Is Scottish Football better off poor?
By Joseph Sinke
Scottish Football is much poorer than many other leagues in Europe. But is it possible that’s a good thing?
Over in the lovely Scottish Football subreddit, there was a post talking about the state of Scottish Football. With the point essentially being that, for all the talk of there being a lack of cash in the country, he enjoys that it isn’t as Hollywood as the English league is for instance. (The post, by /u/Presli is here in full.)
The thought process here is obvious. scotland may not sport the same high-level players and international success that other leagues in Europe do, but the league is still largely set up for the actual fans. On Saturday most matches start at 3:00 pm local time, with only occasional deviations and ticket prices, generally remain affordable for even working-class supporters.
On top of that, Scottish Football is, on its own, not really that much less entertaining than other leagues. Celtic have dominated Scotland for years now, but similar things have happened in France, Germany, and Italy so Scotland is hardly the only league with a dominant club. Beyond Celtic, the league has been fairly competitive.
On the other hand, though, this is not a totally healthy way to look at the Scottish Premiership. The main complaint with how poor Scottish football is, comes from the fact that several clubs in Scotland are large enough to support much better financial success.
Rangers and Celtic are both as large as any club in the world, Aberdeen, Hibernian, and Hearts are all very well supported as well. If the SPFL could manage to market and sell the league more effectively it should be easy for Scottish Clubs to bring in more money from television rights alone.
So while there is something to be said for the quaintness of Scottish football, the problem is not that it is poor, it is that it is poorer than it has any right to be. Scottish clubs will never be on the same level as those in England or Spain, but they certainly should be on par with places like the Netherlands.