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11 hours ago, kingantti1874 said:


hearts are a business like any other.. if we had an opportunity to play in a league with 10times the revenue we’d would play in it.

What about a British football league?

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9 minutes ago, JJ93 said:

What about a British football league?

 

Not sure any English team would want to be part of a bigger league set up if it impacted on their finances and league standing.

 

Any team outside the old firm just wouldn't interest many down south, so what division of this British league would we go into and in the short to medium term how would we bridge the financial gap between us and the English sides?

 

I think we'd quickly end up in about the 4th teir which would hold little interest for many especially a new generation of Hearts fans.

 

IMO it would be an utter disaster for us.

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kingantti1874
1 hour ago, JJ93 said:

What about a British football league?


I’d love it. Maybe the top teams will go play ina super league and we get invited to play in a British league.

 

there is no future playing the likes of Hamilton 

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LarrysRightFoot

As someone mentioned earlier previous talk was of Belgian and Dutch clubs being involved - if they were I am sure Celtic would be interested (from a commercial perspective). 
 

I could see it happening somewhere down the the line. Maybe 2 divisions of 16. Would possibly still allow for some kind of domestic involvement.

 

Not sure I want it but I could see it.

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32 minutes ago, LarrysRightFoot said:

As someone mentioned earlier previous talk was of Belgian and Dutch clubs being involved - if they were I am sure Celtic would be interested (from a commercial perspective). 
 

I could see it happening somewhere down the the line. Maybe 2 divisions of 16. Would possibly still allow for some kind of domestic involvement.

 

Not sure I want it but I could see it.

UEFA surely would not allow it.

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Not surprised Celtic turned their noses up. No other ‘big’ clubs involved, so not enough money. They still want to chase the English Sky money (which is a complete non-starter - there is absolutely nothing in it for the English clubs).

 

I would be more open to this sort of setup than to a British league. The fact that Scottish football has always had a distinct identity is what makes it special. Rubbish maybe, but special. Join a British league, and that identity will be swallowed up entirely - just another way in which Scotland will become a region of Greater England.

 

A collaboration with clubs from similarly sized countries wouldn’t carry that risk, so I’d want us to consider it. However, I think UEFA would be dead against it. Also, frankly, I think Celtic would never go for a setup that included Hearts. Not because of any particular animosity, but because if we’re involved it wouldn’t be big time enough to interest them.

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Can only see this happening as part of a bigger European League led by the elite clubs.

 

So you have your Super Duper European League with the likes of Barca, Bayern etc.

 

You then have Not Quite So Super Duper Regional Leagues below, like the Atlantic League, West and East Europe, Balkan Fighting League etc. This allows for promotion to the Big League and relegation to the domestic leagues (although i suspect the Super Duper League will be invite only, based on Instagram followers and shirt sales in Beijing).

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16 hours ago, Fraggle said:

A lot of these games would be easier and cheaper to get to than some think, particularly the Danish games, once the world gets back to normal. Copenhagen can be reached sometimes cheaper than a return fare to Inverness or Aberdeen, and the ground is easy enough to get to from the airport. Aarhaus for me would be almost a home match, flights over to Billund, drive over to the In-Laws, then 20min train ride upto Aarhaus (tidy wee city). Norway could be a right see you next tuesday but the local scenery would more than make up for it 😜

Aarhus is a lovely place. Enjoyed myself immensely the last time I was there.

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On 17/11/2020 at 09:09, S Form said:

A British league? Dermot Desmond is clearly delusional if he thinks that’s ever going to happen.

This.

Never happen. Why would it?

Celtic are looked down upon by the likes of the mighty Brighton and Fulham...

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I'm sure we've all dreamed of a European league alongside Midtjylland, Norrkoping, Esbjerg and ****ing hibs, such a shame it's not going ahead.

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3 minutes ago, Smithee said:

I'm sure we've all dreamed of a European league alongside Midtjylland, Norrkoping, Esbjerg and ****ing hibs, such a shame it's not going ahead.

 

Well, when it comes to ****ing h1b5, I'm all for it.   :icon14:

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17 hours ago, Rudy T said:

 

Not sure any English team would want to be part of a bigger league set up if it impacted on their finances and league standing.

 

Any team outside the old firm just wouldn't interest many down south, so what division of this British league would we go into and in the short to medium term how would we bridge the financial gap between us and the English sides?

 

I think we'd quickly end up in about the 4th teir which would hold little interest for many especially a new generation of Hearts fans.

 

IMO it would be an utter disaster for us.

 

Yeah, so much easier to simply know our place, show no ambition and wallow in self pity and mediocrity...

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King Of The Cat Cafe

Just an idle thought:  Anyone able to give an idea of how Scottish clubs have fared when drawn against English clubs over the years in Euro competitions in general?

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The Treasurer
3 hours ago, JDK2020 said:

 

Yeah, so much easier to simply know our place, show no ambition and wallow in self pity and mediocrity...

Not so much about knowing our place. More being realistic. You just need to look at the coverage Sky give to Scottish football (apart from the bigot twins) to see what interest they have in our teams 

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willie wallace

Why would any Hearts fans want to play in a league that restricts your chances of actually going to watch them.

We won't be boycotting away ground forever.

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4 hours ago, JDK2020 said:

 

Yeah, so much easier to simply know our place, show no ambition and wallow in self pity and mediocrity...

 

Hardly. If I thought it would benefit Hearts I'd be all for it, but without any explaination or plan as to how this would work I don't see where the benefits are when we're so obviously handicapped against not only the old firm but a large majority of the English teams.

 

We might be a big team in Scottish terms but to the English and most importantly the media for the cash to compete we're just a small team from outside Glasgow. 

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LarrysRightFoot
20 hours ago, benny said:

UEFA surely would not allow it.

I thought there was something recently about UEFA being open to cross border competitions? (I don’t think I’m making that up).

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LarrysRightFoot
58 minutes ago, Rudy T said:

 

Hardly. If I thought it would benefit Hearts I'd be all for it, but without any explaination or plan as to how this would work I don't see where the benefits are when we're so obviously handicapped against not only the old firm but a large majority of the English teams.

 

We might be a big team in Scottish terms but to the English and most importantly the media for the cash to compete we're just a small team from outside Glasgow. 

In the mid 00s I’m sure we were rated as the 18th biggest club in the UK with an estimated support of 400,000.

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23 hours ago, kingantti1874 said:


I’d love it. Maybe the top teams will go play ina super league and we get invited to play in a British league.

 

there is no future playing the likes of Hamilton 

Agreed and I think that a club like Hearts (and for that matter Hibs, Aberdeen and obviously the OF) would do very well.

 

Edinburgh would be one of our greatest assets. If we played in a British league we could be bought by someone with real money but allow for the FOH to control key decisions so it is win-win.

 

After all, would a billionaire rather buy the likes of Luton Town, Accrington Stanley and Wrexham or would they rather buy Hearts with its rich history and location in GB's second city?

 

As you say - playing non-entities like Hamilton will just see the world well and truly leave us behind. At the moment we can still catch up but only by changing set-up.

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14 hours ago, LarrysRightFoot said:

In the mid 00s I’m sure we were rated as the 18th biggest club in the UK with an estimated support of 400,000.

 

Problem is we have an equivalent budget of teams in the 4th tier of English football. 

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LarrysRightFoot
13 hours ago, Rudy T said:

 

Problem is we have an equivalent budget of teams in the 4th tier of English football. 

Correct and one way of addressing that is joining a British league.

 

I’m not saying I want it but people who suggest we couldn’t complete in the English forget the money that would come with joining. 

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9 hours ago, LarrysRightFoot said:

Correct and one way of addressing that is joining a British league.

 

I’m not saying I want it but people who suggest we couldn’t complete in the English forget the money that would come with joining. 

 

As long as we go in at Championship level, yes.

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 professional football has nothing to do with sport or fair competition...It's all about the money (food)chain...  Predators and prey . .. and the prey has no say on what is going to eat it... Supporters and fans are the prey and it's about bleeding them to death... Anything to keep interest and attention going

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11 hours ago, LarrysRightFoot said:

Correct and one way of addressing that is joining a British league.

 

I’m not saying I want it but people who suggest we couldn’t complete in the English forget the money that would come with joining. 

 

Which is fine in theory but who would this British league include? Would it just be a case of dropping the Scottish teams into the current set up? If so then what English teams would make way or what want the 5 big Scottish clubs in there and where would we start, at the bottom or championship or EPL?

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Wouldn't want to be part of the English Leagues as it would be fairly difficult to become any bigger when you see the likes of the Sunderlands, Middlesbroughs and Sheffield Wednesdays of this world struggling down there. Others have pointed out Celtic, they wouldn't get anywhere near English football league. Firstly they'd have to be voted in with every club down there having a say. There's no way that clubs like Fulham, QPR, Birmingham City plus those mentioned above and loads more will ever vote for them to join, same with the other arse cheek. And if they've got no chance we certainly haven't. I'd be more inclined to go towards a European league. There are plenty big clubs with a good history from years past that you rarely hear of now that may hold an interest in changing their own stance, their own profile in their own country. I'd much rather go to Tynie and watch a Hearts v Hamburg or a Hearts v Rennes match than Hamilton or Ross County. I'm sure that if there was enough interest/money in such a league, clubs would require to apply. Stadium criteria and a good business plan etc. would need to be considered.Even taking one club from whatever country Hearts from Scotland, Hamburg from Germany, one from Italy, Portugal, Norway, Sweden....wherever, you'd have enough teams to create a Euro League A and Euro League B or whatever. For me the premier league in Scotland has had it's day, peaking in the 80s. You look at some of the shite that's there, Hamilton, Livingston, Ross fekin County....they're never going to provide stiff competition for the old firm. The only ones that possibly could, given the right finances are us, Aberdeen, maybe Hibs (which is painful to write) and Dundee Utd if they could get back to the top club they once were in the 80s. The rest....St Johnstone, St Mirren etc meh!

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16 minutes ago, jambonian said:

Wouldn't want to be part of the English Leagues as it would be fairly difficult to become any bigger when you see the likes of the Sunderlands, Middlesbroughs and Sheffield Wednesdays of this world struggling down there. Others have pointed out Celtic, they wouldn't get anywhere near English football league. Firstly they'd have to be voted in with every club down there having a say. There's no way that clubs like Fulham, QPR, Birmingham City plus those mentioned above and loads more will ever vote for them to join, same with the other arse cheek. And if they've got no chance we certainly haven't. I'd be more inclined to go towards a European league. There are plenty big clubs with a good history from years past that you rarely hear of now that may hold an interest in changing their own stance, their own profile in their own country. I'd much rather go to Tynie and watch a Hearts v Hamburg or a Hearts v Rennes match than Hamilton or Ross County. I'm sure that if there was enough interest/money in such a league, clubs would require to apply. Stadium criteria and a good business plan etc. would need to be considered.Even taking one club from whatever country Hearts from Scotland, Hamburg from Germany, one from Italy, Portugal, Norway, Sweden....wherever, you'd have enough teams to create a Euro League A and Euro League B or whatever. For me the premier league in Scotland has had it's day, peaking in the 80s. You look at some of the shite that's there, Hamilton, Livingston, Ross fekin County....they're never going to provide stiff competition for the old firm. The only ones that possibly could, given the right finances are us, Aberdeen, maybe Hibs (which is painful to write) and Dundee Utd if they could get back to the top club they once were in the 80s. The rest....St Johnstone, St Mirren etc meh!

 

Imo we should forget about British and euro leagues and focus on our own leagues and how to improve it. First thing is to ditch part time clubs into an amateur set up where they can be promoted if they meet the criteria for the pro leagues. Expand the top 2 leagues and get rid of these plastic pitches etc, image is everything and we even look Mickey Mouse. Rebrand the entire league and distribute the money evenly. Perhaps with covid and threat of Atlantic leagues etc these clubs might see what a shop front they've made of it and come back with their tails between their legs and admit they were wrong and a sensible conversation can happen.

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Just now, Rudy T said:

 

Imo we should forget about British and euro leagues and focus on our own leagues and how to improve it. First thing is to ditch part time clubs into an amateur set up where they can be promoted if they meet the criteria for the pro leagues. Expand the top 2 leagues and get rid of these plastic pitches etc, image is everything and we even look Mickey Mouse. Rebrand the entire league and distribute the money evenly. Perhaps with covid and threat of Atlantic leagues etc these clubs might see what a shop front they've made of it and come back with their tails between their legs and admit they were wrong and a sensible conversation can happen.

 

I don't disagree. Wish we could go back to a more even playing field. It was great when Hearts, Dundee Utd, Aberdeen, and the old firm competed for the title and played in Europe every season or second season back in the day. That's what we made our money on and we used it to invest in players. It's 30 years since Hearts paid £750k to Rangers for Derek Ferguson. Just before that we spent the best part of a million on bringing Robertson back and signing Tosh McKinlay from Dundee. Money made up of benefactors and European football. We now scrounge about in the cheap or free market for anyone we think might do us a turn, and that's not going to up our status. There's far too many qualifiers for Europe and every year the chances of us or Aberdeen for example playing regular euro football are less and less. The Champions League, a competition i detest, hasn't helped either. If shit like Celtic don't qualify for that they get in the back door of the Europa League so that leaves us with even less chance of getting there. Money talks even more now that it ever did. Our own Premier is as tinpot as i have ever remembered it. The powers that be can't even get a sponsor for it. You're right though, that lot need cleared out and a group with vision and ambition brought in to replace them. As long as Celtic are happy and clubs like St Johnstone do as they're told and lick old firm arse then the regression continues.

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LarrysRightFoot
1 hour ago, Rudy T said:

 

Which is fine in theory but who would this British league include? Would it just be a case of dropping the Scottish teams into the current set up? If so then what English teams would make way or what want the 5 big Scottish clubs in there and where would we start, at the bottom or championship or EPL?

I don’t know how it would work I’m just saying in theory if we were in British league or budget would increase through sponsorship, TV etc. 
 

Off the top of my head (been think whilst I typed the above) a British league would potentially be say 3 British wide leagues with a pyramid of national/regional leagues below. 

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30 minutes ago, LarrysRightFoot said:

I don’t know how it would work I’m just saying in theory if we were in British league or budget would increase through sponsorship, TV etc. 
 

Off the top of my head (been think whilst I typed the above) a British league would potentially be say 3 British wide leagues with a pyramid of national/regional leagues below. 

 

I agree it would I just don't see it happening, and if it did we certainly wouldn't be getting any favours from the clubs down south.

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  • 1 month later...
On 17/11/2020 at 20:28, JJ93 said:

What about a British football league?

I would love to see this but I just can't see what would be in it for the English league, which is one of the richest and most successful leagues in the world. However the pandemic is causing huge stress in football (as well as the economy) which is accelerating change in all sorts of ways, many of which are yet to reveal themselves. Personally I have lost all faith in the people who run the game in Scotland and would love to see Hearts play on a bigger stage. 

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31 minutes ago, Libertarian said:

I would love to see this but I just can't see what would be in it for the English league, which is one of the richest and most successful leagues in the world. However the pandemic is causing huge stress in football (as well as the economy) which is accelerating change in all sorts of ways, many of which are yet to reveal themselves. Personally I have lost all faith in the people who run the game in Scotland and would love to see Hearts play on a bigger stage. 

Of course the English league aren't interested in us, why would they be?

And why would an English club vote a Scottish club in at the cost of a space to an English club?

 

Would we welcome an application from a Welsh or Northern Irish team, even if they could show how good it would be for them?

 

I dont think people get how far removed from reality the concept of us joining the English league system is, or the concept of our systems joining for that matter. 

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Offloading the OF to any league that would have them remains the best, if unlikely, solution. 

 

Participating in competitions you've a hope of winning would be so much better.

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SomethingAboutObua

Joining a British set up would see us float about the 3rd and 2nd tier, there's no way in hell any Scottish club outside the OF could compete financially with the likes of QPR, Norwich, West Brom etc, the club's that have had years of EPL appearance and relegation parachute payments. 

 

Why would anyone think floating about the 3rd tier of English football is preferable to joining a top flight domestic or cross border European league is beyond me 

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Problem I have is that I'm against any sort of 'international league' but our officials (both SFA and referees) are so ****ing bad at their jobs, that getting away from their rampant incompetence would be a relief. 

 

A tough one tbh.

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On 17/11/2020 at 12:40, B.S. said:

Such proposals must really mess with the heads of celtic and their fans.  Play in an Atlantic league which includes a genuinely Irish side ??  Which team would they follow ??

And then the prefered alternative is to be part of a British League !!  A BRITISH League ?!  So now they want to be part of Britain... ?!  Their poor wee brains must be fried with the options, all of which go against their supposed beliefs.

That always tickles me. A traditional oirish club with oirish roots and proud heritage... but doesn't want to play in Ireland. They want to play in a Scottish or, preferably, British league! Priceless. Personally, I don't care where they feck off to... as long as it's out of Scotland!

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Wee nippy would have a fit at all those Scandinaviaans coming over and getting on the cheap bevvy , she'd probably put our prices in line with theirs.

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On 17/11/2020 at 14:52, SomethingAboutObua said:

Doubt this would happen anyway but why must Celtic be involved for it to go ahead? Surely for teams like us/Aberdeen/Hibs it's still worth playing against foreign teams that get 10k plus in home fans every other week vs visiting the 2k-4k at Hamilton and St Mirren and the like? 

 

As many have said though, the OF would be far more interested in playing the big 3s of Portugal, Netherlands and Belgium than the big 1s of Norway, Denmark and Ireland. 

 

TBH I'd still love it if us Hibs and Aberdeen jumped ship to a northern league. 

 

Us 3 and maybe another or an Irish team, 5 from Denmark, 5 Sweden, 3 Norway, 1 Finland. Media market of closer to 40million than the 5 we have now.

This is actually a very good point. It's fair to say that the uglies bring in the TV monies, but without us, hubz, the sheep and even scumdee utd.... what would they be. I'd wager the TV money would drop significantly if us 'others' weren't involved.

I'm sick of SKY, or to be more precise, what SKY TV money does to our league... but it's as much about 4 or five 'others' as it is about the uglies. 

One of these days we'll say 'stick your SKY money'... and that will be the making of Scottish football. If Celtic themselves or both erse-cheeks don't want involved in anything new or radical, I wouldn't let that stop the rest of us... we REALLY don't need them anything like they (or the media) seem to think we do.

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LarrysRightFoot

Just thinking out loud - doubt it’d ever get considered but re a British League set up, could it not be say 2 national leagues I.e. a Premiership and Championship then regionalised below? 

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6 hours ago, Rogue Daddy said:

This is actually a very good point. It's fair to say that the uglies bring in the TV monies, but without us, hubz, the sheep and even scumdee utd.... what would they be. I'd wager the TV money would drop significantly if us 'others' weren't involved.

I'm sick of SKY, or to be more precise, what SKY TV money does to our league... but it's as much about 4 or five 'others' as it is about the uglies. 

One of these days we'll say 'stick your SKY money'... and that will be the making of Scottish football. If Celtic themselves or both erse-cheeks don't want involved in anything new or radical, I wouldn't let that stop the rest of us... we REALLY don't need them anything like they (or the media) seem to think we do.

Top post. Couldn't agree more.

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On 14/01/2021 at 06:35, Libertarian said:

I would love to see this but I just can't see what would be in it for the English league, which is one of the richest and most successful leagues in the world. However the pandemic is causing huge stress in football (as well as the economy) which is accelerating change in all sorts of ways, many of which are yet to reveal themselves. Personally I have lost all faith in the people who run the game in Scotland and would love to see Hearts play on a bigger stage. 

Same here. We'd benefit too from the cash injection but would be insanely hard to win the league but you never know how successful we'd be. Hearts would be a totally different ball game in such a league. It would put Edinburgh back on the football map too.

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On 17/11/2020 at 20:28, JJ93 said:

What about a British football league?

I'd be happy with a British Premier League, basically the EPL. A Scottish League runs alongside the English Championship, top side from both promotes to the BPL. 

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48 minutes ago, indianajones said:

A British league would be pretty hard to implement when Scotland becomes independent. 

Lol keep having nightmares... 

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