Celtic’s Statement Should End, Once For All, These Super League Stories About Us.

In the aftermath of today’s Super League judgement, a lot of people went into overdrive making big predictions about the future of the game.

But it has not taken long for the first of the dominos to fall.

The English Premier League was one of the first leagues out in front of this story, with their absolute rejection of the whole Super League concept. In the absence of a clear and unequivocal statement from the league or the national body here in Scotland – what do you expect from leaders who have no interest in leading? – Celtic has gone first and its own statement is right to the point.

“Celtic Football Club has noted today’s judgement delivered by the European Court of Justice.

The resolution regarding the framework for prior authorization of other competitions refers to outdated UEFA statutes that were already amended in June 2022.

We must be clear that this does not in any way endorse or approve the so-called ‘Super League’ project.

Celtic plays an important, leading role within the European Club Association framework and as a club, we are fully committed to working through the ECA, alongside our fellow European clubs to uphold the values that define European football.

We can only achieve our objectives through the strong partnership ECA enjoys with UEFA.

The wider European football community is not supportive of the ESL, and Celtic, like many other clubs, will continue to promote the interests and protection of football’s broader family through the ECA and UEFA.”

The comments from people like the chairman of Aberdeen, which were already sounding the death knell for European football, with Celtic as one of the leading instigators, were as daft as they were wholly misinformed.

As I said in the earlier piece, if Dave Cormack wanted to know Celtic’s position, he could have just called us up … or engaged his brain for two seconds rather than reaching for the panic button.

His response was hysterical.

Other responses were focussed on whether or not we might make a quick buck. The ESL proposal is not about anything more than representing the interests of a handful of teams.

Everything about it reeks of the closed shop, the cartel, the private members club. Nothing in any of their public relations statements has answered the central charge, that any competition that is not available for entry by the winners of every national association – as the UEFA tournaments are – discriminates and essentially runs counter to every principle of sport we know.

Nothing about the idea is appealing for a club like us, except for the money, and it’s the money that all the ESL press statements have banged on about over and over again, and it’s the thought of the money that is supposed to prevent us from seriously examining the proposal and its wider implications. Everyone who has done so has come away from them seriously unimpressed.

The idea is dead, and it was dead the moment it was unveiled for the first time and all who weren’t invited to get around the table condemned it in the strongest terms.

Apart from the slavering, eye popping hacks and a handful of club chairman who had way too much coffee this morning the reaction of most people within the sport has been calm and steady and focussed on “business as usual.”

Cormack claimed Scottish football has sleepwalked into this without discussion; it was a fantasy and didn’t need a discussion because it was never something that was ever being seriously entertained.

Celtic’s statement has spelled it out; our commitment to working through UEFA is absolute.

Nothing changed here today as far as we are concerned, and that ought to end this daft story once for all, and let Cormack focus on the important stuff for him, like how he’s going to screw up his next managerial appointment.