Celtic manager Tony Mowbray has expressed
interest in seeing the Old Firm join the Barclays Premier League but
fails to see how an Atlantic League could work in practice.
Both issues have dominated the headlines recently, with Celtic
and Rangers reiterating their desire to play in England's top flight or
move south of the border as part of a restructured system.
Rangers have welcomed the prospect of an Atlantic League, which
has received the backing of Feyenoord, PSV Eindhoven, Anderlecht,
Brondby and AIK Stockholm following reports Dutch football association
president Michael van Praag plans to lobby UEFA on the issue.
However, Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell last week branded
the concept "Frankenstein" and Mowbray admits he also has concerns.
"If there is a European league, what happens to the Europa League and what happens to the Champions League?" he said.
"Are they getting revamped? Are they disappearing? Are they running alongside it?
"Could you have a European league and be playing in the Europa League or the Champions League as well? Probably not.
"There is a lot of talking to be done and we will wait and see.
"Our football club should sit and listen to what the bureaucrats
come up with, the people who are going to make these decisions, the
people at UEFA and others who might be canvassing down south and
abroad, and see what develops."
A switch to the English top flight is clearly a more attractive
option for Mowbray, who believes Celtic would quickly be competing at
the top end of the league.
He said: "I've just come from the English Premier League and it's a very tough league, it's a very high-quality league.
"Still, within that league there are different types of teams
there, there are very attritional teams who base themselves upon not
getting beaten.
"There are also teams who are very expansive with very technical players who can hurt the opposition at any given moment.
"Where would we fit in? I'd like to think, at this moment, we would fit in somewhere in the middle of it all.
"But you would hope that very, very quickly, because of the
resources this club could generate, we would find ourselves competing
at the top end of it, rather than the bottom end.
"If we were to put ourselves in the Premier League tomorrow, I think we would compete.
"With the resources and the matchday revenue and the worldwide
revenue that this club could generate alongside the riches of the
English Premier League and the money from the television, I would like
to think we could have some of the world's best players because you
would be competing in there with the best teams.
"That's why I would say we would be at the top end of that table within a short period of time rather than at the bottom end."
Asked whether he was aware of any appetite to see Celtic and
Rangers in England when he was manager of West Brom, Mowbray replied:
"Everybody is very interested in the Old Firm.
"Everybody in football watches those games, so there is still a huge interest.
"I would imagine if you are a bottom of the Premier League team, you wouldn't be jumping out of your seat to bring us down.
"Someone would have to leave the marketplace and it's every club for themselves basically.
"Some would say there would be greater competition and greater
revenue streams and bigger matchday events and some would say it would
be a real threat to their existence. I personally see it as
competition."
Rangers chief executive Martin Bain said: "We have to explore
any opportunity that comes our way in the same way that clubs have
asked for an opportunity to explore an SPL 1 and an SPL 2.
"But we've got huge respect for the SPL and huge respect for the Scottish clubs that we play week in, week out.
"All we are saying as a football club is that if anything comes
our way, whether it's in Scotland or beyond, we have to look at it and
we have a responsibility to do so."
Subject: Tony Mowbray Waits on Atlantic League Proposal. 
Thu Oct 15, 2009 2:02 pm
