Celtic and their business partners at Ibrox are in talks about joining next season’s Lowland League on a one-off basis.
For years various plans have been suggested before being booted out by club’s protective of their status and suspicious of the motives and benefits of inviting in the Glasgow clubs.
Recently a five year plan was suggested to pay League One and League Two clubs £600,000 a season to allow Colts teams into the SPFL but with promotion to the Championship ruled out.
That sort of money would be welcomed almost anywhere in Scottish football but a one year deal to play against Caledonian Braves and Dalbeattie Star looks of limited benefit unless it was to put down a marker for a rapid move up the ladder.
George Fraser, chairman of the Lowland League stated:
It is clear from the discussions we have had that both Celtic and Rangers are looking for a league to put their ‘B’ teams into where they can develop as players.
Having been on the PGB sub group tasked with further developing the well-publicised ‘Scottish Football Innovation’ paper, a project which is still on-going and may well be implemented for season 22/23, it was absolutely clear to me that there is a major gap in the player pathway which would, if not addressed, impact a generation of our best young talent.
That is why the Lowland League, as a modern progressive organisation, have identified an opportunity, and are open to embracing positive change which will have massive benefit for our own clubs and league but importantly also for the wider Scottish game.
Over the last few years the Lowland League has proved to be a well-run professional league and both these clubs feel their teams and players will develop by being part of it, while importantly for us we will be able to generate new revenues and shine a spotlight on the aspirational and ambitious clubs we have within our ranks.
As always league integrity and the importance of the pyramid will be paramount and this will be unaffected by this plan and this was also a priority for both Rangers and Celtic who fully respect this.
Celtic would likely be fielding an u-19 or u-20 side in the Lowland League, players like Luca Connell, Ewan Henderson and Kerr McInroy would get little benefit playing against part-time teams that mainly play on artificial pitches.
