Scott Brown reckons that his old club is easily one of the top 10 clubs in Europe and the former Celtic captain believes that should they ever make the move to join the English Premier League then they’d have to double the size of Celtic Park to satisfy demand for season tickets.
And Broony revealed that the size of the waiting list for season tickets at Celtic Park is an 28,000. He also points to the recognition Celtic players receive around the world and doubts that this would be the same for many of the current Premier League players outside the top sides in the league.
“Celtic is a huge club. I’d say they’re easily in the top 10 biggest clubs in Europe, especially when you consider the size of the fanbase,” the former Celtic skipper argued, as reported by Football Scotland. “The only way English people would be able to understand the full extent of the size of Celtic and (the)Rangers is if they were to join the Premier League.
“Celtic have 60,000 season ticket holders and another 28,000 on standby, they could double the size of their stadium if they were playing in the English leagues. They’ve got such a strong fanbase in Scotland and obviously you have the fans coming over from Ireland as well, but they’ve also got fans all over the world.
“Wherever the players go they’re always recognised, but if you played for a mid-table Premier League team and went on holiday to Dubai, for example, you might not get noticed as much as the Celtic players.
“There is no better ground to play at on a Champions League night than Celtic Park. A lot of players go to Celtic to have the opportunity to play in the Champions League and the support in those European games is unbelievable.”
With the Premier League recently confirming a new meg-bucks broadcasting deal with Sky Sports there seems very little chance of any move to the Premier League happening anytime soon. Logically there would be no reason that the top Glasgow clubs couldn’t compete with those from London, Manchester and Birmingham given the access to a similar share of media revenues.
However Celtic and indeed theRangers are stuck in a footballing backwater where we have plastic pitches, clubs preferring empty stadiums to paying football supporters and a governing body that seems to bend over backwards to favour one club.
And whisper it, but the Scottish Premiership would be much more competitive without the two Glasgow giants. Since Alex Ferguson was Aberdeen manager, there’s been no other clubs capable of challenging to win the top league in Scotland other than Celtic and the two Rangers clubs. without Celtic and theRangers there would be tremendous competition for the title with maybe half a dozen clubs all likely winners over the first decade without the Glasgow giants.
Celtic are currently top of the Scottish Premiership and have won 11 of the last 12 Scottish Premier titles and have won five domestic trebles and one double in the past seven seasons with theRangers and St Johnstone both winning two trophies each in that period.
Alex Ferguson’s old club Aberdeen could add their name to the list this Sunday when they take on theRangers in the League Cup final at Hampden.
If Celtic has a waiting list of 28000 then the Board are not carrying out their duties in the best interests of the shareholders. By not increasing the size of the stadium they are denying the shareholders growth potential. Over the long term the increased match day revenue would provide more income, and profit, to the Club. Imagine, the Celtic board not looking after the shareholders? I know, I know!