Scottish inaction has come home to roost
IT has been claimed that UEFA has got into bed with Europe’s top clubs over changes to the Champions League.
But those in charge of Scottish football have only got themselves to blame for being left out in the cold.
The custodians of Europe’s elite club competition have been cosying up with the big boys for years, gradually at first, but much more enthusiastically of late.
Yet each reform along the way, each tweak that made it more difficult for the wee guys, passed with precious little criticism from Scottish football bosses.
They should have been raging. They should have been screaming from the rooftops. They should have been protecting their interests.
Instead they went with the flow, content as long as it looked like their own top dogs were still nailed-on to be involved.
Now their inaction is coming home to roost.
Now we’re in danger of being punted out of the dining room altogether.
The worrying truth of the matter is, if that’s the way UEFA want to go, all the complaining in the world isn’t going to change anything.
Celtic and Rangers have European pedigree, huge fanbases and a hell of a lot of potential.
You could even argue Aberdeen are in the same boat after their exploits under Sir Alex Ferguson in the 1980s.
But are our big clubs on the same level as Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Manchester United or Juventus? No chance. Not any more anyway. And that’s what this will come down to in the end – financial clout.
You can have all the pedigree in the world but it is worth absolutely nothing if you don’t have the cash to keep making history.
Scottish football does not, so we are effectively being pushed out of the party.
It’s something we should have started fighting against long ago, long before it was on the verge of hurting our teams so severely.
All we can do now is hope the guys in charge use Neil Doncaster’s statement as a starting point.
If they do that, and work together with Europe’s other spurned leagues, perhaps there is hope.
If not, we’re in danger of being left on the outside, looking in at our old rivals counting their money.