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English League “Fifth Division Invite” Plan Is An Insult To Us And To Scottish Football

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I see there’s talk down south, again, of “inviting” us to the English league, as part of a revamp of the game that would see the creation of a “fifth division” in which we’d be involved.

There’s also talk of Sevco being invited.

That’s just one of the areas where I have a big problem with these “proposals”, and our club should make it abundantly and irrefutably clear that we want sod all to do with them. They are an insult to our club, and they are an insult to the whole of our national game.

Where do these people get off?

Do they really believe that the possibility of crumbs from their table would make Celtic walk away from Scottish football, from the Champions League, from our place as a top tier side?

For the chance to climb four divisions, like Sevco had to?

There was a reason for that; new clubs do start at the bottom.

Why in God’s name would we want to reduce ourselves to that, as if they were doing us a favour?

This year we stand to post income that will be just shy of £90 million, although some think we could go through that barrier and the almost unbelievable one that comes after it. That would put us on the cusp of low-level EPL style earnings … we’re on the verge of making a major breakthrough in earning potential, and without having to whore ourselves.

Let’s be blunt; this isn’t them doing us a favour, not even slightly.

It’s them wanting our fan base and the chance to make money from our name. It does us no good whatsoever. It would eradicate our club’s infrastructure. Our top players would all leave rather than submit to games against the likes of Boston United every week, and on a long timeline. We’d quite literally be starting from zero.

See this is one of the reasons I’ve always been opposed to the EPL pipedream; the very act of getting there would either hollow us out or disenfranchise another team. I rebel against the idea of us not being treated as equals, with respect, but I wouldn’t want another team to make way for us.

But this idea that we should be grateful for the chance to start at the bottom … it’s for the birds. It’s lunacy. It’s insulting. We’re an institution, bigger than 99.9% of the clubs who play down there; no harm to them, it’s a fact. If they want us, if they really want us, the offer has to be better than that.

Our stature and history merits more than a fifth division slot.

Nothing less than a place in a revamped Championship would do, and even then I’d probably not be completely sold on the idea. Because this has to be about more than money; it has to be about something better than that, and the deal has to include the rest of Scottish football.

In other words, if they’re going to restructure the leagues to find a place for us then surely they’d need to find a place for everyone else, and that’s the bluff we’d need to call otherwise the deal would be for two clubs only, and one of them does not merit that, even if they had to claw their way up from the bottom tier all over again.

We are the champions of Scotland.

The idea of putting us in Division 5 is a non-starter because it fundamentally disrespects our league.

It was Aberdeen who came second in that league last year, and Hearts finished third.

Where’s the proposal for them?

Where’s the one for Inverness, Motherwell, Dundee, St Johnstone and the rest of the SPL?

What in God’s name justifies offering Sevco a berth and not any of those clubs, clubs who have earned that right? If those clubs aren’t involved then what is the proposal about? It’s about that toxic OF brand … the one we want nothing to do with, the one that was buried when Rangers was. It’s an attempt to resurrect it, only in another setting, one that reduces us to what Sevco is now and what it’s spent four years trying not to be.

These proposals are all about greed, and if this vote was carried and the invite was extended – and it’s not even coached as an invite; it’s just assumed that Celtic would accept it – I would hope the club would have the decency to consult the fans before making a decision. It would be simply wrong for our current directors to take such a step without asking us first, and if that day ever came this website, and I suspect others, would be urging a No vote.

I think the day will come when we’ll be part of some kind of European Super League, but it’ll be run by UEFA.

We’re not getting into the EPL, not starting at the bottom and not by invite into the top flight itself. UEFA might well want small nations to play cross-border tournaments but they’re not going to encourage clubs to leave their domestic associations to join others. That’s an absolute non-starter. Even if they were in favour, though, it won’t happen this way, with the English association making such an insulting offer to us, as though we were desperate.

And it won’t come at the expense of other Scottish clubs, with us allowing the English FA to legitimise the Survival Lie when we’ve fought the SFA for the last four years over the same. To extend an invite to a newly promoted club whilst ignoring Aberdeen, Hearts and other more deserving sides makes this about money and not about sporting merit and I’m damned if I would even pretend to be happy at such a shabby, shoddy arrangement.

In Brendan We Trust.

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