[Archived] Celtic & Rangers

[Nate]

Old Firm Want Out

What do think? Should they play in the Premiership, or any English league for that matter?

[Steve Moss]

No.

[Nate]

Sorry mods. Just seen the debate in the other thread. Pls delete.

[Ben-2000]

Yeah let them in, it's no different to Cardiff, Swansea and Wrexham being in the English football pyramid.

(sorry, couldn't find another thread about this)

[Al]

No way should they be allowed into the Premier League. That is a privelige that has to be won. Maybe they could start in the second division and if they are good enough they can progress from there.

[stuwilky]

No way should they be allowed into the Premier League. That is a privelige that has to be won. Maybe they could start in the second division and if they are good enough they can progress from there.

Why the second division?

They are in Scotland, not in England.

Why should teams already within the pyramid miss out on promotion, or extra teams get relegated because of some Scottish teams. The lowest division in the pyramid with vacancies is the Vodkat league. Notwithstanding that they fall out of the catchment area of all English leagues.

Yeah let them in, it's no different to Cardiff, Swansea and Wrexham being in the English football pyramid.

Those teams have all played within the English league since their formation (or near enough) when there was no Welsh Football league - I believe it was founded in the 90's. The situation is vastly different - what next? Let in Paris St Germain?

[cn174]

Why should teams already within the pyramid miss out on promotion, or extra teams get relegated because of some Scottish teams. The lowest division in the pyramid with vacancies is the Vodkat league. Notwithstanding that they fall out of the catchment area of all English leagues.

Let them into the Unibond next time someone resigns - Chorley vs Rangers would be great!

[stuwilky]

Let them into the Unibond next time someone resigns - Chorley vs Rangers would be great!

Then a club from the NWC would miss out!

NWCFL Division 2, Daisy Hill v Celtic.

[cletus]

Why on earth should two English clubs give up their places in the English Premier League to allow two Scottish teams get richer?

You can guarrantee some of the big city English clubs might like the thought of playing two extra BIG home games a season, but the smaller town teams (like us) will be the ones pushed out to make room.

Allowing Celtic & Rangers in will mean the death knell for town teams in the EPL.

[Gav]

Why on earth should two English clubs give up their places in the English Premier League to allow two Scottish teams get richer?

Spot on cletus.

[thenodrog]

If the situation were reversed and loads and loads of dosh was swilling around the scottish prem league how does anyone think BRFC's application to join would be received?

[doctorryan]

I can never see this happening with just Celtic and Rangers. Ever. If it did it would kill Scottish football. And how on Earth do you place them in our leagues?

If anything like this was to happen it'd have to include to all Scottish clubs, not just a select two based on the 'Old Firm' label.

Exactly.

[deryck guyler's spoon]

After having an army of p1ssed up, smelly tramps converge on Blackburn for the UEFA cup game and seen Manchester smashed to pieces last May I'm aghast that anybody would want the Old Firm down here.

It has taken decades to almost irradicate racism from English stadiums and now there's talk of inviting that bunch of sectarian bigots down here. No thanks.

[FourLaneBlue]

Of course they shouldn't be "let in".

Why on earth would they be?

Makes no sense...either we have a completely integrated British league or we don't. If so...then get the rest of the Scottish clubs in as well and stop pretending that Wales actually have a real league. Who are the champs now? Rhyl?!? I mean...come on!!!

One or the other. No halway houses involving the Old Firm just because they are more popular than the other teams...which is the ONLY reason people ever even consider this.

[Big Fat Sam]

Well I reckon it would be awesome, rangers and celtic would be great additions to the prem. However two teams must lose out so as long as it Bolton and Burnley who get relegated they are welcome.

[wilyrover]

Be interesting to see what happens should the jocks vote for independance. I don't want the old firm anyway.

[gumboots]

Well I reckon it would be awesome, rangers and celtic would be great additions to the prem. However two teams must lose out so as long as it Bolton and Burnley who get relegated they are welcome.

Thing is their fans couldn't get into many of the premiership grounds where away fans are restricted in numbers. That means you wouldn't just have the vast numbers of fans occasionally - they'd be in someone's town or city every week causing mayhem, because they think supporting your team means travelling without a valid match ticket and clogging up your town centre.

[philipl]

As I explained on the other thread where this is being discussed, the Old Firm joining the Prem is a non-starter.

Other than Garside pushing the two Prem divisions idea, there is not one vote to bring the Old Firm in, never mind the 14 needed to get it passed.

However, the Old Firm could apply to join the Football League or the Conference. There will be a level of football in England where the attraction of having them will outweigh the self-interest of two clubs getting relegated.

You could see the Conference opting to grow to 24 clubs to bring them in so nobody gets relegated.

[Stuart]

As I explained on the other thread where this is being discussed, the Old Firm joining the Prem is a non-starter.

Other than Garside pushing the two Prem divisions idea, there is not one vote to bring the Old Firm in, never mind the 14 needed to get it passed.

However, the Old Firm could apply to join the Football League or the Conference. There will be a level of football in England where the attraction of having them will outweigh the self-interest of two clubs getting relegated.

You could see the Conference opting to grow to 24 clubs to bring them in so nobody gets relegated.

This.

For me this debate has been going on for so long, if they'd both just done this when it was first mooted, they'd be in Premier League by now - or at least the Championship.

[philipl]

If you put the current Celtic outfit in the current Championship, I think it is far from certain they'd win promotion.

[thenodrog]

I can never see this happening with just Celtic and Rangers. Ever. If it did it would kill Scottish football.

I think getting shot of those two would more likely be the making of scottish football ET. It'd be like bursting an enormous boil. True healthy competition would be restored instead of the deadly dull procession of the big 2. I'd wager interest would be rekindled across the other clubs and crowds would increase.

My biggest regret re: the stultifying situation of scottish football is that the powers that be have copied the scottish blueprint with the Champions League and emulated it in every European league.

[Billy Castell]

If they want to join, they should start at the bottom like every other new team. This isn't rugby league, where you can just manufacture a club and shove it in the top division. Perhaps, since Scottish football is so poor right now, they should merge and become Glasgow City. The combined power will make them a force almost as powerful as Lancashire Utd.

[Ossydave]

I'd rather we just let them enter the league cup perhaps to make it slightly more interesting, although it's probably our best chance or silverware it is a bit of a stale competition. Oh and the trip to Celtic in th UEFA cup was one of the best away days I've been on and wouldn't mind a repeat of that.

[McClarky]

They've been banging on about this for years and hopefully it won't ever happen. I can't see who it would benefit apart from the money men and the Weedgie giants. It certainloy wouldn't benefit clubs like us so hopefully we'll oppose it. When people say that Celtic would struggle to get out of the Championship they are probably right but you have to put that into context. Clubs like Rovers earn £20M-£30M a year from TV, how much do Celtic and Rangers get from their domestic TV rights? Probably about £1M-£2M. If they had the extra TV money, with crowds of 60,000 a week there is no reason to think they they wouldnb't be 2 of the bigger teams in the EPL. If we assume that turkeys don't vote for Christmas there must be at least 12 EPL clubs who would oppose this move just through self-interest.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Kick Burnley out and let Rangers in..you know it makes sense!