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Possible Celtic rescue package for smaller Scottish clubs a hot topic

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Lets all do the huddle is one of my favourite pages on Facebook, whereby the admin writes long posts that themselves are like blog posts, they are often entertaining and provoking, yesterday’s whilst not something I entirely agree with has merit, the idea of Celtic financially helping clubs down the ladder in this time of crisis.

Now the admin has suggested we put 10 million pounds toward the rescue package which would help all the clubs in the pyramid, you can go directly to the post via the link in the introduction paragraph.

But I would suggest something different, teams in the Premiership and the Championship are vying to beat us, we have no place in helping our opponents, especially as at least one of Them has called for the entire season to be made null and void… no idea which club that would be.

But with the League 1 and 2 teams this is a different matter.

These teams have no real chance of progressing to the Premiership, they might spring a cup upset here or there but let’s be fair, these are feeder clubs that have encountered a potential catastrophe.

Handing money out isn’t an option, loaning money is problematic with repayments, what these clubs need is a grant.

Now in these troubled times, Celtic handing out money for fun is not going to go down well, but as an investment, it could well bare fruit, if there was a decent dividend there to be made.

My suggestion would be this, approach all 20 clubs in Leagues 1 and 2 and ask them if they would agree to 2 things, first a merger between the 2 leagues to make a 20 team National League.

Secondly, Celtic TV pay rights of 2 million pounds a year for 5 years for the rights of all games played in the competition, that would mean a 10 million pound investment, with that ongoing cash coming in clubs would be able to secure finance from banks or with a steady business model pay their own way.

That would be 100,000 quid a year per team, with a 5-year contract obviously meaning that 500k would be earned by all recipients that maintained their league status.

The pay off for Celtic, 10 games a week for Celtic TV, there could literally be 1 game per night at 19:30 Monday to Friday and 2 games on a Saturday and 3 on a Sunday, depending on when Celtic played, the idea being a game before and after on the day we played and 3 on the day we didn’t.

When we had a game in Europe we could play the National League game before or after depending on our timezone, this would put so much Football on our platform and be great for fans with nothing to do of a weeknight and also add plenty of profile to the smaller teams and towns across Scotland.

This would bring in non-traditional subscribers to Celtic TV and give us an opportunity to earn the money back.

Also it would give Celtic the opportunity to have more Scottish Football content than any other broadcaster and would improve the standard of Scottish Football to no end.

Sure Celtic would also need to invest in more cameras and the like but that would mean shipping the current gear out on the road and updating equipment for Celtic Park, again a win for current Celtic TV subscribers.

The original post i spoke of said that such a loan would bring with it a great deal of goodwill, imagine if we sponsored the lower leagues, if we merged them together for a 38 game home and away format instead of the 36 games played 4 times over.

It would be far more entertaining, investors would pop up knowing they merely needed to be promoted once and they were within a year of the Premiership.

As for Celtic, should any stupid votes be taken on nulling and voiding etc, we put it to a vote of the entire SPFL and of the 42 clubs 21 would be onside.

I think the post from Lets do the huddle was a great conversation starter and i encourage you to like their page, I don’t agree with all of their ideas but they make some very strong points, here is how I would tweak them.

By all means, comment on this post here on Indycelts Facebook page and like our page to stay in touch with future articles.

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