Old Firm's exit strategy appears dead in the water as schism grows

Published on Wednesday 14 October 2009 22:49

THE recent absence of Scottish Premier League club matches, together with Scotland's redundancy in the last round of World Cup qualifiers, have made for ripe conditions for the exhumation of the North Atlantic League from its watery grave.

Hallowe'en is still a fortnight away, but the concept of Rangers and Celtic competing in a cross-border, mostly northern European league is back from the dead and on the agenda again. Nothing it seems can prevent it lumbering back into view on an annual basis, and it never looks any more attractive. Even Peter Lawwell, the Celtic chief executive, can no longer be convinced of its merits and last week said it seemed to be a "little bit of a Frankenstein". Its chief creator, perhaps, is the media – who, like Rangers and Celtic, cannot resist returning to the theme. At a time when Scotland is getting used to being on the outside at parties looking in, it is perhaps understandable that the appetite for something more exotic than the SPL has been restored. But the drawbacks remain, as outlined by Lawwell last week.

He explained his 'Frankenstein' comment by describing the Atlantic League as being "bits taken from here and there and there were no real national rivalries. There would be an initial media interest but whether that would be sustainable is questionable. And there would need to be some sort of integration with the Champions League. From our point of view, we'd be looking at something more natural."

He strains to hear the siren call from England, while Martin Bain, his counterpart at Rangers, is less selective, and has been heartened by comments made this week by Michael van Praag, a leading member of Uefa's executive committee and president of the Dutch FA. He has backed the concept of the North Atlantic League, and his influence means he is able to schedule a meeting with Uefa president Michel Platini, whose commitment to change has been highlighted with his tinkering of both the Uefa Cup and Champions League.

Platini may be easier to convince than Lennart Johansson, his predecessor. Both Johansson and Sepp Blatter, the president of Fifa, were for once in accord when resisting the idea of leagues formed outside existing national associations. According to Van Praag, Uefa was "conservative, full of fear". Blatter remains hostile to the idea of clubs breaking borders.

But it is the priority of Bain and Lawwell to maximise revenue streams for their clubs, which is why both were heard chirruping away on national radio last week following their attendance at the 'Leaders in Football' conference at Stamford Bridge. Bain was confidently predicting Rangers would be playing their league football somewhere other than Scotland come 2019. His club are most obviously at the limit of their ambitions in Scotland, given that revenue streams have been exhausted. Not that this is Scottish football's fault after years of debt accumulation on the part of the Ibrox club.

But there is a desperation present whenever Bain speaks about the prospect of Rangers joining another league. Predictably, his ears pricked up at the news of an influential legislator's support for a new competition involving clubs from not just the Netherlands and Scotland, but also Belgium, Portugal and Scandinavia. "I find what Michael van Praag has to say of great interest," he said. "I mentioned last week it was time for a wind of change in the European game and there are many other like-minded clubs."

But a schism has developed between both halves of the Old Firm, with Lawwell not even trying to disguise his cooling of interest in a league where there will be no ability to trade on traditional rivalries, and at a time when European football is proving a turn-off for fans. The difficulties both Rangers and Celtic had in filling their stadiums for their most recent outings in European competition, against Sevilla and Rapid Vienna respectively, reflects this change in attitude.

Fewer fans are prepared to fork out for the increasing cost of tickets and this will surely also be the case should it come to a weekly diet of matches with the lesser lights of European football, such as Anderlecht, Benfica and Brondby. Also required to be taken into account is the cost for the away fan when suddenly presented with the need to negotiate trips to European cities each fortnight, rather than Falkirk, Kilmarnock and Aberdeen. The creation of a North Atlantic League will obliterate football fan culture in this country for a majority of supporters.

Television, of course, will call the tune, not the fans. But an invitation to join the English Premier League still appears a more likely exit strategy for the Old Firm. And that does not seem very likely at all.