No Clout in Scotland

Submitted by BillyIdle on Thu, 11/12/2009 at 7:19am.

The Premier League have ditched the idea of inviting Celtic and Rangers into their setup now or at any time in the future.

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The Old Firm clubs will not be allowed to join the Premier League

• Gartside: Football must change
• Rangers reveal soaring debt

ESPN Soccernet can reveal that the clubs were presented with the Phil Gartside paper and the Bolton chairman asked them to go away and think about it for a discussion at a later date. The Premier League are conducting their own 'Strategic Review' and the Gartside idea of a two-tier league of 18 clubs each will form part of that all-embracing review.

When Gartside handed out his paper to the club chairmen and chief executives, they took the view that they would like to vote on the issue of inviting Celtic and Rangers into the fold straight away.

It gained little support and was voted out, and will form no part of the Premier League's further debates about the future of the league. The two-tier system, though, will be given an airing at a future Premier League meeting, along with a number of other possible changes.

The Premier League said in a statement: "Bolton Wanderers submitted a discussion paper detailing ideas concerning the restructuring of the Premier League into two tiers with the inclusion of Celtic and Rangers.

"The clubs welcomed the additional input into an ongoing process. However, they were of the opinion that bringing Celtic and Rangers into any form of Premier League set-up was not desirable or viable.

"The other relevant ideas contained within Bolton's paper will now be taken forward as part of the wider strategic review being undertaken by the Premier League since November 2008 with the aim of providing recommendations before December 2010.''

ESPN Soccernet broke the story this week that there is a strong feeling that the TV wealth needs to be redistributed and more financial protection provided to relegated clubs.

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