If it ain’t broke Phil…don’t try and fix it!

April 27, 2009

Bolton chairman Phil Gartside has re-opened the can of worms regarding the future of the Premier League and again called for the Old Firm giants of Celtic and Rangers to be introduced into the English game.

A two-tier Premier League with Scotland’s finest thrown in for good measure and no more relegations from the PL 2 into the lower leagues! Come on Phil have a word with yourself!

The only half decent suggestion was to bring in a salary cap to try and reduce the gulf between the ‘big four’ and the rest of the existing teams who battle it out in the Premier League season after season but have very little chance of winning the thing!

True, people could argue that the Welsh sides Cardiff, Swansea and Wrexham have been allowed to prosper in the English leagues. However the fact they had been granted permission to shift into England has not done football in the Principality much good over the years so why inflict the same on Scotland?

Rangers and Celtic attract the majority of the revenue into Scottish football and for them to jump ship could reduce the SPL and the lower leagues north of the border into a wilderness of debt-ridden semi-professional clubs with very little clout on the European front. A little bit like the League of Wales when you come to think of it!

Then there are the clubs which occupy the lower reaches of the Championship, League One and League Two plus the Conference! How will they feel about the prospect of being told they will never be allowed to progress into the new Premier Leagues? It’s my football prediction that they would not take such a decision lightly!

The whole point of clubs in these lower divisions is to aspire to become a Premier League club – look at Hull, Wigan and Stoke in recent years – none of those clubs would be where they are now without the ability to move through the divisions!

The Premier League relegation battles have also provided the main source of entertainment in past seasons and this one is no different as the mighty Newcastle are in danger of dropping into the Championship! Removing the prospect of relegation would take all of that tension and drama out of the game and utterly ruin it!

So the message to Mr Gartside is: stop trying to meddle with our football!

We have the best league system in the world so as they saying goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t try and fix it!

Written by Craig Smithson, a professional sports writer who blogs about football betting!