[ffc-gallery]
Click on the picture to continue …
[/ffc-gallery]
Today the resurrection (an apt word in the context of this piece) of an old folly; the concept of playing an “Old Firm” game abroad.
It appears to be the brainchild of Charlie Stillitano, the guy behind the so-called International Champions League, and it would involve, so he says, Celtic and Sevco playing at Wembley or elsewhere.
This isn’t a new idea.
Over on Fields, I did an article over a year ago on a meeting that took place in Dubai where Peter Lawwell and Neil Doncaster were trying to sell a similar plan.
I can’t say enough times how stupid a move this would be.
I’m going to take a look at three reasons why in this piece. (And there are many others.)
If this gets off the ground it will be an utter disaster.
Let’s start with why it’ll be bad for Celtic.
The Celtic Fans Do Not Want It
This is the big one, right off.
Although little enclaves of Celtic supporters around the world might think bringing a Sevco game to their doorstep is an exciting idea, those of us who live here and understand the politics and the emotions better – and who buy season tickets and the bulk of the merchandise – are simply not interested in it at all.
We have to play this mob four times next season, at a minimum.
We’ll live with that because, frankly, we’ve got no other choice.
They got to the SPL and that means we have to deal with them as we would any other club.
But that’s where it ends.
The appetite for playing them again?
In a match where we’re not compelled to?
We’d rather not.
The so-called rivalry is something we no longer recognise. The “Old Firm” tag is one that for years we didn’t want. It slaps the two clubs together, two heads of the same coin, and I don’t know a single Celtic supporter – not one – who is comfortable with that idea.
On top of this, Stillitano talks about how the game would not raise any safety concerns because the less pleasant aspects of it would be diluted by a foreign audience.
That’s nice for him and for them, with the Atlantic Ocean between him and the mayhem, and it would be just peachy for fans in, say, Miami or wherever to go and watch it … but I’m confident that if the Wembley plan looked like it would go ahead that the Met would have something to say on it (nothing good) and that the chaos in Glasgow and elsewhere would be typical.
Jammed together, then, in a rivalry built on hate, and the promotion of that rivalry and that hate just to sell tickets for a friendly tournament?
No, no, thrice no.
Not interested. Not even remotely.
The idea offends me, actually, and I suspect it offends a lot of other Celtic supporters.
Our Club Does Not Need It
Here’s another thing. Celtic doesn’t need this game.
There is literally no commercial benefit for us in being involved in such a ridiculous and damaging exhibition.
During this summer we’re going to play Inter Milan, Barcelona and Leicester who will be champions of England in three massive, mouth-watering ties which every Celtic supporter is already looking forward to with great enthusiasm.
These are the kind of games our fans want to see in pre-season, the kind we dream about seeing in competition football.
To swap one of those out for a game against Sevco?
For what reason?
To accomplish what?
It has no attraction, and no benefit to us whatsoever.
It may appeal to the Freak Show crowd – in fact, that’s precisely why Celtic fans want nothing to do with it – but outside of that, it’s got nothing that we need. Our global exposure will be enhanced more by playing a Battle of Britain game or going toe to toe with the Catalan or Milan giants.
The organisers don’t need this game either.
They can pick and choose who they showcase; every club wants invitations to this tournament, which is why it’s so good that we got one in the summer. Why in God’s name would they want Sevco? Answer; they wouldn’t and they don’t.
They want us versus Sevco, but that’s not the same thing.
Without us, they wouldn’t touch them with a barge pole.
Without Sevco, they’d still want Celtic there, as has been proved this year.
All this game would do would give them some exposure and some much needed financing that they’d otherwise not have.
It brings Celtic trouble. It links us to a club born from scandal, run by a crook, restoring in part a rivalry fostered on hatred and for what?
Cash we’d get anyway from playing a real exhibition against a team the fans want to see, with half the global audience.
Which brings me to the next point.
Half The Audience Stillitano Thinks Is There Actually Isn’t
There is a huge misconception about these the two “Glasgow clubs” that exists in England and elsewhere but that those of us who live here or have looked into this knows is a bust.
It’s that there’s this enormous global audience for these games, that they retain huge interest outside of our borders, that other people find it as fascinating as the Scottish press.
None of that is even remotely true.
For one thing, only one of these clubs actually has a global fan base and it isn’t the one that crawled out of the grave marked Rangers.
Charles Chuckles Green talked about ten percent of the world’s population having some allegiance to Sevco but he also heard voices in his head telling him the Dallas Cowboys wanted a link up.
Actually, what Green did was exaggerated (massively) the “global brand” and their reach so he could sell some gullible institutional investors on the idea of buying shares.
No-one who knew the first thing about the issue took any of it seriously.
The myth of the “global Rangers family” has been examined and demolished time and time and time again, first by Hugh Adams, the Rangers director, who as part of his remit put together the Global Rangers Fan Survey and found, to his and the club’s dismay, that there wasn’t, as had been surmised, an enormous wellspring of goodwill for them out there.
What he found was that the global Scottish diaspora wasn’t particularly disposed towards his club; indeed, many absolutely despise them and one would imagine that wouldn’t have changed for the better over the course of the last few years with the surge in support for Scottish independence and the way Sevco and Rangers built themselves up as the “unionist club.”
Outside of Scotland, few people are terribly interested in this.
The idea that such a game would “fill Wembley” is one I’d love to see tested to destruction because I think the ground would be half full at best unless (and this is the crucial bit) Larkhall and half of Ayrshire vacated their neighbourhoods for the day and went south, as they did with Manchester.
Outside of that, this club’s support base is pitifully small.
Celtic fans, by and large, wouldn’t bother to attend.
A cup semi-final is one thing … a preseason friendly with nothing and stake? Please.
Hold the match in the US, and Stillitano would have to hope Celtic fans who’d never seen an “Old Firm” game in the flesh would be attracted to it as a one-off, and buy a whole lot of tickets. Outside of that? I suspect it would sell very few.
One of the key issues I’ve always had with this “rivalrly” is that as global brand it sucks. The “unique” aspect of these games doesn’t translate outside of our borders, and nor should it. American audiences would much rather see us take on Manchester City or PSG and I don’t kid myself which club would be the main attraction.
Celtic v a five year old NewCo comprised of journeyman and free transfers?
Yeah. Sexy football it ain’t.
So Just To Conclude …
This seems to have been a peculiar fantasy of Peter Lawwell’s for a while now, but it’s one he ought to keep to himself.
It ought never to see the light of day.
Instead of enhancing our reputation abroad it would actually devalue it.
It would bring Celtic no gain.
It would make Sevco money.
It would tie us to them in a way that benefits them but does nothing whatsoever for us.
If he wants to run Old Firm PLC he’s welcome to try, but his unpopularity with the Celtic fans is high enough without him sticking his neck on that particular chopping block.
It’s good that we were invited to this year’s event. It’s a prestigious invite, and I’m sure that our club will enrich the occasion and our fan base will make itself seen and heard. Because we do have what Sevco dreams about; support and devotion beyond these shores.
Brand Celtic hasn’t been taking over the world exactly, but it remains strong in spite of a lack of imagination at the strategic level.
That brand was built entirely separate of the Ibrox entity and it would be a scandalous, devastating move to change that now.
If you agree with this article please share it.
Let Lawwell and the others know just how unpalatable we find this whole idea.