Celtic 'knock plans for Atlantic League' as chief prefers club being part of breakaway British league

Celtic majority shareholder Dermot Desmond has dented plans for an Atlantic League after telling organisers his club would be backing out of the proposals, according to The Times.

Celtic majority shareholder Dermot Desmond. Picture: SNS

The idea was for five of the biggest clubs in Scotland, five from Sweden, five from Denmark, four from Norway and one from Ireland join forces to create a breakaway league.

Plans resurfaced again this year after Celtic, Rangers, Hearts, Hibs and Aberdeen were initially approached in 2016. The idea of an Atlantic League goes back two decades.

A £900million media deal was mooted, which was enough to get the interest of the approach Scottish parties, but Desmond has now decided it isn’t for his club.

The tycoon would instead prefer the status quo or the potential for a British league which would allow the Glasgow giants to battle it out with some of the biggest clubs south of the border.

Andrew Doyle, an Irish investor behind the project, was quoted as saying: “We received a call a few weeks ago from the principal shareholder of Celtic to say that he and Celtic were not interested in pursuing the project any further, preferring the status quo or the concept of a British isles league.

"This was both a surprise and a disappointment to us given our lengthy engagement with the clubs and our success in receiving proposals for underwriting the league worth well over one billion euros.

“We remain of the view that the interests of all stakeholders in small and mid-sized European countries are best served by consolidating their markets and that resolving the competitive balance issue can only be achieved in this way."

Message from the editor

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by Coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.