There’s no doubt that football is unlike any other business. In fact, there’s an old saying that the best way to make a small fortune is to start with a big one and invest it in a football club!

 

That’s why I’m not a huge football fan – I simply can’t get excited about something that I can’t make cash from.

 

But the story that bosses of English Premier League clubs last week voted to boot out Bolton chairman Phil Gartside’s latest plan to include the Old Firm in a revamped top tier of football south of the border caught my attention because I think it actually represents a real opportunity for our Big Two.

 

Celtic and Rangers had hoped to be part of a new league of between 36 and 40 teams, with promotion and relegation to and from the 18 club top division. But the proposals were firmly rejected by chairmen of existing EPL clubs.

 

Frankly, I’m not surprised because English clubs are so self-interested and arrogant that they simply don’t see any benefit in letting outsiders share their riches. After all, the Premier League is already the world’s richest and the smaller clubs will believe the extra revenue the Glasgow duo would generate simply wouldn’t compensate them for the loss of status they’d undoubtedly suffer when two major world brands moved in on their territory. And the top four of Man Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal would also find their status under severe threat when the Old Firm got into their stride on what would then be a level playing field.

 

So that’s the end of that then and the Old Firm will stay put? Well, not necessarily.

 

The whole crux of the matter is money – or rather a lack of it on the part of Celtic and Rangers. And that’s not going to change while they are still part of the SPL.

 

Talk of the Old Firm departing from the SPL isn’t exactly new. Former Aberdeen chief executive Keith Wyness spoke of them back in 2000 ‘as a couple of cheap hookers standing on Sauchiehall Street dropping their knickers for any passing league.’

 

A bit of a harsh way of putting it, but in my view it’s completely understandable why they’re willing to wrap their kegs round their ankles. The only way they’ll ever be true powers again on the world stage is to get out of Scotland.

 

That last statement pains me to say. As a proud Scotsman I like to tell people there’s nothing people from this nation can’t achieve on the world stage. Look at John Logie Baird, Alexander Graham Bell, Alexander Fleming, John Dunlop, John ‘Tar’ MacAdam, Andrew Carnegie, Sean Connery, me…

 

But when it comes to the Old Firm they are always going to be held back by the fact our population is less than 5m. Yes, their average attendances are still amongst the top ten in world football, but bums of seats only represent a tiny proportion of clubs’ revenues.

 

The real cash comes from TV and that’s where population comes into it. The English outnumber us more than ten to one and their audiences simply aren’t interested in Scottish football. But the UK as a whole can’t get enough of the Premier League and then there’s the global appeal of that product which means it’s watched by tens of millions more people across the world than the SPL.

 

That’s the reason Scotland’s top two get £1m per season from Sky and West Brom and Man Utd, bottom and top of the pile in England last season, received £31.6m and £51.3m respectively.

 

Even the Old Firm’s Champions League cash is determined by TV audiences at home and clubs from those countries with the big populations – England, Germany, France, Spain, Russia, even Turkey – get much, much more.

 

So what’s the solution and where is the big money going to come from?

 

Well, I really like the Atlantic League idea. Big clubs from countries such as Holland, Belgium, Portugal and the Scandinavian nations are also hamstrung by their relatively small populations, but combine them and suddenly there’s real strength and the potential to make an awful lot of money.

 

TV companies, sponsors and advertisers will be falling over themselves to sign up for the Atlantic League because it offers a truly innovative product and the ability to reach out to huge audiences on an almost daily basis.

 

There’s also the freshness of the idea and the novelty factor of fans from countries not involved in a match tuning in because the result will affect their team – just imagine Celtic v Ajax, Porto v Rangers, FC Copenhagen v Anderlecht on the same weekend. I’m not a huge football fan, but I know I’d be tuning in.

 

The reason Phil Gartside put his proposals on the table is that he knows the current English model is getting a little bit tired. Yes, their Big Four are magnificent to watch and will always command huge telly audiences, but even vast amounts of cash spent on average players can’t make Gartside’s Bolton v Hull, Blackburn v Stoke or Portsmouth v Wolves even remotely interesting and I’m sure global audiences will begin to wane in time when this is the product on offer.

 

The Old Firm would actually have given the English game a boost if they had joined in 2014 because people like freshness and change. It may not feel like it at the moment for those involved in Celtic and Rangers, but I actually think they might have dodged a bullet because the Atlantic League is where the real money can be made.

 

And you never know, in a decade it might be English clubs who are flashing their a***s and asking to join the Atlantic League!

 

PS – you may have noticed I haven’t even mentioned the implications of an Old Firm departure on the rest of the SPL, but that’s for another column…

 

Read the rest of my column here: http://twitpic.com/qhu1i

 

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