leaves a window for teams like Leeds to come back up; and realistically, there are only three large cities in England (London, Birmingham and Manchester) and they're all represented.Posted 12 Nov 2009 at 07:02 PM by chapka
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I should add. I sketched this out while sitting in a boring meeting, so obviously, there are improvements that can be made.Posted 12 Nov 2009 at 07:03 PM by Aaron Stollar
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"Finally, there is the truly a creative idea which is Glasgow FC - completely new club based at Hampden Park that is free of sectarianism and founded with key missions of providing a safe, sectarianism-free fan experience and developing the Scottish player."
Isn't this exactly what Queen's Park FC is already. They are amateur but they are in the Scottish League(currently 3rd Division) and already play at Hampden Park.Posted 12 Nov 2009 at 07:24 PM by ToffeeCrew
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Ah yes, let's chuck 120+ years of history out the window for the sake of the almighty pound. This post makes me want to choke someone...really I could care less about the big fish little pond clubs from Glasgow but to destroy the very core of what English football is and has been would be one of the biggest tragedies in the history of sports...
Posted 12 Nov 2009 at 08:58 PM by SxSxWxC
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