Thing what I don't understand is, how come all the money has dried up in Scottish football? I lived in Scotland 85-91, and did enjoy watching scottish football, as there were some really good players then. What caused it all to cave in so spectacularly?
There is a multitude of reasons I think mate.
TV Money has to be the main one. The rise of the Premiership & the increased revenue it has continued to bring has slowly ruined it for Scotland & the rest of Europe I guess. Players want to move south to prove themselves or just earn 3x the amount they can up here. The same can be said for attracting players. Craig Conway recently chose Cardiff over Rangers. Personally I would rather play for Scotland’s biggest club winning trophies & playing in Europe on a regular basis than going to the championship. Everyone wants to play in England.
When we lost our initial Sky deal, we were taken up by the BBC, who of course offered half of the amount clubs were getting before. Then Sky came back in with a good offer but Setanta offered more money. The clubs went for the cash being offered over stability with Sky and look what happened there. Clubs lost even more money.
The loss of TV funds means that ticket prices go up and attendances go down. Who really wants to pay £20 to watch Motherwell Vrs Inverness? It’s a vicious cycle.
Oh and the tv money we DO get isn’t split equally like it is in England. Like the Spanish it goes to the Old Firm and the rest get the scraps. Which in a way is fair enough, who wants to watch St Mirren V Kilmarnock on tv? Most people don’t even want to watch Rangers or Celtic anymore. But when 75% of the nation supports one or the other, you can see why they get the spoils.
Almost everyone in the league has some sort of debt, like most English clubs we don’t have the capital to get away with it. With the money Chelsea spent on Torres they could have purchased Rangers, Twice. The debt’s came from the need to have capacity stadiums (which are rarely filled) and the crazy 90’s when David Murray invested silly money into Rangers, allowing them to sign big players in England like Terry Butcher and Ray Wilkins who were attracted by the chance to play in Europe (English sides were banned) then it continued with the likes of Gattuso,Laudrup,Albertz,Gazza & so on.
Even at the turn of the millennium Celtic were splashing out 20m on Chris Sutton & John Hartson, while Rangers spent 11m (I think) on Tore Andre Flo.
What chance did everyone else have of keeping up? They would pay big wages they couldn’t afford and it’s cost us dearly. Motherwell used to pay John Spencer a reported 15k a week! They are lucky if they bring in crowds of 4-5k (old firm games aside) but they did it to keep up.
You can see why the Glasgow clubs are so desperate to move to England can’t you? Teams like Wolves are shelling out 6m on Steven Fletcher & West Ham made more finishing last than Rangers did winning the league.
Imagine they had the money that the English sides were getting? They survive on revenue from the supporters & more often than not, make a good go in Europe this way. Think of the players they could attract if they were playing in the premiership? The fan base rivals any one of England’s top clubs domestically. It wouldn’t be long before they were challenging for honours.
Scotland only has a population of about 4-5m, London has 18m I think. 75% of that 4-5m is in central Scotland & most of the country support’s one half of the old firm. Even in Aberdeen & Inverness they have ****** Rangers supporters clubs.
I’m probably missing out a lot of the facts, but I think I am close enough. It’s a sad state of affairs that will probably never change. At least we produce the best managers, eh?
P.S
Sorry for the length of this.
