UEFA won’t KO Atlantic League bid
UEFA chief Aleksander Ceferin has given the green light for Scottish football to join regional leagues if they can work in alignment with European competitions.
Irish investment guru Andrew Doyle drew up plans for a new Atlantic League, which would have seen Celtic, Rangers, Aberdeen, Hibs and Hearts join a 20- team league against sides from Sweden, Denmark, Norway and the Republic of Ireland.
The league would have been backed by investment bank JP Morgan with a projected income of up to £350million.
Celtic chief Dermot Desmond insisted he wasn’t interested but he was urged to reconsider by Aberdeen chairman Dave Cormack, who believes there will be cross-border leagues in the near future.
Clubs in Belgium and the Netherlands have drawn up plans for a new BeNe League, which they claim would raise up to £400m in TV revenue alone.
Ceferin said: “At UEFA, we are thinking about regional leagues and we have been talking to the leaders of national federations about that.
“More countries are interested in the possibility of a regional league because that would increase the value of clubs, as well as income from sponsors and the sale of TV rights.
“UEFA, in principle, has nothing against regional leagues. The main problem is how to go from those leagues to European competitions. UEFA would have to solve that problem.
“We do not want to create some regional leagues that would destroy national championships.
“So regional leagues are a serious undertaking and nothing concrete has been decided yet but it is being considered.”