Imagine the glamour of Rangers and Celtic playing at Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal on a regular basis. Their dire finances may mean this is the only way for the pair to flourish, should it happen?
Rangers entering administration has come as a great blow for the Scottish game, even if several experts close to the club forewarned such a catastrophe.
It is likely to take Rangers around 18 months to recover into a position where they can compete off the field, perhaps longer, which will no doubt translate on the field.
The SPL is renowned for its lack of competitiveness to the Old Firm, so with Celtic given a more or less clear run at this and probably the next SPL title, what interest is the division to the casual fan?
One idea Rangers and Celtic have both been mooting ever since the English Premier League’s inception, has been the possibility of joining.
This has as many opponents as it does advocates, and one question is whether it should be discussed again now, with Rangers entering a turning point in their history.
Scottish football has been England’s poorer, less-skilled and less-attractive brother for quite a while now, and while the Scots can see the advantages of playing in England, their English counterparts have been unable to be convinced why they should be allowed south of Hadrian’s Wall on a regular basis.
One of the reasons Scottish clubs are in the doldrums is the lack of interest from outside Scotland, and most recently their poor finances meaning they can no longer attract the top, or even second-rate players. Long gone are the days of Henrik Larsson and Paul Gascoigne.
Is this likely to improve? There are no signs at the moment to suggest it will. So even when Rangers get back on a sound financial footing, they will continue to act as medium sized fish in a very small pond.
So a move to the Premier League would be the simplest way to guarantee survival. A share of the rich global television rights would allow the clubs to grow and secure a long-term future.
There are doubts over how well equipped either club would be to get on in the Premier League, as seen by record goalscorer Kris Boyd’s inability to score on a regular basis in the Championship.
Still, you would fancy the Old Firm to pick up enough points at home, with the roaring crowds to achieve a mid-table finish, and at that point the money would come rolling in and they could start working their way up further.
If Premier League integration is not desirable, then perhaps a compromise could be reached, to expand the Carling Cup into a British Cup, or even the FA Cup, which has lost part of its magic in recent years.
However even if this was a desired outcome by the SPL and all the Premier League chairman, it would be unlikely to happen for political reasons.
Look at the Scottish FA’s stance on the Great Britain Olympic football team to see where they stand on wider integration.
There is also a vote potentially being put to Scottish Parliament in the coming years to decide whether or not Scotland should become independent from the rest of the UK.
For these reasons I can’t see it happening. Rangers will survive and so will Celtic, but unless they find a way into the Premier League’s treasure chest, they will fail to flourish.
image: © tombrogan
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