Old Firm facing a fight on two fronts

Dark clouds have gathered over Scottish football and through what is likely to be a winter of discontent there seems little chance of clear skies developing for the game north of the English border, writes Graham Clark

The constant bickering and in-fighting involving the Old Firm and the other top 10 clubs has left the country's national sport in disarray even before the first ball is kicked in earnest this afternoon.

An unseemly row over first a television deal and then voting rights for the Premier League's 12 clubs has overshadowed the build-up to a season that promises to be difficult enough on the pitch and little less off it.

The most significant dispute involves Rangers' and Celtic's war with Aberdeen, Hearts, Hibernian, Motherwell, Kilmarnock, Dundee, Dundee United, Dunfermline, Livingston and newly-promoted Partick Thistle.

Last season the 12 SPL clubs elected, for reasons still best known to themselves, to decide not to take up a Sky television offer close to £50 million over the next four years. That decision, now bitterly regretted, sparked the most controversial battle Scottish football has perhaps ever witnessed.

Roger Mitchell, the SPL chief executive, had the idea of a dedicated SPL TV station which seemed assured of a future until, at the last minute, the Old Firm opted out and since then the relationship between the two and the 10 has deteriorated by the day.

It culminated last week, after playground-style tantrums all round, in a television deal with the BBC and satellite station Setanta that should earn clubs around £16 million over two years but also in an even more vitriolic split over voting rights in the SPL and, on Thursday, the resignation from the league of the "Gang of Ten".

The voting rights problem centres on the Old Firm's desire to maintain the status quo of 11-1 over certain issues while the rest want an 8-4 vote to carry the day. Currently there seems little likelihood of middle ground being found over the two-year notice period the clubs must serve.

Yet compromise must be reached. These clubs have done Scottish football and themselves perhaps irreparable harm.

Celtic and Rangers believe they will not end up "playing in a league of two" as the Parkhead chief executive Ian McLeod so succinctly put it and the Glasgow clubs feel a compromise will be reached.

The 10 others, meanwhile, are incensed at regular suggestions that the Old Firm will disappear from these shores. They are fed up with playing second fiddle and in the words of the Hearts chief executive, Chris Robinson, of "the tail wagging the dog".

But the money Glasgow's big two generate is more than the other 40 SPL and Scottish Football League clubs put together can even dream about. Average attendances of 60,000 in Celtic's case and 50,000 at Ibrox are more than many of the others will attract in the course of a season. These statistics ensure the need for the 12 clubs to reach a deal.

It is against that backdrop that the players will start plying their trade today.

Yet such is the Old Firm's dominance that the only issue is the order in which Celtic and Rangers will finish in the top two. In the last two seasons, under Martin O'Neill's guidance, it has been Celtic who have emerged as champions and in both cases by the length of Sauchiehall Street.

The gap was 15 points two seasons ago and 18 last year as the Irishman imbued a new spirit in Celtic at the same time as Dick Advocaat's Ibrox powers were waning to the extent that he was replaced by Alex McLeish in time for the Scot to annex both cups.

Those League Cup and Scottish Cup triumphs, together with the signing of Kevin Muscat from Wolves and Mikel Arteta from Paris St-Germain, have convinced Rangers fans they can win the title back.

The Ibrox squad is technically more gifted than Celtic's, and if they can add consistency and fighting spirit they are capable of winning the title.

Yet it has been these latter qualities that have served Celtic so well under O'Neill and there is no sign of them diminishing. Celtic have also signed a considerable talent in David Fernandez from Livingston plus goalkeeper Magnus Hedman from Coventry and Ulrik Laursen from Hibernian.

In fact, there will be little to choose between the two teams with the rest, sadly, nowhere in sight. Such is the gap, indeed, that the Rangers captain, Lorenzo Amoruso, said: "At the very most we can drop just six points outside games against Celtic if we are to win the league."

The teams most likely to trouble the Old Firm, and only on their own grounds, are Aberdeen, Kilmarnock, Hibernian and Livingston.

The Pittodrie team has grown up together in recent seasons and players such as Derek Young, Kevin McNaughton, Darren Young and Phil McGuire have made genuine progress.

The Kilmarnock manager, Jim Jefferies, has turned to players he knows from Hearts - Stevie Fulton and Gary McSwegan - although the Rugby Park squad also has a collection of talented and enthusiastic young players.

Hibs have added no one and lost Laursen to Celtic and Ulises de la Cruz to Aston Villa to test the manager Bobby Williamson's abilities. But despite the lack of new faces Easter Road remains a difficult ground to visit.

Livingston's Almondvale, too, proved awkward for some last year although the West Lothian club could have done without the sacking of their new signing Sergio Berti for spitting on a team-mate.

It will be hard, however, for the rest, with Dundee, who have replaced Ivano Bonetti with Jim Duffy as manager, favourites for relegation.

The first division race should be led by Ian McCall's Falkirk.

Guardian Service