Let’s get our SPFL show on the road
TV-VA ESPANA
YOU wouldn’t want to travel it on board the Megabus but there is no denying the world is getting smaller.
The football world is even more of a global village. Well, it is if you are the likes of England, Spain and Italy.
Unfortunately Scotland might as well be Siberia as far as the worldwide market is concerned, which is why our lot need to hitch our wagons to the big boys or risk being left behind.
Yesterday’s announcement that La Liga will take a match to the USA as part of an eyewatering 15-year link-up to promote the Spanish game out there is a game changer.
This is not the weird tale of 18 months ago when Dundee were trying to set up a SPFL clash with Celtic Stateside. That clash would have been a low-key carnival passing through town.
The La Liga move is more like a Las Vegas residency.
It’s a stage the big European leagues have been desperate to claim for years but the Spaniards have finally taken the step and others are nailed on to follow.
Coming soon to an American Soccer Dome: Manchester Red Devils versus Burnley Sheepskins.
Meanwhile, as far as the global football audience is concerned Scottish football is the tree falling in the forest.
The collapse of our overseas broadcasting partners MP & Silva might be a short term blow but that lot are no loss.
Don’t forget this is the mob who gave us a few pages in their doorstop sales brochure, which included a picture of Celtic dud Jo Inge Berget long after he’d got the elbow.
MP & Silva used Scots football as the free toy in the cereal for other countries’ rights and it’s left fans in mega markets practically forced underground to watch the SPFL in bars and clubs like they’re off to an S&M dungeon.
Let’s not fall into this trap of thinking there was an outcry. There haven’t been any marches like the anti-Trump protests in the States, outraged at being unable to see St Johnstone against Hamilton.
The numbers have long been dwindling in the former colonies with the EPL now the imperial force on the world football scene.
Even traditional markets for Scotland, like Ireland, have fallen for the Premier League hype.
This Scottish and Irish diaspora we’ve heard about for years is diluting with every generation.
And we’re kidding ourselves on if we think there are millions of second, third and fourth generation Americans and Australians huddled around
That’s why the SPFL should get on the bus – or more likely the plane – and take our game to these places.
Scottish football might not be top drawer in terms of quality but it does do drama.
Let’s show the rest of the world because right now no one is watching or listening.
Take a Scottish version of the Community Shield or a Super Cup. Take our biggest fixture on the road.
Let’s see how Celtic v Rangers in New York or Boston would go down. The novelty factor would cause a stir but it might also be a hook. It might even get enough interest to have Scottish football back on the box out there.
Our game has come through chaos and is showing signs of heading in the right direction. Let’s take the show on the road.