The Scottish Football Segment

It's nearly that time again. The Europa League qualifiers start as early as the end of this month for Rangers and St. Johnstone. Celtic and Aberdeen will start their campaigns on the 11/12 and 13th of July respectively . So who could they face? Can St Johnstone,Aberdeen or Rangers get a much welcomed Europa League cash boost - and how much would they earn? Can Celtic stretch the financial disparity even further and make it into the Champions League again? Firstly, I'll focus on the Champions League and Celtic - The Champions League group stage beckons. Celtic will be seeded all they way through the qualification process and should make it that bit easier. 2nd Round Champions Route 5 winners from round 1 will join Celtic. Since the draw is regionalised, Celtic can only play teams from Northern Europe in rd. 2 - Assuming the seeded teams go through, Round 2 will look a little like this The teams underlined above would be my best guess Celtics Likely ...

So it begins. Dust off your 'going for 55' banners ready for the 2017/18 season Season ticket sales must have taken a battering after celtic romped to a domestic clean sweep. At least that would explain the hot air from new Rangers signing Bruno Alves.  He won't settle for 2nd best with the Ibrox club. Probably just as well, Bruno. You've just joined the 3rd best club in the country. Bruno Alves stoking the fire It's hard to imagine even the most dyed in the wool Rangers fan believing any of this, especially after all the banging of the drum and the propaganda from last season. In an interview, Alves states he wants to be a champion again. Since his Cagliari deal was cut short for a nominal fee, will the euro 2016 winner really be playing with rangers into his 50s so he can lift the Premiership title. That's how far they are behind Celtic.  Alves will improve the rangers back line. But not by much. Cagliari shipped 76 goals last season. Wh...

For a long time now, the English Premier league has been bankrolled by Bskyb's billions, and the influx of money seems to have no bounds.  Just recently, almost sickening figures have been released. Chelsea, the Premier League champions, received £152.8m. Even Sunderland, who finished dead last, were in receipt of £99.9m. So how is it concievable that the miniscule TV dealings of what has become a footballing backwater could greatly effect the richest league in the world? Well... actually, it's very possible. BSkyB posted profits of a little over £1bn. There are approximately 1 million scottish Sky subscribers. and 500000 with sky sports. Let's assume each of them are forking out £40 a month on their sky packages.  Now let's assume that BT have bought the entire SPFL package. Leaving only half of the 500000 with any sort of vested interest in English football. 250,000 Scottish football fans change provider. That's £10m a month. £120m a year. A shade und...