'No means no – the Old Firm are not coming in'

Published on Thursday 12 November 2009 21:48

PROPOSALS to allow the Old Firm entry into a newly-formed second tier of the English top flight were thrown out by the country's Premier League chairmen at a meeting in London yesterday.

And their decision to hold a vote on Bolton chairman Phil Gartside's blueprint to invite Celtic and Rangers into an 18-team EPL2 means the ceaselessly-debated issue won't now officially feature on the football agenda down south for at least the next two years.

Gartside expected the wide-ranging restructuring paper he presented to representatives of the 20 Premier League clubs at a hotel in the capital to be digested and subject to later discussion. Instead, it is understood a number of those present sought an immediate vote on Celtic and Rangers being co-opted into their set-up. Predictably, the Old Firm proposal gained little support, and nowhere near the required backing from 14 clubs.

The verdict delivered was more than just a vote against: the clubs stated that Celtic and Rangers were neither desirable nor viable, as clear a case of rejection as we are likely to see in this eternal debate. Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore believes that should now be the end of the matter.

"The clubs discussed this and, as far as Celtic and Rangers are concerned, it's a non-starter," he said. "The clubs constitutionally voted to say we are not going to take this any further. We have made a clear and unequivocal statement. No means no. Celtic and Rangers are not coming in."

The publicity generated by the Old Firm element of his written document ultimately may have provided the means for Gartside, wittingly or unwittingly, to have his proposals for a two-tier league with a smaller top-flight and more equitable distribution of television revenue fed in to the Premier League's own review.

This was clearly implied by the statement the body released following yesterday's meeting. "Bolton Wanderers submitted a discussion paper detailing ideas concerning the restructuring of the Premier League into two tiers with the inclusion of Celtic and Rangers," it read. "The clubs welcomed the additional input into an ongoing process, however, they were of the opinion that bringing Celtic and Rangers into any form of Premier League set-up was not wanted or worthwhile. The other relevant ideas contained within Bolton's paper will now be taken forward as part of the wider strategic review being undertaken by the Premier League since November 2008 with the aim of providing recommendations before December 2010."

The fact is that 2014 remains the date by which Celtic and Rangers should realistically expect to be making serious ground on their road map to English resettlement. That is the year the Premier League's contract with Sky comes up for renewal, as well as that of the Scottish Premier League. Television, as the major financial provider, is also recognised as the major driver of fundamental change.

At current levels, the debt gorging among clubs in the English top flight could make a new menu imperative to ensure the continued attractiveness of the scene to ever-deeper pocketed backers – a point made explicit by Gartside in his two-page paper. In this respect, today's never meeting was never going to be pivotal. A point made by Stephen Morrow, head of the Department of Sports Studies at Stirling University.

"I'm not too sure that the door has been closed on the Old Firm," he said. "I think today's decision came too prematurely. I don't think anyone was expecting anything different; this was the start of the process. In my opinion, what will happen is that the pressure for change will come from other places, from someone like Sky television. Interest may come in the future when the product needs freshening up. It has to be a win-win situation for teams but any talk of the Old Firm at this time could mean a lose-situation for some of the clubs. But today's meeting was a bit of a side-show."

In fact, the profile given in England to the latest episode of Scottish football's longest running saga, and the fact that some clubs did give their approval to the Old Firm hooking up with them – even if the six figure stated in some reports may have been on the high side – means that the Glasgow clubs may not feel completely disheartened.

Eight years ago, the Premier League voted 19-1 against considering any applications from them to join. Then, Celtic chairman Brian Quinn appeared to have the ear of his Arsenal counterpart David Dein but no other movers and shakers in England, and the push for change practically all came from the east end of Glasgow. Now, Gartside, without egging on from Celtic or Rangers, has arrived at the conclusion that having the duo around could be good for his business – and found some like minds.

Equally, the enthusiastic advocacy for the Old Firm's presence in England from five Premier League managers – Tottenham Hotspur's Harry Redknapp, Aston Villa's Martin O'Neill, Birmingham City's Alex McLeish and Everton David Moyes in recent days, and Arsenal's Arsene Wenger two months ago – would have been unthinkable even just a couple of years ago.

The Catch 22 for the Glasgow clubs is what underpins their desperate pursuit of an exit strategy from their own league. They are showbiz as the result of their freakishly large growth over the past 10 years; manifest in their attendances and global 'brand' reach. That very growth has the last vestiges of competitiveness in Scottish football. In turn, that has made their environment commercially unappealing, now beginning to be felt profoundly in their crowd pulling and player pulling. The upshot is that they are starting to contract – Rangers rapidly because of their wrecked finances and Celtic in a much slower, but still very real, fashion. As a consequence, they will struggle to make any real impression on the European scene, and so could begin to look much less like the heavyweights of which there are too few in England, and much more like the lightweights of which there are too many.

Rangers chairman Alistair Johnston touched on this in yesterday reflecting on the Premier League's 'no' vote.

"I don't think it's the end of the talk in terms of moving away because I think there are winds of change moving across Uefa," he said.

"For Rangers or Celtic to enjoy a profile in a new world order of football, something will need to change in the next two to five years."

As they are now, five years on would still be time enough for Celtic and Rangers to take flight to England. As they might be by then, though, five years might be too late.

FOR AND AGAINST

IN THE build-up to yesterday's meeting, opinions were split among English clubs over whether the Old Firm would be good or bad for the Premier League.

FOR ENTRY

&#149 ASTON VILLA manager Martin O'Neill: "I would like to see both teams in the Premier League. I think it would make the league even stronger than it is. Celtic are just an unbelievable club, and Rangers also. I think all clubs would try to get stronger because of it."

&#149 BIRMINGHAM CITY manager Alex McLeish: "I have always thought it would be fantastic to have Rangers and Celtic in the English Premier League. They are enormous institutions who deserve to have a platform like that. Can I see a day when it actually happens? Yes, I can."

&#149 EVERTON manager David Moyes: "It would be great for everybody to see Celtic and Rangers initially in a Premier League Two. I'm sure they would very quickly move into Premier League One. I feel it would be of great benefit for everybody."

&#149 TOTTENHAM manager Harry Redknapp: " I would welcome Celtic and Rangers to English football if they wanted to play down here. No doubt about it. I'm sure they would be good for the English game."

AGAINST ENTRY

&#149 BURNLEY chief executive Paul Fletcher: "My first view is that it would ruin football in Scotland. What the Hearts and Hibernians and Aberdeens would think about it ... whether they would slip into non-league football, I don't know."

&#149 STOKE CITY chairman Peter Coates: "We have lots of fine clubs in England to play and we have a system that has worked very well in a competitive sense. The minuses outweigh the pluses."

&#149 WIGAN ATHLETIC chairman Dave Whelan: "We are an English league and we should only have English clubs in it."