How does it attract so many fans? Just watched the first half and won't be watching the 2nd, it's like Newcastle playing Pools in terms of quality. Rangers are awful but Celtic seem to be trying their best to make it competitive!

If I was Scottish I'd just deny it and go and watch English footy.

The Scottish Premiership.....
A one horse league where the title should be awarded in August, a pointless exercise. Why don't they just allow them in the Premiership.

I visited Ayr United when I was on holiday in Scotland years ago and purely by chance, spoke with the chairman and he he told me that most football fans in Scotland want rid of Celtic and Rangers.....this was years ago, so maybe not Rangers so much...well, certainly not at the minute anyway.

He also said people would ask him who he supported and he'd say 'Ayr United' only to get the response 'no, who do you support? Celtic or Rangers?'. Oh dear.

Having Rangers and Celtic in the Premiershit is just wrong, regardless of whether I like England's top division in it's current guise.

Might as well have a European super league.

Fuck that.

As a Pools fan I live in constant hope of us emulating Bournemouth etc, why would anyone go otherwise? The only thing I don't like at the moment is how the top division in England has been destroyed by money. I'm just hoping all the money fucks off to China and the English game returns to being a sport rather than a business.

Is it anymore wrong than having Swansea in the Premier League?

Yep.

Anyone else care to mention Berwick, Cardiff, Wrexham, Newport etc?

Not the same discussion.

Like two badly racist religious bigots arguing over a comb.

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Isn't it? Looks the same to me, team from a different country in the English leagues.

I've nothing against them playing in the English leagues but why should they get a bye to the Premier League?

Wales doesn't really have a fully professional league so it probably is a different discussion.

if they took rangers and celtic out of the scottish league in a few years time it,ll be like the league of wales. probebly even now the bottom 2 divisions will be on the par with it.

It might be a pointless league in terms of who wins but without Celtic or Rangers, how many of Scotland's other clubs could survive? Most of the TV rights are due to their presence and they're guaranteed to be their biggest attendances of the season.

I watched the Hamilton-Celtic game on Christmas Eve and 2 and a quarter of Hamilton's 3 stands were given to Celtic supporters. Without days like that, I doubt a lot of the clubs could survive.

I wouldn't be happy with them going straight into the Premier League, but it's difficult to argue against them playing South of the border, when precedents are already set.

I don't see a precedent when before have two big clubs all of sudden joined a League in a different country it's never happened and never will.

Rangers are probably players wise a wage bill about League One standard at the moment.

A total non starter.

There was a rumour doing the rounds when we were in the Northern League that Celtic Nation was an attempt to get a club up the leagues until they got a decent level where they would then be taken over by Glasgow Celtic and move to Glasgow, thus being a method of getting Celtic to play in the English leagues. Even had a few bus loads of fans come to watch from Glasgow in the early days. Daft idea that rightly bit the dust!

Speaking of Ayr United, I was up in Edinburgh last weekend so went to watch them play Hibs in the Scottish Cup. Was quite a good game actually!

Fine, I give up.

I used to care about this shit. Now they should just let them straight into the premier league. Its almost run by franchises now anyway.

Just out of interest though. I wonder who the supporters of such a move, would have them replace?

Bearing in mind UEFA want the prem league to reduce to 18 teams.

And at the moment it doesnt incl Leeds, Newcastle, Aston Villa, Wolves, Sheffield wedneday, wo could all claim to be a big enough draw to allocated placed too.

So add the two scotch bigots and theres 7 teams plus the other two UEFA want out to be demoted.

Have turkeys ever voted for christmas before?

On the face of it, yes it looks the same but it isn't

There was no Welsh league when Swansea etc were formed, in fact the Welsh league was formed in my lifetime if I remember correctly and Swansea etc were offered the chance to join which they declined.

Scotland and Celtic jumping ship to the English league is different altogether and in my view is wrong and shouldn't even be considered. We have a European Cup and Europa League so clubs can play against European opposition, that's enough for me thanks.

I should add....professional Welsh league....of course the amateur league has been around for donkey's years

On the other hand other teams will be qualifying for European competitions and all that .....errr MONEY?



I remember when the Welsh Premier League was formed (yes in my lifetime), Bishops were in the Unibond League and the Welsh FA Cough.... instructed the Welsh lower Pyramid teams to join the Welsh League....or else.....allegedly!

No danger of it happening now that Scotland will be leaving the UK before long.

I think Scotland will appeal to the EU as much as Rangers and Celtic do to the Premier League.

I'm all for it too, as long we send Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP the bill for Policing and clearing up after games.

My mate a former church street D.J. tells me you are also a real jock like him? He told me stories of you and him going to Scotland in the 70s and 80s to support your team Scotland. He also said you both had Scottish parents and Scotland tats on your arms that you were both very proud of. He told me you both lived in west view at that time but also that you had you tats removed and became English in his words overnight?? Is that true Crab??

How different it would have been if some monobloc country like France had invented footy and rugby instead of Britain eh? Mind if it had been France we'd prolly have taken our ball home and invented some other sport

How could the French invent two sports that involve attacking?

From memory.... the League of Wales was started partly to protect Wales position within UEFA and FIFA, and head off any suggestion that they could be forced into any sort of UK team. Late 80s early 90s? About the time Newport went pop. As a result LoW was formed, and they stopped inviting English teams from the borders into the Welsh Cup - until then, the likes of Shrewsbury, Chester, Hereford were usually in and sometimes won though they weren't allowed into Europe.

Welsh FA wanted as many of the best teams in Wales to join as possible, they couldn't get the likes of Wrexham, Swansea etc. to do so, but they did wave the big stick at a number of sides in the non-league system where they could potentially expel them and force them out - Newport had to reform in Gloucester to be able to rejoin the English League system, and hence were known as the Exiles, and I think in general the ones that didn't want to move across were called the Irate Eight - the likes of Merthyr and Colwyn Bay.

Part of the problem is that FIFA in particular doesn't like the fact that one sovereign nation (ie the UK) has four full members in it, and for historical reasons also has a guarantee of there being one Vice-President from the Home Nations - there's a worry that we'll form some sort of voting bloc, ironic given that in general the Welsh and Scots hate the English, and NI love nothing better than to put one over on us even if I don't think there's the same level of hate - they keep that for their southern neighbours (football wise, NI is mostly protestant which is why eg Derry City play in the Irish League.) The other Home Nations are very keen to remain separate football-wise - hence the furore about a UK Team at the 2012 Olympics - and that as much as anything is where the Scots would not want to see the Old Firm join the English League. Historical situations (like Berwick, Wrexham, Cardiff, Swansea) is one thing - two top level Scots teams joining the top level in England, while still playing in Glasgow, could do serious damage to the International Status Quo.

Well there are parallels in other countries, the most relevant prolly being Monaco. A half decent team in the French top flight, completely out of sight of any other team from their country, yet the Monaco national team happily continues playing in all the international competitions.

Monaco aren't members of FIFA, or UEFA - their representative team plays the likes of Vatican City and Tibet....

That's that theory buggered then.

San Marino, don't their team or teams play in the Italian lower leagues, yet they are a Country for qualifiers?