GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - NOVEMBER 05: A general view of Celtic fans during a UEFA Champions League 2024/25 League Phase MD4 match between Celtic and RB Leipzig at Celtic Park, on November 05, 2024, in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Craig Foy/SNS Group via Getty Images)
Every so often the same debate comes back again: Celtic joining the English league system. It is always presented as something modern, something ambitious, something that would supposedly “benefit” the club.
Bigger money, bigger television deals, bigger exposure. On paper it sounds tempting. But every time I hear it, something inside me pushes back hard.
Because for me, Celtic leaving Scottish football would feel like losing a part of its soul.
Celtic is not just another football club chasing the biggest cheque available. Celtic is a proud Scottish institution. It was born in Glasgow, it grew in Scotland, and it became one of the world’s most famous clubs while representing Scottish football. That identity matters. It always has.
When people say Celtic should go south to England, they are really saying that Scottish football is not good enough. They are saying Celtic must leave Scotland to gain proper recognition. That idea has always bothered me deeply.
Why should Celtic have to leave its own country to earn respect? Why should a club with Celtic’s history feel inferior to anyone?
This is a club that conquered Europe in 1967, when the Lisbon Lions became the first British side to win the European Cup. Local players built that team, all raised within a few miles of Celtic Park, and they rose to the top of the continent. That achievement alone should command respect across the football world.
Yet it often feels as if voices from elsewhere still look down on Scottish clubs. They treat football north of the border as if it counts for less. They diminish Celtic’s achievements simply because they happened in Scotland.
I reject that completely.
Celtic should never feel ashamed of where it comes from. Quite the opposite. Celtic should proudly say to the world: we are from Scotland, and we are proud of it.
There is a deep loyalty tied into that identity. Loyalty to Glasgow and even Scottish football. Loyalty to the people who built the club and sustained it for more than a century. When supporters fill Celtic Park, they are not thinking about television markets or global broadcasting deals. They are thinking about belonging.
That sense of belonging cannot be bought.
Joining the English league might bring more money, but it would risk losing something far more valuable: the roots that define Celtic. Instead of talking about escaping Scottish football, perhaps the conversation should focus on improving it.
This is where the Scottish Football Association carries real responsibility. The SFA must do more to develop the game across the country. Investment in infrastructure, proper support for youth development, and long-term thinking about how to grow the sport at every level are essential. Scottish football has history, passion, and identity, but it also needs ambition and forward planning.
Celtic should be part of that progress, not separate from it.
One of the greatest strengths Celtic can build for the future is youth development. Bringing through young players who understand the club, its culture, and its values. Developing players who are not just talented, but connected to what the club represents.
There is something powerful about local players wearing the Hoops. It connects generations. It reminds supporters that Celtic is part of a living community, not just a global brand.
Those same players can strengthen Scotland as well.
If we are honest, watching the Scotland national team in recent years has not always been easy. The passion of the supporters has never been in doubt, but performances have often failed to match that passion. There are flashes of hope, but also long periods of frustration.
Still, it is not a hopeless situation.
Football nations rise and fall. What matters is the willingness to rebuild. With better development structures, stronger cooperation between clubs and the national setup, and a genuine commitment to long-term progress, Scotland can improve again.
Celtic can play a central role in that.
Imagine a generation of players developed through Celtic’s academy stepping onto the international stage. Players who carry both identities with pride. Celtic and Scotland, working together rather than being pulled apart.
That is a future worth building.
Instead of talk about Celtic leaving Scottish football, Celtic should help strengthen it. Instead of chasing validation from England, Celtic should stand tall and remind the world what Scottish football represents.
Because there is already something unique about the Scottish game. The intensity. The atmosphere. The history. The fierce loyalty of supporters. It might not have the financial power of the English Premier League, but it has something many leagues struggle to replicate: authenticity.
Celtic is at the heart of that.
The club has always stood for something bigger than football. Community, identity, solidarity, and pride. Those values have been there from the beginning, when the club was founded to support the impoverished of Glasgow’s East End. That spirit has never disappeared.
Being Scottish is not something Celtic should move away from. It is something to celebrate. Something to show proudly to the rest of the football world.
If Scottish football grows stronger, Celtic grows stronger with it. If the national team improves, it lifts the reputation of the entire country. Clubs, supporters, and governing bodies should all be working towards that shared goal.
In the end, it comes back to something simple.
Celtic belongs in Scotland.
Its story is Scottish. Its supporters are deeply connected to that identity. The club should never feel pressured to abandon that just to satisfy those who think the only “real” football exists elsewhere.
Sometimes the strongest statement a club can make is not chasing a different stage, but standing proudly on the one where it was born.
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With our board and lack of money and investment we will always and only remain top dog in Scotland and shite in Europe. As you say Sottish football is not good enough and we will never progress in Europe because rhe level played at week in and week out is a massive difference to when it comes to European football.
Dont get me wrong , much of thr epl football is total shite every week but nowadays unfortunately money talks and we dont have enough compared to the ” big boys”
We cant produce our own because they all go off elsewhere for more money so we have to bring in players from God knkws where to fill the team and are they good enough??? Usually no
So until Celtic play in a properly competitive league we will stay in the position we are- decent in Scotland but shite in Europe. I hope im proven wrong next season and that we get a manager who can sort us out but I won’t be putting much cash on that bet
“Celtic belongs in Scotland, not chasing validation through EPL riches.”
Well said Paulina. Big Jock didn’t need English football to conquer Europe. We’re a Scottish club and Scotland is where we belong. However, i fear that one day money will talk. And this will be used as a political football against Scotland’s right to self-determination.
At least leaving Scotland would provide with a more fairer accountable playing field, scottish football has changed very little since 60 years ago and winning in europe , the same back water , the same parochial narrow minded organizations , does anyone think last weeks events by scum in balaclavas would be tolerated by the english FA , not to mention the scottish media, police , politicians , sfa spl , apologists one and all , it’s not just the sport it self it rotten , it’s the establishment that’s rotten to the core , some can settle for paranoia to wish it all away but don’t pizz down my neck and tell me it’s raining
Beat me to it Bertie.
The SFA are quite content the way things are.
They may dream of some ‘Federal’ type future where they, personally are subsumed into a
Pan UK Broadcasting Authority to their own enrichment but nothing really changes apropos
Scottish Football.
The SFA are not that bothered about ‘Football’ per se they just see it as another Protestant / Unionist link in the chain that binds us. It’s just another level in the Masonic / Orange Order invisible structure that permeates Scottish Society.
Our Academy is used for the early formation of the best young players who immediately leave to join English clubs when professional forms are proffered. It appears to be run as a charity to support English football teams.
Sorry Paulina, but that is just wrong. if scotland deserved celtic there would be no biased referring, no SFA/SPl always trying to do celtic down at every turn and who would kill us off entirely if at all possible. The media would be pretty fair (i know i know) and we could have a genuine league competition.
This anybody but celtic perspective shows that celtic need to go where they will at least be treated
the same as every other team, which has not been the case for many a long year
Bodo Glimt in Norway have shown that we could do a lot better, A country the same size as Scotland, although without the greedy giant of World Football right next door mopping up the vast % of media money in the UK.
It would seem to me that Scottish football and Scottish politicians have surrendered too meekly to the unfair distribution of sports money throughout the so called UK. Take football for instance, Scotland has eight and a half % of the UK population and I would hazard a guess that we make up at least that % or maybe more of Sky’s UK Sports purchasers of their football output..
Scotland does not get near that kind of percentage of the pot, I very seldom watch the EPL games on Sky these days, most of it is boring rubbish, with rich tourist supporters from all over the World, making up a good proportion of the crowd.
In Scotland we have had the same weary people running Scottish Football for years, just like the people who run our club, they have become too comfortable doing Fxck all, whilst earning big bucks. No imagination and no ambition, and that along with an old pals act Ibrox supporting media, is a recipe for stagnation.
Football in Scotland needs 3 Fergus McCann type figures to step forward and pull it up by the scruff of the neck, Where are they? I’m afraid they’re no where to be seen.
100% agree.
Micmac, It shows how far we and Scotland have fallen, when we look with envy at a team who get hammered by Sporting Lisbon in the UCL last 16. Bodo have only won 2 of the last 4 domestic titles and are not current champions.
We would never accept the scenario that we are a vastly improved team but we have challengers domestically. Every time we lost a title or struggled domestically the manager would be sacked same as they do across town.
One way the league could become more competitive is spilt all gates 50:50…
Probably wouldn’t suit Celtic and I’m probably in the minority but I’d be all for it for the good of the game…
Not that the good of the game gives a Continental Fuck about Celtic !
Totally agree. The league can only ever be won by us or them because of the uneven spread of revenue. It’s a closed shop. Im not sure why the other clubs are complicit to this.
Totally DISAGREE!
The Scottish league has now became the sht of europe along with Austria and this will continue for years now. We’ve now lost a CL place next year + europa & conference.
WE can’t prosper in this league, got to look for a way out or THE Famous Glasgow CELTIC will always be the same.
The Famous Glasgow Celtic with history BUT no future!