Mr D. Cormack
Chairman
Aberdeen Football Club
9 April 2021
Dear Mr Cormack,
I wrote to you, copied to the Chairs of all Scottish Premiership Clubs, on 27 May 2020.
I received not one word of response.
The saddest aspect is that I expected exactly that outcome.
I have been rather busy in the interim, but from March 2021 and for the next several months, I am swinging into action to help bring about the required radical changes in Scottish football.
Every day I will be posting on a website I have established – scottishfootballmatters.org – promoting change. Posts will also appear on social media. There may also be a press campaign.
There is a window of opportunity for change, right now.
There needs to be a focus on creating an environment in which real challengers to Celtic and Rangers can emerge. The three most popular “pretend” challengers – Aberdeen, Hearts and Hibs – have failed to win the top league for an aggregate 166 years.
Scottish football has to move from pretend to reality.
Rangers have restored the 36 year duopoly but have yet to set-off on their next “in-a-row” mission. Celtic are in change mode.
The remaining Scottish clubs, led by the other ten participants in the Premiership, can force through real changes.
The options must be made clear to Celtic and Rangers: agree to radical changes – or leave the Premiership.
I am not going to go over all of the ground covered in the Scottish Football Matters website but here are some crucial changes that could be made:
- Revenue sharing of gate receipts, including season ticket revenue, must be changed. One strong suggestion: Celtic and Rangers be required to contribute annually 40% of their home league gate receipts – or £10 Million, whichever is lower – to a fund to be shared by the other 10 Premiership clubs.
- Revenue sharing of European tournament prize money. One strong suggestion: Celtic and Rangers be required to contribute annually 40% of their European tournament prize money – or £10 Million, whichever is lower – to a fund to be shared by the other 10 Premiership clubs.
- Introduce a handicap system to the Premiership, to ensure successive wins become increasingly difficult.
- Increase the number of clubs in the Premiership and revert to a format where those clubs only play each other twice each season. Losing a maximum of 12 points to Celtic and Rangers would not be an insurmountable obstacle to potential challengers.
- Introduce a Rugby League style Super Premiership Champions knock-out tournament. The winners would qualify for the Champions League or another European tournament.
- Introduce a five year ban on the transfer of players from other Premiership clubs to Celtic and Rangers. Currently, the two Glasgow clubs effectively have their pick of Scottish players for “peanuts”. This must stop.
The £40 million funding – £4 million per Premiership club (excluding Celtic and Rangers) – provided by the first two steps detailed above is at least double the gate receipts (including season ticket revenue) of six of the clubs currently in the top league. This injection of resources will transform their finances.
Radical changes – but that is exactly the type of change required to knock the duopoly off its perch.
The Golden Era of Scottish football was between 1950 and 1965, a period during which no fewer than 7 clubs won the top league.
Can the Golden Era be restored?
Who knows?
BUT it is a fact that in Norway, a country with the same population as Scotland, there have been 10 different league champions since 1985.
10 in Norway. 2 in Scotland.
Time for Change and YOU need to lead the way.
Yours sincerely
Ron Delnevo
Coordinator Scottish Football Matters
cc Ian Bankier; Mark Ogren; Allan Maitland; Ronald Gordon; Billy Bowie; Robert Wilson; John Boyle; Douglas Park; Roy MacGregor; Steve Brown; Gordon Scott.
Scottish Football Matters 