MOMENTUM is growing from Scottish clubs to press European football authorities to allow cross-border leagues.
The strategy of pursuing options that include allowing clubs to move to other leagues has long been discussed at SPFL board level but the subject has taken on an urgency after Sky and BT signed a £5.1bn deal to televise English Premier League football from 2016-2019. The BBC also agreed to pay £200m for Match of the Day highlights in a move that angered some clubs in Scotland.
Celtic have long been campaigning for a "geographical change" but sources at several Scottish clubs have expressed their desire to explore options of moving into another league, particularly in England.
One club official last night warned of "permanent, irreversible decline" and Peter Lawwell, chief executive of Celtic, has spoken as far back as 2011 of the "business model" of Scottish football being broken.
The SPFL Premiership is still without a sponsor and the television deal is worth about £15m a year. One broadcaster has estimated this as the equivalent in cost to televising two English Premier League matches.
Some Scottish clubs are thought to be pursuing matters on two fronts. The first is to lobby the broadcasters at what they see as unfair distribution of revenue. Mike Mulraney, chairman of Alloa Athletic, has pointed out the £200m for the BBC highlights comes from a licence fee that is also funded by Scottish viewers. It has also been noted that 10% of subscribers to Sky are Scottish.
Mulraney has invoked the cause of "second-class citizenship", with Scots subsidising the English leagues while the game is staved of revenue north of the border.
The second front is the attempt to change the league set-up, not just in Scotland but in the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal and Scandinavia where once thriving football heartlands are feeling the chill of surviving on a fragment of what is offered to leagues in England, Italy, France, Spain and Germany.
"We are pushing for change because the present situation is now almost unsustainable," said once club chairman last night. "UEFA have to realise that that leagues that produced both great teams and great crowds are now dying."
There is a glimmer of hope that UEFA may be open to leagues that do not adhere to geographical boundaries.
The presence of Welsh teams in English leagues has long been brushed off as a historical anomaly that cannot be changed but Gianni Infantino, chief executive, has offered the merest encouragement to clubs seeking to move to another league.
He has allowed a three-year experiment in women's football where leading sides in Belgium and Holland play in a league. He has also said: "Football is in constant development and we are open to discussing everything."
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