Ned Boulting outlines why the North Atlantic League is a very bad idea ...
They’re talking about the North Atlantic League again, God help us. An idea so good, you might be forgiven for thinking it could ever actually happen.
Its brilliance involves knitting together the synergies of the Dutch, Portuguese and Scottish leagues (and whoever else is desperate enough) into one genetically modified horror of a competition which spuriously carries the name of an ocean the Dutch can’t even see from the top of their highest dyke.
Presumably the Atlantic moniker has the advantage of holding the door ajar for America’s eastern seaboard to join in the fun too. Hell, why stop there. Let Icelandic clubs cling to the life raft too. Rebrand the whole thing (I’m sure Ocean Finance would oblige), consolidate all the clubs’ debts into one easily manageable monthly payment, sell it to Eggert Magnussen and watch it sink without a trace.
What’s the point? What’s the point in replacing one glass ceiling with another? There can only ever be a handful of clubs with a consistent claim to international greatness. The rest are playing, more often than not, for other prizes, mostly domestic. That’s just the way it is.
That’s not to say, of course, that the second tier of clubs can’t enjoy European success from time to time. Let’s not forgot Porto in 2004. Or the UEFA Cup finals reached by both Celtic and Rangers in recent years. In 2005 Liverpool should have been playing PSV Eindhoven, not Milan in the final.
So, if you’re good enough, you can do it. Atlantic or Mediterranean.
The specific problems facing the Old Firm clubs are undoubtedly thorny. I’m sure that balancing the books at Parkhead or Ibrox is next to impossible – without any TV revenue to speak of, their finances must be dreadful. But in what way does that make them any different to any other football club on the planet? Isn’t it the same at Dagenham and Dundee and Duisburg? Why are they to be considered a “special case”?
Because they say so.
Turning their back on Scotland is a move with irreversible consequences. It denies every other club in the land the right to take the train to the West Coast, step out onto those sublime pitches, and have their annual crack at upsetting the locals. There will be no more trips to Inverness or Kilmarnock where Celtic and Rangers can swell the local coffers if only for a day.
Instead, their fans can file on and off Easyjet flights to Amsterdam and Lisbon until the novelty’s worn off, blowing holes in both the ozone layer and their wallets. After 2 seasons of that, you’d dream of Motherwell.
You can forget about Europe, too. Nights like Thursday’s crucial match at home to Hamburg will mean nothing any more. European competition is a reward for domestic sweat and toil – not a replacement.
No. Celtic and Rangers might just have to content themselves with an astonishingly closely fought league which arouses tremendous passion, and is very often won on the final day, by a single point.
As for the money argument? Well, it’s called living within your means, and it’s something we’ll all be doing a bit more of.
I say leave the Atlantic to the cod.
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