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| Always plenty of tackles in every Old Firm derby. |
They are two of the most famous football clubs in the world. Many north of Hadrian's Wall would say their rivalry is the greatest in the world, better than the El Clasico between Barca and Real Madrid in Spain or the Superclasico between Boca Juniors and River Plate in Argentina.
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| Rangers won 3-0 at Lyon in Champions League, 2007. |
But with Scottish football not what it was before the fall of Communism, the fortunes of Celtic and Rangers Football Clubs have also declined. While the Glaswegian giants continue to dominate Scottish football and look set to until the end of time, their fortunes in Europe have shown a noticeable decline since Rangers made the UEFA Cup Final in 2008. They have struggled against teams from the "non big-4" ranked leagues in Europe, i.e. French, Dutch, Belgian, Portuguese, Swiss, Russian & Romanian leagues.
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| Braga send Celtic out of 2011 Champions League |
They are no longer guaranteed a spot in the Champions League - both Celtic and Rangers were eliminated in the qualifying and play-off rounds earlier this season. They are even struggling to even stay in the running in the second tier Europa League - Celtic only just made it to the round robin stage because Sion were disqualified for fielding an ineligible player, Rangers aren't even competing.
The lack of European football means less revenue for Scottish football and less money to spend on players. Scottish football is already handicapped by the fact that the quality of football is far weaker than elsewhere in the continent - if you had David Silva's talent, who would you rather play week in/week out? St Johnstone or Liverpool? It's a no-brainer.
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| 2nd div Birmingham City matching Celtic in Europe, 2011 |
Dare I say it but a top Championship side like Southampton or West Ham would easily beat a Scottish Premier League side simply because they have more money and can afford better players - look at Birmingham City's performance in the Europa League this season too.
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| Dalglish - undoubtedly Scotland's greatest footballer ever |
But for the first time, I'm going to say that Scotland's two biggest clubs should be plying their trade in their southern neighbour and here's why.
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| Bertos - Phoenix/All Whites star |
How many All Whites were selected from New Zealand's own NZ Football Championship? James Dunn's lookalike Aaron Clapham? Clapham didn't start at the World Cup and doesn't have a full-time playing contract at the moment.
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| Vancouver Whitecaps v Seattle Sounders, MLS 2011 |
The MLS in the USA has also been allowing Canadian clubs into its competition in the last few seasons. Toronto FC was the first and last season, the Vancouver Whitecaps entered the competition - both clubs did compete in Canada's own football competition but realised that the MLS was of a much higher standard and sent through their entry forms to USA Soccer.
In time, football in Canada will surely improve although its prospects of World Cup qualification are harder given it is in a much tougher confederation than New Zealand.
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| Wales' Ashley Williams has benefited from Swansea being in EP |
Closer to Scotland, the likes of Wrexham, Swansea and Cardiff all compete in English competitions for the same reason the Phoenix, Toronto and the Whitecaps are based in leagues outside their home countries - the football is just damn better there.
My point is, how will the likes of Kris Commons, James Forrest, Steven Whitaker, Steven Naismith ever improve as footballers if they're stuck playing very average competition each weekend? How can they stand a chance of competing against the Bayern Munichs and Udineses of this world? It's a minor miracle that Scottish clubs can actually compete with the best of Europe given the dearth of quality in their leagues.
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| Charlie Adam pre-Liverpool/Blackpool days at Rangers |
No wonder the likes of Charlie Adam, Barry Ferguson, Craig Mikhail-Smith & Darren Fletcher all ply their trade in England. There's a limit to how long you can stay motivated to play crap football each weekend. At the same time though, isn't it sad that Scotsmen aren't able to play for their country's most famous clubs just because they're big fish in a small pond?
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| Wouldn't the EPL like to play at Ibrox? |
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| 30 Gloucester Pl, London - EPL HQ |
Now, the question is how would they get in? Would they have to go through the English football pyramid like all the other clubs? They could but I see no neccesity in having to go through that.
The Premier League is actually run separately from the rest of the football pyramid, i.e. the Football League. Remember in 1992, the top flight clubs split from the rest of the Football League to form the Premier League. Celtic and Rangers could apply to join the Premier League corporation which oversees the league and not have to go through promotion through the English football tiers. And they shouldn't need to.
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| Sepp Blatter: old fart, like most footballing bosses. |
I'm craving to see the day the Scots are a competitive force in most sports. Surely, it's time to blow away tradition that has stopped working and to come up with some radical if initially unpopular thinking to bring them back up. After all, it's the radical which has always helped the likes of Spain, Germany, France and the Netherlands be football powers in Europe.
Trouble is the SFA like FIFA and most footballing bodies of some age are really old farts who hate to break with tradition. That's why we still don't have goalline technology and video replays unlike most other sports.
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