Would Celtic get invite to Qatar Dream Football League?
It’s believed that advanced plans are already in place with 16 clubs being permanent members of the competition with the remaining eight being involved by invitation.
With it’s history and worldwide support Celtic would clearly be one of those clubs under consideration to take part.
A report in The Times today claims that participating clubs would receive £175m to take part with plans in place to create permanent bases for those clubs including stadiums, training complexes with offices and medical facilities.
The Qatar royal family have moved into football in a serious manner over the last few seasons and were controversially awarded the 2022 World Cup.
Hosting a Dream Football League every two years would be a clear threat to the Champions League and also the World Club Championship which FIFA have been trying to develop.
Plans for the competition will be unveiled next month but it’s likely that the tournament would be jointly staged in neighbouring gulf states including Dubai which is a long established footballing centre.
It’s likely that the balance of clubs taking part will be heavily weighed in favour of European clubs with Barcelona, Real Madrid and Manchester United having well established worldwide followings.
Celtic are likely to be among those clubs under consideration with the clubs profile sky high after the recent Champions League campaign.
For over a decade Celtic’s youth sides have been regular visitors to Qatar for youth tournaments where the players have met Diego Maradona and Pele.
There are bound to be lots of objections to such a tournament but as the Champions League proves money talks with the importance of that tournament relegating domestic cup competitions to an after thought for many teams.
UEFA and FIFA could ban clubs from taking part but are more likely to look for a slice of the action in order to give the tournament it’s backing- with the 2022 World Cup committed to Qatar their negotiating position is greatly weakened.
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