Would you all be in favor of Rangers/Celtic joining the English Football system?

Absolutely not, not in any way shape or form. It compromises the league's identity, it will compromise the teams (Celtic, Rangers) identity completely and it will be a horrific step towards a "super league".

And by super league I mean taking the best team from every country and having them play eachother. A form of this is already happening with transfers, clubs all over the world losing their best so they can go and play in Europe.

I'm completely against it.

 

They would be no better than a mid-table club anyways. If they wanna never see the UCL again, I say let them.

 

The majority of English football supporters are dead against it and I'm the same.

What aboutconference clubs who want promotion? Are they meant to wait their turn so these alien clubs from another country can muscle in on the revenue of the English football league?


I'm not xenophobic in any way at all, but it just won't work. What of the SPL if the two biggest clubs in it walked out? Most SPL clubs struggle with their finanances anway. Withdraw the interest the Old Frim bring and they'd surely go under.

No, no, no. It just won't happen, and it'll never receive the backing of the fans anyway.

 

Dead in the water.

 

I'm sure the North West counties league could fit them in.

 

Why?

Sure, right now they'd be mid-table, but give them a few year's of tv cash and exposure, and they'd be up there.

Not that I want them to be there, you understand.

But if they did come in, they'd have to start right down at step 10 or so, like any other aspiring club.

 

Interest in the spl would drop drastically

 

And the league would sink. Daft as it sounds, these clubs are funded and run by the TV money generated by that interest. Take that away and:

 

I too also dont want Celtic and Rangers in the English league setup. OK, we have Welsh clubs, but they entered at the formation of the league, when they where still forming the structure, and it got re-written every year. Also, the hope was that the league would end up as a UK-wide league, but the Scottish clubs set up their own league.

I do have some issues with a Welsh club in the English league set up, for example, a club that falls under the overall control of the Welsh FA potentially taking European competition slots from English clubs. However, given where the Welsh clubs are in the league, it is not an issue to be worried about right now.

Celtic and Rangers, on the other hand, have the strength to move up quickly, and given the money available to them in the English leagues, would see them up near the top of the Premier League relatively quickly.

Then we get the potential issue of Europe raising its head. England gets 7 qualifiers for European competition. 4 into the Champions League, and 3 into the Europa League. Scotland, as it stands, gets 2 into the Champions League, and 3 in the Europa League. 2 via the league, and 1 from the cup.

All the clubs enter to represent themselves, and to represent the FA that has awarded them that slot, and by extension, the country from which league they hail from. Except I really dont see how Glasgow Rangers and Celtic could really fly the flag for England, when both are proud Scottish clubs, and taking slots from genuinely English clubs.

Having Rangers and Celtic would end up with Scotland being over represented in Europe.

Another major reason, well, my brother was in Manchester during the UEFA Cup final (he had to finish some stuff in the office) and saw what the Rangers fans did. The 2 clubs do have some virulently sectarian and proud fans. Should they get into the English league, I can see all sorts of fan problems flaring up. Especially with some of the hardline nutters who "want to teach the English a lesson."

 

Yes, I would be very much in favour of those two Scottish Power-Horses joinning the Premier League...

...I cant see how nobody has thought of this before...Go Celtics...Raa-Raa-Raa...

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Qd0zrT9Pro"]YouTube- John Smiths Ya Barred![/ame]

 

Good post.

The ONLY way I would want this to happen would be a UK-wide league, but it's painful to think about the restructuring that would be required for this to happen.

 

It wouldn't be that hard. Just get some stats people to evaluate the quality of all the club teams in the UK (using numerous stats like wages, recent results, player history, etc.), jumble them all together and put them in 5 leagues of 20. Sure teams will complain, but then the FA and SFA can tell them they have no choice. It will seem odd at first, but give it 5 years and it will be like nothings changed.

 

You think Championship teams or even Premiership teams will be content with being demoted based solely on "evaluations" as well as "history" and wages? It's ridiculous to think that they would be.

If clubs voted unanimously for it, then OK.

 

I think the Scottish clubs would really suffer. Rangers/Celtic apart, the support for the other clubs isn't good enough to even get them to the top half of the championship. I can't see the likes of St Mirren regarding surviving relegation to League Two being an improvement.

 

Yeah...the Scottish League would take a terrible hit.

 

If they want to go into a UK league then they'll have to accept their place. My post wasn't based on doing it against most of the teams will, it was based on everybody wanting a UK league.

With the St. Mirren thing is there a chance that moving to the English leagues could get them more fans. I'm not expert on the Scots, but isn't the reason that they have so few fans is that all of the people who would be fans are off supporting Celtic and Rangers; two teams who win the league every year. Glory supporters. If the Old Firm were in England then they wouldn't win the League every year. Is there a chance that the yet to be born Scots who may have supported a Rangers team who won the league every year, may instead support a team like St. Mirren, with Rangers or Celtic struggling in mid table?

(Probably not, but just wondering )

 

Pointless aside but I know that guy

 

Maybe, but for people in Scotland, Celtic and Rangers would still be the nearest competitive teams for hundreds of miles. And the Old Firm fanbase is already big enough to survive on inertia for a few generations.

 

Thing is, if we try to combine everyone into a UK-wide league, there are some massive logistical issues. Do we have a 5 tier league? Or a 3 tier league, with geographical splits? If it is a straight 5 tier split, then you end up with lower level clubs, such as Torquay, and St Mirren facing a very, very long and expensive away trip!

We have a lot of clubs wanting the chance to make it to the top of the tree. If we add in more clubs, that chance lessens.

I dont think the clubs will follow the proverbial turkeys voting for Christmas!

 

I think it needs to stay as it is. Moving just the Old Firm would leave Scottish football in a right mess, and moving all of them across into a UK league would cause no end of logistical nightmares.

No, my opinion is that it should stay as it is. If the Old Firm are suffering as a result of the monopoly they've created and been party to, then tough. The Premier League and all it's financial riches are for the benefit of English clubs, and those who are part of the Football league to aspire to.

Honestly, Scotland - one minute they want their own parliament, the next they want to join our football league. Tough luck.

 

It is rather amusing. Scottish clubs want a slice of the wealth created in England, but under no circumstances do they want to shoulder any responsibility. Look at the huge furore they kicked up over a one-off British team playing in the Olympics. Scotland dont want to be part of that, since it threatens their political independence, but DO want the money we have down here.

Simple.

If Rangers and Celtic want to join the English league, they have to put themselves under the FA, and become "English!"

 

Even if they did that, I still wouldn't have them in.

They'd bring with them a very obvious threat to the league as a whole as they are very, very big clubs and surely a league can only accomodate so many blue-chip clubs?

Plus, would they wipe their histories? Celtic, to date, have won 42 league titles. If they were to win the EPL one day, would that go up to 43, or would they start from scratch on one?

 

But he's not in any way xenophobic. Honest.

 

One of the main reasons that the SPL is struggling is because of the size of the league. It's too small and too many teams are scared of dropping out. Fear football ensues. The size of the league needs to be increased to help football flourish but any time there is a vote on it the majority of teams reject it.

Why? Because they want the money and the gate receipts from playing the two big Glasgow teams up to four times a season(combined) at home.

Worth pointing out again but the most recent time this debate was resurrected was because of Phil Gartside. The Bolton chairman was the man who wanted the two teams in the Premiership.

I'm fairly certain he isn't Scottish...