The Scottish Premier League – What’s that all about then?
It is widely expressed by professional players, managers as well as the man on the street that the English Premier League is by far the most exciting League in the world, where on their day any team can beat any other team. North of the border though and you will be introduced to the complete opposite.
Celtic and Rangers are the only two teams to have won the Scottish Premiership title since its inception in 1998 and this is one of the biggest drawbacks for someone who is looking to follow the League from outside Scotland. If you are not a Glasgow Rangers or a Glasgow Celtic fan then you can forget about your team even potentially lifting the trophy. Even if you are a fan of either of these two it means that the games between you and your rival are the only fixtures you really care about.
It was proposed a few years back that these two clubs would possibly be given the chance to join the English league in order to generate more income via television rights. I am glad to say that this so far has not come to pass although I do think it could potentially benefit the Scottish League as a whole if they were to leave. At the very least it would mean someone else would be able to put their name of the League trophy. I am sure the engraver is getting tired with just ‘CELTIC’ or ‘RANGERS’ every year!
It had also been rumoured that possibly a sort of Atlantic League be set up with teams from Holland for example. This again would possibly be good for the Scottish League but I highly doubt that the Old Firm clubs would go for it unless Champions League qualification could still be gained. Again this idea involves the removal
For me the way to get this League back to being competitive I think we should look across the pond to the United States as a model. With an East/ West divide. The East League currently would have Hearts, Hibs, Dunfirmline, Dundee United, St Johnstone and Aberdeen plus two promoted sides. The West League would have Celtic, Rangers, Motherwell, Inverness, St Mirren and Kilmarnock again plus two promoted sides.
Each team will play each other in their League four times making a total of 32 games, which would allow the Scottish to have their winter break back. The bottom club or clubs from each Division would be relegated and replaced by ones from the lower league.
Then we take the top four teams from to have a mini playoff. For example first play fourth and second plays the third placed team. The winners play each other for East/West honours and finally the two League winners play off for the overall Champion.
All that has to be worked out from this system is who wins what European playoff place but at the end of the season the teams in the final game would have played 38 games, the same as now. Okay so I admit that this idea needs some tweaking, however it is also clear that something needs to be done by the Scottish FA or soon no one outside Scotland will care if the League crumbles under it’s top heavy duo.
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