Could Celtic buy a club in England? We can certainly afford to explore the idea.

A lot of people, over a long period of time, have looked at various scenarios for improving the overall position that Celtic finds itself in as a club. Some of the things we’ve considered have been pretty outlandish, in fact.

And I don’t know that a lot of fans are aware that we’ve wargamed some pretty incredible scenarios in our time—including one where we would try to join the English league system by the back door. Let me explain.

Way back when there was talk that Wimbledon might be bought and moved to Dublin, there were people at Celtic Park who were watching that with great interest and great consideration. And one of the craziest ideas that was mooted at the time was that we could buy Wimbledon instead, rebrand them, move them effortlessly to Glasgow—and use them as our lever into England.

Now, we know that there would have been one or two problems with that idea, not the least of which being that it would have meant eradicating at least one club’s history. It would either have been our history that went, or the history of Wimbledon and maybe (and very likely) both. But Celtic would have taken their place in the English league. And the way Celtic’s lawyers saw it, there was no obstacle at all to that plan.

Issues? Sure. There were plenty of roadblocks. Plenty of hurdles to be overcome. But none of them were legal hurdles. We believed that if we’d gone about that plan and bought ourselves an English franchise, we could have transferred our club entirely to England—all but the history—and been part of the English system. And although our home ground is registered in Scotland, no one would have been able to use that as a legal impediment to us joining the English league.

Our lawyers were 100% sure of that. That if it came to a major legal challenge, we would certainly win. And they were sure enough that this club’s leadership actually debated and discussed the pros and cons of the plan. In the end, they chose not to do it, not least of which because it would have entailed a legal dispute which could have lasted a while, even if we were pretty sure of the outcome.

And it would have involved, ultimately, the killing of a club and perhaps two. And there was nobody at Celtic Park willing to countenance that.

But in terms of improving our overall position, I know we haven’t been idle. I know we haven’t been idle looking for exit routes from Scotland. And I know we haven’t been idle exploring various ways we could tap the market south of the border.

Well, some guardrails have fallen recently, in case you hadn’t heard. And the SFA is about to roll out the red carpet to dual ownership.

And let’s be honest—there is certainly a big possibility in there for this club, if it wants to pursue a new option. Because we don’t have to subsume a club’s identity anymore. We only have to buy one and give it a little rebranding. And we would be perfectly allowed to have both clubs participating in their respective leagues at the same time. That was one of the obstacles back then, and it was the reason one of the two clubs—probably both—would have had to die.

So is this a road we should go down? Is this an avenue we should explore? Well, let me tell you something—the money to do it is there. The money to do it is undoubtedly there at Celtic. And it’s not a cure-all. It’s not a guaranteed route to the Premier League. And if it was a guaranteed route to the Premier League, then we’d have to have some serious discussions with UEFA and other bodies about how we made that work.

And it would not be cheap.

You’re talking about running the infrastructure for two clubs, not just one. And although Celtic could, to a certain extent, fund another club south of the border, Financial Fair Play regulations would stop us from going too far with it.

There are other issues. The rules of both leagues limit how many players can be sent out on loan, so as a means of getting games for players we want to gain experience, that’s not a guaranteed fix. But it has possibilities just the same, depending on the level we buy in at and the kind of players we want to send there.

With a feeder club, that would be good for us because if they had outstanding young players, we’d have a good chance of getting them first, and we could tap into all their existing scouting and training networks.

Only a very arrogant club thinks it has nothing to learn from the way others do things. Only a very stupid club doesn’t try to learn from others. And I think there would be valuable lessons for us—especially if we bought a club that had a good youth system and a good academy.

I’m not saying this is a no-brainer. I’m not saying it’s a plan without flaws. But we have the wherewithal to do it. And I cannot think of a use for our vast fortune sitting in the bank that would bring as many potential fringe benefits as this.

Depending on how high we bought in, depending on where we got our foot in the door and the conditions of the deal, it might be very lucrative. It might not even cost us an awful lot. There are clubs out there roiling in major debts—and we could be the green and white knights for them, if we chose to be.

And maybe this isn’t something that we would want to do as a club.

But I know, based on the discussions we once had about buying a club in England, that someone, somewhere in the boardroom has mentioned this at some point, and that it’s had more than just a cursory look.

One of the biggest obstacles to it would have been regulatory—but the SFA has removed that at a stroke. And now that obstacle no longer exists.

If this Ibrox takeover talk is real, and if the Leeds guys get permission to come in and take over, then that’s a step beyond what’s been done at Hibs, and at Hearts, and at other clubs in this league.

That’s actually a dual ownership situation. And nobody here in Scotland could realistically put up any opposition to us doing the same.

People have always wondered what the money is for. People have always wondered what we could possibly be hoarding all that cash to do. Well, this could be it. I’m not saying it is, but it could be.

Because our club will be well aware of the moves to change ownership rules. They’ll be well aware of what the SFA has been up to all this time. And if they haven’t also heard chatter about interest in the Ibrox club—if we haven’t had an approach ourselves—I’ll be very, very surprised indeed.

If the money is right, if the club is right, if the two were a good fit for each other, then the reasons to do it vastly outweigh the reasons not to. But it’s certainly worth the conversation. And I have no doubt that conversation has either been had, is being had, or will be had before much longer.