Reid's Old Firm view criticised

The Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid was yesterday criticised after saying that Celtic and Rangers should leave the Scottish Premier League.

In a BBC interview, broadcast in Scotland and Ireland, he said: "When you think of all those in America, Australia and indeed throughout Europe who would be interested in tuning into Celtic and Rangers because of their background, and the number of Ulster Protestants and Irish Catholics who have gone abroad, you would have a new dimension that would really bring them into the big time and enable them to have teams capable of taking on and beating the best in Europe.

"However, the one thing that strikes them, unfortunately, is that no-one will sign up for them in a marketing sense if they are playing largely unknown Scottish teams every other week.

"I think that whether it's through the (English) Premier League or some other European dimension there's a requirement to get Celtic and Rangers on the big stage."

The Scottish National Party's minister for arts, culture and sport, Michael Russell, said: "His remarks emphasising the sectarian basis of Old Firm support - at a time when the clubs themselves are working hard to overcome this problem - are extremely foolish."