Rangers and Celtic are offering £1m in a plan that would beef up League Two from ten to sixteen teams with two of those teams being Rangers and Celtic ‘colts B teams’.
Rangers and Celtic are offering an initial £125,000 to the league set-up plus further installments that would eventually equate to £1m to allow them to play ‘colts’ second teams in the men’s professional set-up.
They also pledge to buy a minimum of 200 £15 tickets for every away game.
The plan would see Rangers and Celtic colts teams, along with two teams from the Highland League and two from the Lowlands League join the ten team roster in Division Two.
Further articles
–Aberdeen v Rangers preview: A vicious rivalry. Find out from supporters how it came to this
–Dons expected to do a lot more after poor draw to United: Match reaction
–Preview: 5 things to look out for when RB Leipzig take on BVB in top table Bundesliga clash
Suggestions on how to re-energise what is considered a stale SPFL product have been in the media recently with a revised version of the ‘Atlantic League’ supported by Aberdeen chairman Dave Cormack.
Cormack rallied for the league which would see Rangers, Celtic, Aberdeen, Hearts and Hibs join with teams from Norway, Sweden and Denmark in a twenty team trans Atlantic format.
It was estimated the league, if established, could generate £350m in broadcast revenue, but Celtic pulled out.
To pass this latest proposal Celtic and Rangers need the backing of 75 per cent across the Championship and leagues One and Two – and eleven of twelve in the Premiership.
Analysis: Just another way for Rangers and Celtic to widen the gap
In a similar set-up to what Barcelona and Real Madrid have in Spain, Rangers and Celtic could submit two teams into the Scottish professional game.
The big plus is the money on offer to an already cash strapped league put under further pressure by the covid pandemic (coincidence Rangers and Celtic have decided to dangle this carrot at this particular time?)
The down side is that Rangers and Celtic could further dominate a national game that supporters say they already have enough control over.
“Could we end up with the absurd situation of four Old Firm sides gunning for the SPL?”
Nearly all media coverage of Scottish football headlines with the Old Firm, with the rest of the clubs having to make do with 100 word columns lost in the middle pages and get a mention in the last five minutes of TV and radio coverage.
Questions would have to be asked about how far colt teams could go – could we end up with the absurd situation of four Old Firm sides gunning for the SPL?
In La Liga, Real Madrid Castilla and Barcelon B cannot be promoted to La Liga and can no longer enter the Copa Del Rey – after the ludicrous situation of Real Madrid playing Real Madrid B in the final in 1980 – but they can still play up to U25s from the first team.
And what would happen to young talent that smaller clubs rely on to achieve brief periods of glory before their hot prospects are hoovered up by the bigger teams?
With Colt teams Rangers and Celtic could corner the market in youth prospects on top of every other part of the Scottish game they already control.
Harry Jamshid Reporter Sports Pages 