Former Scotland boss wants Celtic to donate £50m pa to Scottish football!

Craig Levein wants Celtic to join the EPL and donate £50m a year to Scottish football.

The former Scotland manager is becoming increasingly eccentric in is views after finally being dumped from his role as Director of Football at Hearts. Since then the Tynecastle club have hardly looked back with success on the park and in the balance sheet.

With 26 wins and one draw from 28 SPFL matches Celtic could be on course for a record breaking season but it seems that that level of performance is causing some distress.

Just two seasons ago Celtic won 22 of their 38 matches. A new manager was appointed, the transfer focus switched with the results clear to see.

It is unrealistic for Hearts or Aberdeen to think about signing players like Cameron Carter-Vickers but there are teams from Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Cyprus and Bulgaria still involved in the UEFA Conference while Hearts, Dundee United and Motherwell look in from the outside.

Explaining his masterplan in the Daily Record, Levein reveals:

Since David Murray took over at Rangers in the late 80s and Celtic kept pace with them then things have been so difficult for the other teams to be as competitive. Even before that, in the early 80s, when clubs decided that the home team would keep the gate money – that was when there was a significant advantage for the bigger clubs. And, to be clear here, you can’t argue with that decision because it’s their supporters and their money.

Joe Savage wants to split the Old Firm and that’s great. It’s a good ambition to have. But having that and making it happen are two completely different things.

My views are very straight forward – when the next financial crisis happens in the Premier League in England and they are looking for something different then I would absolutely drive the Old Firm down there myself.

I would love the two of them to play in England and represent Scotland, get the money that’s associated with that which would allow them to grow and be competitive in that league.

And at the same time if they both gave the teams in Scotland £50m a year, so a combined £100m, for allowing them to move down there then that would allow the Scottish game to grow immeasurably.

It’s a bit of a pipe dream maybe. But I can’t see any other way of Scottish football being as competitive as everyone wants it to be.

If the Old Firm were playing in England and paying for the privilege – and they wouldn’t miss £50m each – then all the other teams up here could raise their levels significantly.

Then you have a level in Scotland where you could have seven or eight clubs challenging for the title. Scottish football would thrive.

Levein currently has a consultancy role at Brechin City and is a regular expert on Radio Scotland.