Scots football ‘under threat of extinction’ says Lawwell

Lawwell revealed his fears for the future after the club’s AGM at Celtic Park, where outgoing chairman John Reid told shareholders that he questioned the sustainability of the game and claimed “radical thinking” was needed to address the problem.

Lawwell spoke about being unable to compete with the “ridiculous” fees bandied around in England and further afield for players and highlighted the age-old issue of the lack of finance north of the border, due mostly to poor television revenues.

“It’s not Celtic and Rangers here, it’s the nation,” he said. “This social phenomenon of football in Scotland is under threat of extinction and it needs, as John [Reid] says, radical thinking. A lot of good work is going on at the SFA, a lot of good work is going on at the SPL, but is it enough?

“The challenges are obvious to everyone. The product in Scotland isn’t the best. There’s a chronic lack of investment in the game. The reason is that people don’t see the worth of the payback, and until that’s sorted we’re going to have real problems.”

Lawwell added: “Man Utd have 300 million supporters around the world, while 1.4 billion watch the EPL. The English Premier League now gets £1.4 billion a year through TV. The new SPL deal, including international rights, will be worth £15 million, 1 per cent of the EPL deal.

“What follows from that is profile, exposure, sponsorship values – that’s what we’re up against. So what we need to do is to provide an environment that will provide fresh investment into the game, bring hope and aspiration back into the game and take off.

“It’s nothing imminent, it’s long term. There’ll be TV deals for the SPL, there’s a TV deal for the Scottish national team. They’ll still go on, but whether it grows is another thing. The strong will get stronger and the weak will get weaker.”

Asked if the type of growth needed was possible in the SPL, Lawwell replied: “It’s very, very difficult to see unless there is a route out in terms of to a bigger environment, to an extended European environment.

“The European Club Association was a forum to discuss these matters. They have been raised but the frank answer is that they were getting nowhere fast. What you find is the polarisation of European football – between leagues and within leagues – and at some point there will be a breaking point.”

Reid, who has been replaced by Ian Bankier, was similarly pessimistic. “From where I am sitting, we have an unsustainable model for Scottish football,” said the former Home Secretary. “And in its crudest terms, you cannot go on earning 1 or 2 per cent of what other countries’ clubs are earning and in any way meet the expectations that our history would determine.

“We are a big club with an international following, with a huge potential market, but like many other clubs we are locked into a league that has no commercial value, or little, in a world where it is the commercial value of that money that is determining performance on the park.

“What’s new about that? The extent is new and I think the hardness of finding solutions is new because every year the problem gets worse.