Celtic have dropped their interest in a Trans-Atlantic league according to a report in The Times.
The idea was first suggested 20 years ago with clubs from Scotland, Scandinavia, Holland, Belgium and Portugal looking to break out of small domestic leagues with only two or three regular trophy winners.
As the power of the big television-driven leagues increased the power of clubs in those countries has declined with UEFA pandering to the top four leagues with 16 guaranteed places in the Group Stage of the Champions League.
Now and then proposals for a new multi-nation set up has been raised but with approval from UEFA and individual associations required it has never got gone beyond initial stages.
Andrew Doyle, who has a stake in Shelbourne, has been behind a new set of plans but told The Times that Celtic have dropped their interest.
We received a call a few weeks ago from the principal shareholder of Celtic to say that he and Celtic were not interested in pursuing the project any further, preferring the status quo or the concept of a British isles league.
This was both a surprise and a disappointment to us given our lengthy engagement with the clubs and our success in receiving proposals for underwriting the league worth well over one billion euros. However, of course, we must respect their decision.
We remain of the view that the interests of all stakeholders in small and mid-sized European countries are best served by consolidating their markets and that resolving the competitive balance issue? can only be achieved in this way.
We know this is Uefa’s greatest concern and were very encouraged by our stakeholder engagements to date. However, having consulted with various clubs on this we have come to the decision, in light of feedback, that when we combine this news with the issues caused by the virus and by the proposed ‘Super League’ and related developments, we are best to press pause on this project until the landscape has changed. This may not happen in the short term. We will take time to consider alternative models and may engage with some of you over time on them
In his most recent media interview Desmond told The Athletic that he believes that the current Celtic squad is superior to the 2003 side under Martin O’Neill that reached the UEFA Cup Final.
