Old Firm Not Firm Enough To Save Scottish Football

For a century Glasgow’s two football giants have maintained near complete domination of Scotland’s game. Of 111 national championships, Rangers or Celtic were crowned a staggering 94 times. Of the mere 17 titles won by other clubs the most recent was 24 years ago. The level of hegemony has made ridiculous any notion of Scottish football as a competitive pursuit. With the rest merely making up the numbers, the two clubs with mass support are sustained purely by the intensity of their relationship to each other; a rivalry based on endless competition for sporting supremacy and steeped in religious, nationalistic and ethnic tribalism of a society divided into two communities.

Celtic was established as a charitable vehicle for one such community, the pre-existing Rangers would become standard-bearers for the other.

Whatever the consequence for the city and country, the enmity that grew between the clubs was soon seen to be mutually beneficial. So intertwined were their fortunes that they quickly became seen as a gestalt entity, and in becoming the ‘Old Firm’ Celtic and Rangers propelled themselves far beyond the limit of their individual potential.

They killed the competition but took Scottish football to a level it could otherwise never have reached: World record attendances as the 20th century began, world class stadiums as it drew to a close. They supplied players for the Scotland team and represented the country admirably in European competitions. But those days may be gone forever.

Europe’s most prestigious national leagues now generate revenues from global television and sponsorship hundreds of times that achievable by smaller leagues such as Scotland’s. Their bottom feeders, historically insignificant and poorly supported, receive income vastly superior to that available to top sides in smaller nations. By accident of geography Glasgow’s super-clubs, each with a size of support comparable to any in the world, find themselves locked out.

Glasgow’s location is an obstacle they constantly try to overcome, but England does not seem to want to allow the Old Firm to adopt the St.Geroge’s Cross as a flag of convenience. If they cannot engineer an escape from the confines of Scottish football, then these big fish must urgently consider how to make life in the small pond worth living.

It is no longer sufficient for the Glasgow giants to offer a dismal product. The absence of competition may have been tolerated when Scottish football was the only show in town, but in the age of global communications the punter can get a far better product for a much lower price. The dearth of quality needs to be addressed. What they cannot buy they must develop; somehow the clubs must start to offer proper entertainment value.

The time has come for urgent and widespread change. Scotland has failed to qualify for seven straight international tournaments. The Old Firm increasingly appear old and infirm: Tens of thousands of empty seats at Ibrox and Parkhead an alarming sign that the game is withering. If the causes go unaddressed, Scottish football may never recover.