RESET AND ENGAGE
Pittodrie chairman Cormack believes massive changes are coming in Europe and that’s why Aberdeen and others have to ...
TROUBLEMAKER. And proud of it? On balance, yes, Dave Cormack can live with being branded an agitator. Maybe even an agent of chaos.
The guy has opinions by the bushel, a surfeit of ideas, many running against the grain of Scottish football. And a vision of the future that will terrify as many as it might inspire.
European super leagues pitting clubs of similar spending power against each other. Colt teams.
Something — anything — to shake ‘bored’ supporters out of their torpor.
Speaking to the Are You Not Entertained podcast, hosted by former SPL chief executive Roger Mitchell, the Aberdeen chairman said: ‘If I look ten years out, here’s the vision we’ve got. There will be cross-border European leagues. I believe that will take place.
‘And why is that? Well, most European leagues — including here in Scotland — are dominated by one or two teams. So what this proves to me, anyway, is a monolithic, domestic league proves one size does not fit all.
‘Listen, the game is going to survive in Scotland. But what shape or form is it going to be in, in ten years’ time? The reality is the fans are bored. And I think we ignore them at our peril.
‘The investment I’ve made in the club is to try to put a smile on people’s faces in Aberdeen. It’s been very, very difficult over the past months, looking at how we govern our game.
‘I say what I want to say — and I’ll say it to their face. I won’t go behind their back. So here’s how I see it. Cross-border leagues.
‘The analogy I give is boxing. Why would you, for a world championship fight where you want to make £100million, put a lightweight in with a heavyweight?
‘Maybe once every hundred years, the lightweight is going to win. So what is a fair fight? This is what I think will even itself out.
‘The days of Dundee United beating Barcelona and Aberdeen beating Real Madrid are gone. That doesn’t mean to say there’s not an appetite for football.
‘What would be fair would be to bracket clubs across Europe, for example, into fair fights. That might be what you spend on your first-team budget, audited.
‘So let’s have a Champions League for teams who spend 20 million Euros or less, 40 million or less. If we don’t discuss these things, we’ll never go anywhere.
‘The same thing is true of Scottish football. We’ve got 42 professional teams. If you take Celtic and Rangers out of there, who produce half the attendance, you’ve got 40 teams with about 100,000 fans.
‘Or, put a different way, two-anda-half million of a population for 40 teams. Now, I live in Atlanta.
‘There are 20 per cent more people than in all of Scotland — and one team. The other thing I see, if we have cross-border leagues, are colt teams.
‘Absolutely, Celtic and Rangers. And I have no problem with it.’
The realpolitik of Scottish football has previously dictated that Aberdeen chairmen should declare their intention to compete with the Old Firm.
Cormack sees no point in holding that line, preferring to push the idea of Aberdeen, Hearts, Hibs and others finding their own path into rejigged European competitions. ‘Particularly with Celtic, with what they’ve been through with winning the league for the last nine years, they have aspirations to grow,’ he said.
‘And that growth will be in Europe. It won’t be in Scotland. And there is nothing wrong with having aspirations.
‘We at Aberdeen have aspirations in wanting to be part of that.
‘It might not be a Champions League 2. It might be a Europa League where there is a league of like-minded teams from like-minded countries.
‘I talked to the chairman of Midtjylland the other week. So we have to be open about what we feel, but, if there are colt teams, Celtic and Rangers come into play. Where does that lead us as a country?
‘At the end of the day, what would the broadcasting revenue be if Celtic and Rangers were playing their colt teams? So, at a high level, I certainly see this as being an important thing for us to get on the front foot of.
‘For example, Aberdeen, Hearts, Hibs, Motherwell, Dundee United. Rather than wait for the crumbs to fall off the table of Barcelona and Man United, why, within the ECA (European Club Association), don’t we actually build up an association of what I would call community clubs across Europe and say: “This is what we want to see out of this”?’
Aware that not everything that works in Atlanta will translate exactly to the Granite City, Cormack still puts forward ideas such as Saturday-night kick-offs and the ability to have a pint.
Yet, explaining just how poor Scottish clubs are at selling themselves to investors, he pointed out: ‘These guys are particular. People turn up to a rusty stadium in the middle of December, a cold pie. We have to be better than that. Summer football? I haven’t mentioned that at meetings because you kind of get beaten down when you talk about it.
‘We all hate going through this Covid environment, but this is the best opportunity we’ve had since Aberdeen was founded in 1903, I believe, to do a reset and really engage the community.
‘I grew up in a slum. No running water. All the toilets outside. For me and my wife, it’s about giving something back to the city.
‘We’ll focus on Aberdeen. Let everyone else knock themselves out, which seems to be the way it wants to go.
‘I’ll maybe then be less likely to be labelled as a troublemaker for saying my piece.
‘And we’ll get on with other clubs in Europe, maybe some in Scotland, and try to fight for a place of relevance when cross-border leagues come into play.’