It was only in February this year that the proposed Russia-Ukraine joint league first reached the stage of formal meetings between clubs to discuss the viability but tonight a showcase tournament between top clubs from each country gets underway tonight. It is hoped the formal joint league will start this time next year when the top nine teams from each country will form the Unified First League.
Despite discouragement from Fifa, Uefa have insisted only that proper procedures are followed to give their ascent to the league. Gazprom, the Russian energy giant and Uefa Champions League sponsor, has underwritten the project with a commitment of 1 billion euros per annum.
As we know, in football, money talks, and the Russian and Ukrainian clubs, together with their national associations and Uefa, have been talked happy to make change possible.
In order to become competitive with their rivals in the west while meeting Uefa Financial Fair Play rules, Russian and Ukrainian clubs need to increase income, which the Unified First League would go a long way towards. Uefa president, Michel Platini, has long accepted that regionalisation was a viable way forward for domestic leagues, while former powers in smaller leagues have become disenfranchised from the game’s top table.
What does it mean for us?
Well, we don’t have a Gazprom, not yet, anyway, but once Gazprom’s financial and political muscle establishes the principle of regionalisation, that principle is available to all. Former Yugoslavia countries are already in talks, while Scandinavian countries have already had a few abortive attempts at (underfunded) regional cup competitions.
The British region.
Welsh football has managed to retain its national identity, provide an infrastructure for provincial and community clubs, while federating with the FA in England to allow their larger (sic) clubs to find their competitive level.
The model is already established for Scottish football, which has realised living with one (or two for that matter) massive club which completely invalidates their league competition as a ‘competition’ is no longer the best way to order their affairs.
Financial recklessness caused the collapse of one club a year ago while the recklessness of a Lithuanian bank has put another in jeopardy. A handful of other top-flight clubs now realise their financial commitments, not to mention sporting objectives, are no longer viable, with or without the crumbs from the table thrown in their direction when TV cameras and a few thousand fans arrive a few times per season.
Federate with England, just as the Welsh did. It will bring ‘competition’ back to our competitions, put thousands of everyone’s gates and provide access to viable commercial contracts.
Why are our leagues and Association not speaking to the English about this right now? The Football League in England is every bit as much a basket case as Scottish football right now, they also need to change the structural model and, unlike the equally lunatic (English) Premier League, appear to be self-aware in this respect.
Go talk to the Welsh FA, Cardiff City, Swansea, Wrexham or New Saints FC (!) and ask them what organising their game along the lines of the Scottish model would do to them.
Scottish football must federate or it will die. As such, if we stand on the precipice of crisis, let’s make it a good one. It’s the only thing which will get things moving.
Get Downfall here on Kindle or Heart of a Lion below:
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Celtic’s preseason tour of Germany (Sevestapol, Cluj, Greuther Furth and Union Berlin) will be shown live on Premier Sports.
!!Bada Bing!!
I dunno the boy in the story I pasted earlier must be an adonis!
Fighting the burds aff!
LB
Bourne – sounds like we’re retracing ol Bonaparte’s footsteps. I can see it now…
…Celts in Napoleonic slur to Hero Wellington
There were sound musical, economical and God knows, bacteriological reasons for takin’ the wreck in’ ball to the ooooooooooolllle Burns Howff.
Livibhoy @ 15:28- are you sure that’s not an extract from Gordon J’s forthcoming book? Lol
…so it is good to see the Louden Tavern setting itself up as the place to go to waste your precious money, and even more precious time.
Presumably smudged will be enlightening the dark hordes on how to get a job at the sfa and/ or shortbread.
i am going to the sevestapol , and greuther furth games as they are just a hour and two hours away , am looking forward to them i need my celtic fix :) HH
An evening with Gordon Smith, dear God the sounds of barrels being scraped all over Scotland…
Sevastopol?
On the Black Sea?
Site of two of the most destructive sieges in history?
Gosh.
thank god that fixture mess has been sorted, got my flights and hotels re-arranged, ibis hotel castle st, rick bar then upto the shamrock in the ardoyne…..tri coloured/cliftonville…any sign of briefs? gonna be a major struggle for this one, can think of worse places to watch the game if don’t get one.
rick bar???/ that would be the ROCK BAR….lol.
TBB
I can hear Rod Steiger saying Sevestapol.
Wee ole Napoleon gave Paul67 et all one of its best cliches,
Never interrupt your enemy when it’s making a mistake.
Duffield gig may be switched to The Wig and Monkey.
I’ve noticed the Louden Tavern has been done up with Allez LeCoist’s recent new ole catchphrase
Art of War
Sounds like a story you hear on the school bus. promises much but ends up telling you little except how cool the guy thinks his dad is. The game was that great that he remembers nothing of it. His old man is a raging womanising alky. They spend most of the day on their own. Great mixers the H*ns. he then wakes up outside his apartment blootered? Does he live in NYC?
It sounds so made up it’s unreal. Just a ramble that doesn;t even merit an article. I couldn’t believe what I was reading. I had to share it. Thank god we have a much higher calibre of poster here.
Anyway I’m off to the pub with my old man to pull some burds.
Off oot
LB
Tea time fours
The Soviet predecessors of Sevastopol FC include Chaika Sevastopol and SC Black Sea Fleet.
Ally’s new catch-phrase is ‘never interrupt your manager when he’s eating a stake-bake’.
Livibhoy-haha. Be a good wingman mind:-)
Wee Serena has won more Wimbledon singles matches in her career than all 10 ‘Brits’ combined in their careers.
UselessWimbledonThings. CSC
Top stuff from the CQN Loyal :¬)
Let them eat steak bake
Good piece on the Thai Tims
http://www.eltnews.com/columns/patontheback/2013/06/reamonn_gormley_thai_tims.html
When wee Serena hits the ball it stays hit.
She used to take up the subs on the Compton #1CSC bus and she took no rubbish off anybody.
Are you happy now,Salmond ya fat galoot?
A white throated needle tail, a native of Asia and the fastest bird ever recorded in level flight, has died on the isle of Harris after colliding with a wind turbine.
The needle tail is an extremely rare visitor to our shores.
It’s sighting had excited twitchers from all over the U.K.
And now the harmless wee bird is dead.
So tell me Alec, how do you sleep?
great blog paul
An evening with Gordon Smith?
That should be interesting.
“I didn’t see or hear anything. I didn’t know what was going on. No one told me anything. That was not in my remit.”
wicklowbhoy
have you moved ?
I’m a bit upset so I’ve put ‘Rumours ‘on and turned it up to11.
aye jackie mac i moved to near rosenheim at christmas . :)
An evening with Gordon Smith? Not even if they paid me.
wicklowbhoy
hope it’s working out – I went for a swim in bray beach a couple weeks ago – next time I freeze my knackers off and can’t feel my feet for days I’ll think of you
The biggest challenge will be getting all the signatures, I need the legal eagles to advise on the requirements of signatures, this wee nettle has taken off and become a briar, a lot of overseas support needs validation, what’s the minimum requirement to prove they support this course of action, signature with passport copy ? Is a scanned copy of resolution with details and scanned copy of passport details sufficient or do wee need to fly around the world and collect signatures, I’m up for that :o)
HH
THE ironic thing is I’ve been at an evening with Gordon Smith..aka the psychic barber!!
You can draw the conclusions you want, it was actually quite a sad night.
BUT every time I see wiggy s name I laugh at the obvious name and Hair connection..
There will be all these folk turning up at the Sevco tavern wanting wiggy to contact departed loved ones…
Eg OLDCO..
JCGE..
cannae make this up
ha ha jackie mac , whilst the water at bray beach is cold . i can assure you i have never felt cold like a bavarian winter 4 months of sub zero temps from -5 to -18 so i will never complain again about cold water in the sea lol . HH
“Wind Turbines? – I’m a big fan”
Alex Salmond
..you can go your own way….
Splat.
Just wondering does anyone have any info on Miki67, he used to be a very regular contributor but I haven’t seen any posts from him for some time. Obviously he is battling an illness , hope he is doing O.K.