Soccer

Scottish FA CEO calls for introduction of cross-border league

Clubs from smaller countries being left behind by current European competitions

Scottish FA chief executive Stewart Regan. Photograph: PA.
Scottish FA chief executive Stewart Regan. Photograph: PA.
Ewan Murray
Thu Oct 27 2016 - 23:00

Scottish clubs need to play in a cross-border league to avoid “being left behind”, according to the chief executive of the country’s Football Association.

A Champions League place for the winners is among the ideas being considered.

Stewart Regan believes such a concept would have football and financial benefits to clubs in countries such as Scotland and he is part of a Uefa working group investigating how cross-border competition can form part of the strategy at European football's governing body.

Identical situation

Regan’s vision is that Scottish clubs who drop out of Europe before Christmas could enter a cross-border league involving teams in an identical situation in other countries.

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One potential and serious option would see groups of six countries, such as those in northern Europe or the Balkans, combine to play in tandem with respective domestic leagues.

“There is a recognition that we have to change,” said Regan. “There is a saying: ‘If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always got.’

“We are in danger at the moment of keeping perpetuating the Champions League brand as the answer to everything. It has been a fantastic journey and a fantastic success but there are signs now emerging that it is peaking.

“In any other brand, at the point of large peaks you do something else.

“I think people will get bored with Champions League predictability, particularly in markets where your own country isn’t represented for long spells in the season.

“How do we keep the dream alive in Europe? For me, that is cross-border. It is giving clubs the chance to play against other big teams for a big prize. That prize might be entry back into the Champions League.

“ If you look at the TV audiences at the moment in the markets where teams are out, the Champions League audiences are in decline.

“What we are saying is: ‘How do we address that?’ because if we do nothing, the big countries will get bigger and bigger while the small countries will never be able to compete in Europe.” Guardian Service