Premier League Rejects Scottish Duo

The Premier League has rejected the latest proposals extending the ranks of the English top-flight to include leading Scottish clubs Celtic and Rangers.

The Scottish clubs had hoped to be part of new plans put forward by Bolton chairman Phil Gartside for a two-tier league of between 36 and 40 teams.

The SPL pair would have been invited to join the lower league, but the proposal was overwhelmingly rejected.

Premier League clubs will now consider whether to introduce a two-tier system as part of a wider strategic review.

‘Bolton Wanderers submitted a discussion paper detailing ideas concerning the restructuring of the Premier League into two tiers with the inclusion of Celtic and Rangers,’ read a Premier League statement.

‘The clubs welcomed the additional input into an ongoing process, however, they were of the opinion that bringing Celtic and Rangers into any form of Premier League set-up was not desirable or viable.

‘The other relevant ideas contained within Bolton’s paper will now be taken forward as part of the wider strategic review being undertaken by the Premier League since November 2008 with the aim of providing recommendations before December 2010.’

Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore stated that the idea will not come to fruition.

‘As regards to Celtic and Rangers it’s a non-starter. So we’ve made a clear and unequivocal statement and we’re going to move on from there. No means no.

‘The clubs constitutionally voted to say we’re not going to take this any further, Celtic and Rangers are not coming in.’

The proposals were a revival of Gartside’s ideas aired six months ago. They received a hostile reception from the Premier League’s 20 chairmen then, but Gartside remains concerned that too much money continues to flow into the coffers of the top four clubs.

In his annual report, published last week, Gartside made it clear that he believed tackling the big differences in income was the league’s greatest challenge.

‘Addressing this polarisation of clubs and the increasing revenue differentials will, I believe, be the major strategic issue for the Premier League over coming years,’ he said.

‘The Premier League is an exciting product for supporters and for television viewers, but there is no doubt that as the years go by, and the same few clubs continue to benefit from the huge additional revenues from the Champions League, the remaining clubs find it enormously difficult to challenge.

‘At the same time, the gap between Premier League revenues and those of the Championship continues to widen and I believe a ‘fear factor’ is beginning to emerge amongst Premier League clubs outside the top few.’

The big clubs are likely to oppose any major change to the status quo, pointing out they have already boosted income to the smaller clubs by agreeing to every club receiving payment of facility fees for at least 10 televised matches totalling £4.8m, even if they only appear in a handful of live games on TV.

The next overseas TV rights deal – which is split equally among clubs – is likely to be close to £1bn, up from the current £650m and equating to an extra £6m per club per season.