Rangers should not try to leave SPFL after Luxembourg club’s lawsuit
Rangers and Celtic could soon have the door to a breakaway from the SPFL opened with UEFA at loggerheads with a Luxembourg club, according to the Daily Mail.
FC Swift Hesperange are challenging the European football governing body’s stance on cross-border leagues as they try to enter a proposed Benelux league featuring sides from Belgium and The Netherlands.
The Luxembourg Football Federation are also being challenged by Hesperange and if they are successful and begin a Benelux league, it could give the Old Firm duo the nudge they need to make their own breakaway.
Back in 2020, both Rangers and Celtic were included in a cross-border league with clubs from Sweden, Norway, Denmark and the Republic of Ireland for a 20-team competition.
The projected broadcast revenue for the competition that never materialised was around £335million but talks were brought to an abrupt end when the Hoops pulled out altogether.
Bosman lawyer Julian Dupont though thinks that both Old Firm clubs are standing to benefit from this legal contest if it falls in favour of Hesperange.
“Celtic and Rangers are great clubs,” he said. “But how much do they get for their media rights compared to the smallest (English) Premier League club?
“This is the lack of domestic incomes that determines negatively their competitiveness on the European stage.”
That boost in broadcast money might be enticing but surely Rangers can’t abandon Scottish football entirely to play every away game in other countries.
The club have a hugely rich tradition in Scottish football and are the current holders of the national cup so what would there be to gain by moving to a cross-border league other than cash?
It would be a crying shame for football if anyone were to leave their domestic divisions to join a transitional league like this when football is so rich in their country’s history.
Someone like Liechtenstein could merge with Switzerland as they are so small and San Marino with Italy too but Scotland is far too big to need another nation in their footballing pyramid.
In other Rangers news, out of the blue, Alfredo Morelos is now a transfer target to a club in North America who are hardly pulling up trees this season.