Do Celtic have to go to Australia in pre-season?
For me, the negative points outweigh the positive points. In fact, apart from the club making more money, I can’t think of any positive points.
Using our up coming tour of Australia as an example, is there really any point in us going all the way over to Australia? Surely, we could play against some other team of similar ability?
There are enough lower league teams in Scotland that we could play against or we could go and play teams in England, Wales or Ireland so why do we choose to send the players on about a 20 odd hour journey to Australia?
Europe is a big enough continent & I am sure there are several teams who would like to have Celtic play against them in a pre season match or even in some sort of ‘glamour’ friendly.
From a fans point of view, how many of us can actually afford to travel to Australia to see any new signings in action? I certainly can’t and I am sure the majority can’t either.
However, if we were playing in Europe or the UK, we would be able to travel and see some of our new players and how the team is shaping up for the new season.
Are the club just putting money over fans? I think they are and it seems to be the case that this is happening more and more often?
Is the only benefit of going to Australia cash? If it is, then surely, the people who look after marketing at Celtic should be told to come up with alternative ways to market our club in Australia.
I am aware that without cash, the club can’t function but maybe it’s time for folk within the club who will be earning a lot of money to come up with other ideas.
‘Soccer’ as it’s known in Australia, really isn’t a big thing. They are bigger fans of ‘Aussie rules’ and cricket than what they are football fans so who exactly will be coming out to watch Celtic play and who will be paying to watch us on TV?
I remember Gordon Strachan saying, after playing some pre season games in the USA, that it was not of much benefit to the squad so why do we persist with it ?
Is our great club in such a financial mess that we have to travel the world to earn some cash? Not if you listen to the officials from the club who are often telling us about debt being at a manageable level.
An argument in favour of long distance pre season tours is that it will open us up to a larger fan base but is pre season the correct time to do that? Regardless of the answer to that question, how much money can we really make by selling some strips abroad?
And will it make us more money than the overall cost of the trip? Will any of the newly found fans be likely to travel from Australia to Parkhead on a regular basis or to watch us play away from home?
On one of my previous posts, I made the point that I would prefer Celtic players not to play international football because of the amount of travelling that is involved, the same applies for the current squad and long distance pre season tours.
Now forgive me if I am wrong but the point of pre season is to get the players into a mental/physical state to challenge for a league title, a League cup and a Scottish cup along with trying to qualify for European competition.
Although some might disagree, for me, it really is time for the brains behind Celtic to come up with new ideas for our pre season.
CLICK HERE for Steven’s travel blog (not including Australia!)
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