For the past decade or so, the gulf in both money and quality between the Scottish and English Premierships has continued to widen at an alarming rate.
Last week's Battle of Britain between a Tottenham Hotspur side missing many key players, and Hearts emphasized this gap. Spurs ran out easy 5-0 winners in Scotland. It is becoming more and more apparent that if Celtic are to once again become a force to be reckoned with on the European stage, then a move to England has to happen.
Previous proposals have suggested that both Celtic and Rangers could just move straight into the English Premiership, or at least even the Championship.
However I agree with the English clubs that this would have been unfair, as it would probably have required a complete restructuring of one or more of the English Leagues, and proved a disadvantage to teams already within the division.
At the beginning of this season however I had a brainstorm.
The brainstorm actually came to me a few weekends ago when I was flicking through the sports channels looking for something to watch, and came across the AFC Wimbledon - Bristol Rovers match. The build-up was still on and it started outlining AFC Wimbledon's route into League Two. For those of you who are unfamiliar with it, let me fill you in:
AFC Wimbledon were formed in 2002 following the relocation of Wimbledon FC to Milton Keynes. Since then they have gone on to be promoted 5 times in 9 seasons and are now a part of the Football League, having secured promotion to League Two at the end of last season.
By now you're probably beginning to see the idea that formed in my head upon hearing all of this. Why can't Celtic follow this same route?
Since the 2008-2009 season, no reserve league has existed in Scotland, with Scottish reserve teams forced to just play a series of friendlies throughout each season. At present the suggestion is to allow the Scottish reserve teams to play in the lower divisions of the Scottish League.
However my suggestion is for Celtic (and any other Scottish teams that may wish to do so) to enter their reserve teams into non-league English football. One would have to imagine, given the strength of Celtic's reserve team, they should achieve similar success to AFC Wimbledon and obtain promotion to League Two within a few seasons (unless I'm being overly naive about the standard of non-league football in England?).
There are, of course, problems with this plan. The obvious one being that Celtic are Scottish, and therefore why should they be competing in an 'English' league? However, you can point to the examples of Swansea and Cardiff, both Welsh, competing in the English Premiership and Championship respectively.
For an example closer to home, Scottish side Gretna FC played semi-professionally in England from 1947-2002. Under this basis there should be no reason why Scottish teams couldn't play in England both at league, and non-league, level.
Another issue might be the fact that Celtic FC as a club already exist in Scotland, and therefore there could be issues with playing a reserve team in a different league. If such a problem were to arise it would involve having to compete in England as a separate entity from Celtic FC, which could all become very messy and confusing.
Assuming the plan does work out, by the time Celtic reach, say, the Championship, that could be the stage to make the move completely to English football. Perhaps using the Scottish Leagues then to field their reserves.
There's no doubt in my mind that if a club of Celtic's size and reputation were to reach the Championship a decade or so down the line, it would only be a matter of time before they would finally achieve their dream of getting to compete in the English Premiership.
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