Old Firm move to England

Let's say during 2003 negotiations for the Old Firm to move come out successful and in the season of 2003-2004 they play in the English First division.

What are the effects on Scottish and English football.?
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
It would destroy Scottish football entirely, as those two clubs are its heart and soul.

It wouldn't do much for English PL, though. Although Rangers and Celtic are the top flight of SPL, if they were dropped into the English League they would probably rank somewhere in the middle (think West Ham).
 
It would destroy Scottish football entirely, as those two clubs are its heart and soul.

It wouldn't do much for English PL, though. Although Rangers and Celtic are the top flight of SPL, if they were dropped into the English League they would probably rank somewhere in the middle (think West Ham).

Sadly not, the OF were at peak strength compared to EPL teams in the early years of this decade, without the vast TV money. Celtic can pull in crowds most teams could only dream of. In the era before billionaire owners I think they'd be top half at least, given the vast income boost they'd get.

Scottish football would survive, the OF currently hoover up most of the TV cash anyway, so I'm sure a smaller but still viable deal could be secured for what would be a hugely competitive league. The drop in income would favour the financially stronger clubs like Hibs that have low debt and good youth structures.

There would also be the few years of Champions League places before the league ranking dropped, this income alone could allow one or two to clubs to build a dominance of the new SPL. I would see the league increasing in size to say 16 teams.
 
The Scottish Premier Division is perhaps the most predictable and boring ever - a two horse race every year. No that the English league is much better...The top four teams battle it out, with Man Utd coming out on top most years. It might change a little with money-bags Man City buying any player that comes to mind. I suppose it is more competitive than the SPL though as there are teams in the Premier League that will take points off the bigger clubs, Spurs, Everton, Aston Villa etc. Would be interesting though to see Celtic and Rangers in there....solid mid-table i think, just like Fulham. Neither of them are good enough to compete against Man U, Liverpool Chelsea etc over a season. The Scottish League would survive...but would be almost irrelevent in European football, which would be a shame considering all the great Scottish players and managers there has been over the years.
 
The Scottish Premier Division is perhaps the most predictable and boring ever - a two horse race every year. No that the English league is much better...The top four teams battle it out, with Man Utd coming out on top most years. It might change a little with money-bags Man City buying any player that comes to mind. I suppose it is more competitive than the SPL though as there are teams in the Premier League that will take points off the bigger clubs, Spurs, Everton, Aston Villa etc. Would be interesting though to see Celtic and Rangers in there....solid mid-table i think, just like Fulham. Neither of them are good enough to compete against Man U, Liverpool Chelsea etc over a season. The Scottish League would survive...but would be almost irrelevent in European football, which would be a shame considering all the great Scottish players and managers there has been over the years.

The Scottish League would continue as is, producing those players and managers, Celtic and Rangers do comparatively little on that front!

It's quite hard to compare the leagues, as even poor teams like Stoke or Hull get much more tv money than the entire SPL put together, given the big increase in cash any SPL club could probably have a shot at staying up, or at least going down fighting!
 
Too late, I think the only realistic time for the old firm to move south is when the premier league forms. As the Champions League grows in size and money available from that increases it becomes pretty ASB for the old firm to give up their free ticket to the big European circus.
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
Here's a thought I had. Suppose, instead of some mega-billionaire (i.e. Roman Abramovich or Sheikh Mansour) buying a Premier League team, they instead altruistically buy every team in the SPL outside of the Old Firm, flooding them with money and allowing them to buy large numbers of big-name players from around the world. At the same time, they negotiate deals with major broadcasters, giving SPL a much higher visability and hence much higer TV earnings.

Okay, this is a bit of a dream from someone who wishes Scottish football were much better, but ho about it?
 
Too late, I think the only realistic time for the old firm to move south is when the premier league forms. As the Champions League grows in size and money available from that increases it becomes pretty ASB for the old firm to give up their free ticket to the big European circus.

To be honest the only way it will happen is if Sky demand it, say a more severe downturn sees Sky offering less money to the league, they may choose to invite the Old Firm in making it more attractive to Sky than having say Burnley and Stoke. Or conversely, Sky seek to maximise revenue and say your only getting £x more if you bring them in.

The Old Firm paradoxically bemoan any Scottish opposition, but do everything they can to weaken them. Recent years has seen their financial strength relative to the rest take a big knock. The other clubs can now demand fees unthinkable a few years ago such as Hibs selling Brown to Celtic for over £4 million or that the OF simply cannot afford; Sunderland buying Gordon for £9 million.

I think you'd improve the standard of the Scottish team if they shipped off down south certainly.
 
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