Celtic in the EPL - change is coming

New member in peace Bhoys.


My fellow tims, I think that Celtic's exit of the SPL may be in the process of happening sooner than most people think if you examine some of the dynamics that are manifesting across the footballing and political landscape.

Here is why in my opinion this may occur in less than 5 years by analysing some trends.


* After a long sabbatical, The Scotland England game has been resurrected with 2 recent fixtures being played without any TROUBLE. I think both associations (the FA & SFA) initiated this fixture to assess how both nations might collaborate in any future football union.

* The uncertainty of Scotland’s future has been put to bed with the Scottish referendum result. The nation has now committed to the UK whether folks agree with that or not. This political result actually bodes well for Celtic’s case for an SPL exit.

* The cross-border UEFA Benelux woman’s league has finished its first season and has been well received.

* Gianni Infantino the UEFA general secretary has muted the possibility for the first time that UEFA are receptive to looking at Celtic’s commercial issue of being financially hamstrung in a non-competitive league. UEFA’s old geriatric board pre Platini and Infantino were vehemently against any cross border participation.

* The ECA (European Club Association) is becoming a very powerful independent entity to rival UEFA with 214 member clubs spread across 53 associations. This is no longer the G14. This volume of clubs on its own accord could institute change and a new league setup irrespective of UEFA's blessing if change was not to be forthcoming.

* Many of the super clubs in the ECA have similar commercial frustrations to that of Celtic and are simultaneously demanding change. (Benfica, Porto, Galatasaray, Ajax, Juventus, Bayern and on and on).

* Peter Lawwell is on the ECA board and is lobbying hard for change.

* The dynamics of broadcasting have changed with BT now challenging SKY in the media realm. SKY no longer calls the shots.


* The UEFA champion’s league is loosing steam. Becoming predicable with the same fixtures season after season. (Attendances down in many countries).

* You will notice that Celtic’s development squad is participating in more and more fixtures with English sides (Sunderland recently and others)!!!!


Their is no smoke without fire.

 

* off with this * the day we join the EPL is the day the soul of this club dies

 

Never happen

 

Some interesting points there mate.

I'm not sure I would want to join the EPL mate, I'm really worried we would lose our soul (sounds corny I know).

However one thing is for sure, Celtic cannot carry on in our current trend. More and more of our casual fan base are turning away from us and it's making it harder and harder for us to compete even at the bottom end of the CL.

 

Disappointed in you there Sean I thought you where a good *

 

Welcome mate, think you've made a few good points there.

I personally don't think it will happen for 2 simple reasons though. England don't want us, and Scotland won't want us to leave.

 

Celtic have been losing their "soul" for years anyway. The only way we'll ever see celtic conquer europe again is by moving away from the scottish league, whether that's to the English league or to another european league.

 

I would personally rather Scottish football find its feet again and or a northern Atlantic premiership with relegation and promotions to and from domestic leagues.

 

There's no doubting that we'd be a force to be reckoned with if we were receiving the tv income that England get.

Could you imagine.

 

Id kick an old pensioner down the stairs for us to get into English football, even starting in the diddy 8th tier or whatever and having to work our way up.

 

Had to read that a couple of times. Thought you said you'd "lick the old pensioner down the stairs"

 

What i mean is, the vast majority of our fanbase is still born and bred Celtic fans.

Get to the EPL and ST's would be about £1000 and would probably be about 60% tourists.

I couldn't bear that.

 

He would do that aswell.

Just for fun though, * the EPL. :smiley-laughing002:

 

Doubt we'd put ticket prices up that much tbh, as it wouldnt really matter that much an extra £10million. Same as the Bayern owners said a few year ago why would they double ticket prices when they don't need the extra money.

Lawwell, Demsond etc would be doing cartwheels at just getting the extra £150million from TV/Sponsorship/Advertising/Full Stadium every game/Added value to players that an extra £10million wouldnt really be on the radar

 

Think am in the small minority where moving to England doesn't interest me.

We need to concentrate on making our own game better.

 

I'm outta ideas..

See to be honest i'm sick of this country and the people running (into the ground) our game..

I've been against the idea of England and moving from Scotland but it gets to the point where i'm like fuckit let's go wherever to just get out..

* knows..

 

Well he charges us about 600 quid just now to watch us in the SPFL.

If he thought he could get away with it he would.

Maybe a grand is a bit much but they would certainly go up to reflect our new surroundings, pricing even more tims out of the game.

 

Season tickets the now are only about £380-550. If we put the prices down now we'd need to trim the squad. We rely on season ticket money, season ticket holders provide roughly half our income.

Getting into the EPL would see our base income that we can rely on every year probably close to Quadruple. Squeezing extra money out fans atleast wouldnt happen for several years until the wagebill ended up bursting at the seems and an extra £10million would pay for 2/3 more quality players.

Fans would come flocking like flies round * to pay £800 for a season ticket to see Arsenal, Man U, Newcastle, Everton, Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City with Celtic having a top quality team again.