If Celtic left Scotland...

I know this argument has been done to the death but our recent disaster in Europe again goes to prove that the gap between us and our competition in Europe is widening by the year, at an alarming rate.

The chances of joining the English leagues are very slim, I reckon.
There has been talk, in the past, of a North Atlantic league (or something like that) where top teams from Holland, Scotland, Belguim and Scandinavia create a seperate league.

Personally, as much as it pains me to say, I think we have to leave the Scottish league if we are going to continue to compete in Europe.
If we stay in Scotland we will gradually drift down through the rankings of European football.
Great teams of European football down the years have recently declined to becoming non-entities and almost forgotten outside their own countries. Be that from plying their trades in less powerful leagues, loss of finances, poor management or what ever.

Teams like Red Star Belgrade, Partizan, Steaua Bucarest were once power houses in European football. But now, no one under a certain age knows much about them. Even the likes of Leeds, Nottingham Forest or Stade De Reims have dropped from being superpowers to being almost unknown internationally.

I know some teams were in different situations to us, but my point is, I'd hate for Celtic to become a team that, in 20 or 30 years, people around Europe will be saying "remember that Scottish team who used to play in Europe, Celtic? They used to beat some top teams and even won a European cup back in the day. What ever happened to them?"

However, I fear that continuing to ply our trade in Scotland, as current trends indicate, we could end up in that situation.

I know this could be an over-reaction to Tuesday game but I can't see how else we can turn things around.
Our attendences are dropping, younger Scottish and Irish kids are turning to the EPL to support teams, our worldwide appeal is disappearing rapidly.
I used to travel anywhere in the world and everyone knew Celtic, this last few years, I find more and more people (especially younger generations) have never heard of us.

What are your thoughts?

Stay in Scotland, * Europe, we know who we are.
or
It's time to move on for the best of the club.

 

PS. Sorry for starting yet another thread, but I couldn't find anything similar already in existence.

 

Indefinitely a theoretical question, but my 2 cents.

Whatever's in the best interest of the club- in my view, that would mean playing in a better league. Don't know where, how, or when, but I'd most likely support it. My allegiance isn't to the SPFL, it's to Celtic.

I understand the concern about moving to another league and losing some of our identity, but I don't believe we would. *, some people would argue we're doing a fair job of losing our identity as it is in Scotland (outlawing certain songs, atmosphere at CP not what it was). Besides, we'd still be based in Glasgow.

 

The Worlds changed, every aspect of the Game has changed but Soccer has simply followed in the trail of other cash-cow popular sport.

Agents, merchandising, betting, Its all about money. If youre not in the EPL or La Liga etc you wont benefit from the huge cash injection those clubs get every year and its guaranteed.


Every EPL club gets a share of the huge Sky / Fox cash plus huge marketing income generated purely from getting worldwide coverage by the Networks.
Having said that, Im sure all the top clubs in Europe inc the top five EPL clubs would love to be part of a Euro Super league.

Not sure what the Board can do though, we have plenty of critics detractors in the UK who would oppose us moving to the EPL and a Euro League is way off if it ever happens.

Turning to your latter point, losing the traditional support base has been in part generational and in part deliberate. The Board have been working to rebrand Celtic and downplaying the "*" connotations, with our critics/enemies trying equally hard to emphasise our origins and using the "Poppy" debate, inter alia, to have sly digs.

 

As a Scottish, Celtic and football fan, the day Celtic play in England is the day I become a Partick Thistle fan.

Too many glory hunters support Celtic. Even though I haven't posted on here much in the last few years, I still read what's going on here. Was discusted reading a thread recently discussing how many people don't even follow the SPL and don't even watch football other than Celtic!!! No wonder our club is a shambles when so many fans are clueless muppets like this.

Aye, the SPL is *, the quality is far too low for a country with our history of producing footballing legends. Attendances are down, most teams can't compete in Europe. We are not fulfilling our potential, but the typical solution from fickle Celtic fans is to run away rather than improve what we have.

(Is it a wonder we voted no, and our club is full of naw bags)

Our club, being the largest in the country has an obligation to help resolve the Scottish football disaster, but we have stood against change more often than not. It's far easier to seduce our fickle fans with cheap foreign imports and the promise of champions league glory that never materializes.

What Celtic needs to succeed is a strong SPL. This means:

Low ticket prices
League expansion
The expulsion and exile from Scotland of Neil 'swine-face' Doncaster
A collective cross club approach to youth development. Working in the local community with schools no clubs.
An enhanced match day experience where fans are allowed to gather, eat and drink together as is common a cross Europe.

There are so many small countries whose clubs enjoy better success than Scottish clubs including Celtic. Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, Belareus FFS.

We can improve Celtics standing in Europe if we stop fantasizing about England and what they are realize where we are, embrace it and improve it. Will never happen though.

Nawbaggery at its finest.

 

It's always the non-Scottish support who are quick to rubbish Scotland and dismiss the spfl.

Sydney, the Bronx New York. It kind of does my * in. I love that Celtic has an international appeal. However it sometimes does us more harm than good. I am an expat too, been away for five years in total, but lived 23 years in Scotland. Football is my passion, growing up in Scotland I attended many spfl matches, Celtic as well as lower divisions and even Junior games.

My affiliation is with Scotland and I believe my club should stay there and lewd the way in improving Scottish football.

 

What do you think would happen if, at the end of this season, the Celtic board hands in Celtic's resignation from Scottish Football to the SFA and SPFL.
Doubt it will ever happen but it's just hypothetical situation.

 

I think you'll probably find people inside and outside of Scotland that would be happy to see Celtic play in a league other than the SPFL. It's hardly ever been an organization that has treated the club well.

 

I tend to agree with this. The EPL would mean more money for Celtic, but, notwithstanding our massive support, there is nothing to suggest that Celtic would not end up as another Leeds (which was mentioned in the opening post). I mean, Leeds are the prime example that being an English club does not guarantee you to become a club that is able to reach the CL semi finals. Besides, entering the EPL would probably also attract more tourists who are not really that interested in football or Celtic.

The focus should be on improving Scottish football and making sure that the likes of Aberdeen can also compete in Europe.

 

That would be the end of Celtic. What else do you expect?

 

It would depend on the reason for the resignation.
If they had got the OK to be part of another league then it would see the rejuvenation of Celtic but as for it being the death of Celtic, can you honestly say that Scottish football isn't dying.
Whilst we have a bunch of corrupt bigots in charge at the SFA who are quite willing to allow corrupt sectarian thugs being in charge of a club supported by a neanderthal scumfuck horde of dickheads to get away with all the * they have done, then Scottish Football will NEVER EVER get better and will only get worse.
And for Celtic, it will get MUCH worse in regards to how we are treated by the * at the top.

 

Sorry that I'm not from Scotland danielcoolj, I didn't mean to offend but my allegiance lies with Celtic not the SPL.


You're right though, the fact that I wasn't brought up in Scotland and don't support the Scotland national team (I'd shout for them against any other team than Ireland) is probably the reason that I don't really care about the other teams in Scotland or the SPL.

Of course in an ideal world what you suggest is the perfect outcome. I'd love for a strong Scottish league but I can't see that ever happening tbh.



Before I moved overseas from Ireland, I used to go over to Celtic matches 5 or 6 times a season, or whenever I could afford it. The image I got from other SPL teams, from experience, was always "* off back to Ireland ya * *", the Scottish media totally deride Celtic any chance they get, the SPL or whoever the footballing powers are, were never exactly Celtic friendly (or even anti-Celtic ).


So, for me personally, as a Celtic fan with no affiliation to Scotland, I'd have no objection to Celtic leaving the Scottish leagues to play in an international league as a last resort.

 

Whilst we have a bunch of corrupt bigots in charge at the SFA who are quite willing to allow corrupt sectarian thugs being in charge of a club supported by a neanderthal scumfuck horde of dickheads to get away with all the * they have done, then Scottish Football will NEVER EVER get better and will only get worse.
And for Celtic, it will get MUCH worse in regards to how we are treated by the * at the top.[/QUOTE]

Spot on ! To the SFA and Scots MSM dickheads, everything will be OK when "oor Rangurs" are back where they should be ! and they will get every assistance from the SFA and officials

 

We are having to watch your scott allans and your Cifti's against your st johnstones and your Particks. We are playing in a half filled stadium most weeks. We can't hold on to any decent player we get now. We are becoming a laughing stock in Europe. We are slowly losing our worldwide appeal. This is going to become worse. We are far too big for this league making it impossible for other teams to win the spl. We NEED to do something or in as short as 5 year time it's going to be even worse. The only thing that will give things a shot in the arm is * sevco being in the league for the first time. Give me an option any option to do something else.

 

This is it in a nutshell as far as I'm concerned.

I would actually question the intentions of any Celtic supporter who would have the club toiling in the current status quo- a short-sighted, corrupt, bigoted, backwater, with no chance of ever seeing the club reach its potential.

Scottish football has went through various phases of "reform"- and do you know what happens? Nothing!

Reforming Scottish football is like rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic. Ultimately, Celtic need to find themselves a life-boat, whether that's playing in England or elsewhere.

 

This debate always tears me apart, I agree with danielcoolj but I also believe in what samurai says there's an institutional bias against us, hiding in plain sight in the sfa and smsm. Alot still dont realize the extent moonbeams * football here either but we are recovering a bit each year though. I'd absolutely hate Celtic to play in the epl, its * soulless imo.

 

So is Scottish football!

Sitting in a half empty cow shed at Ross County or Inverness, while paying £30-odd for a ticket, to watch glorified pub team players, bent refs and policemen sticking cameras in your face doesn't really transform itself into "soul" either!

 

Utter pish. And I never did advocate the status quo at any point.

Can I remind you where Celtic were formed? In what league did they play in while they rose to the top of European football? Where are 90% of our legends from?

Scotland was a great footballing country, forgive me for striving to emulate that.

I fully agree that the SPL and the spfl are rotten organizations. The MSM in this country is a a joke and you'd be forgiven for thinking their only purpose is to keep Scotland in the dark ages.

But you just keep wanking off to your bigotry if it makes you feel good, when the fact is that sectarianism in Scotland is hardly in issue

 

We should move to Ireland, we are Irish after all.


(did I just tell us to go home?)

 

What are you talking about?! :smiley-laughing002:

No one is suggesting Celtic up sticks and go down to play their games in London!

You're right, those that govern Scottish football are stuck in the dark ages- they always have been. Celtic have succeeded not because of Scottish football, but in spite of it. Celtic owe them absolutely nothing.

As I said before, I would have to question the intentions of any Celtic supporter who would be content with the same-old rearranging of deckchairs...