This has been rejected by the Premier League. It is something that often comes up. No other clubs besides these 2 have won the Scottish League for 24 years! Basically, it’s like having Chelsea and Manchester United permanently playing in League One. When you realise that, you have to have sympathy with the Old Firm. There’s a lack of real competition and a lack of revenue.
It’s a problem for all of the big clubs across Europe. They are all businesses, and their aim is to make the maximum profit. They get that most by playing other big teams. So the best thing for their success and prosperity is a European league of the big clubs and to leave their national competitions. Celtic and Rangers would join that in an instant. But there is a problem that comes from this..
..It’s the problem that afflicts the Premier League. Once you get into that top competition your club makes the most money and gets bigger. And the same is true for the other 19 clubs. So you have 20 successful businesses together and if they leave that league they will lose a lot of money. So much so that the Premier League provides parachute payments to soften the blow.
So what is the problem then? The teams inside the Premier League want to pull up the ladder and keep the competition for themselves, banning promotion and relegation. Of course they want that, it is best for their businesses. But it is not best for Football. It’s only the Football Association and FIFA that are preventing this happening. The clubs would do it given the chance. Probably a closed Premier League, then a European League, then a World League. And only the top clubs in it and barriers to entry from smaller clubs.
Promotion and relegation is what makes league competitions so much fun, and it needs to be preserved. Without relegation from top leagues the top clubs will become slack because they have nothing to fear.
But, maybe a real European League, as the next step above the National Leagues, with promotion and relegation, is the way the future will go.
Filed under: Football, Money and Business, Premier League
