BEFORE we go any further - the word Celtic in the title of this blog has a hard C: Keltic, as in ethnic origin rather than Celtic as in the football club.
'Celtic Socialism' is an expression coined this last week by my old mate Kevin Ferry of the Herald, to describe the way professional rugby is organised in Ireland, Scotland and Wales - where, to a greater or lesser degree the IRU, SRU or WRU run the fully-professional sides in their countries, whereas in England, the RFU is seemingly permanently in dispute or at war with the clubs, who are all in thrall to Middle England's belief in capitalism and market forces.
This got me thinking, maybe 'Celtic Socialism' is the answer to the problems of Scottish football.
It seems clear to me, whichever of the bidders for Rangers receives 'preferred bidder' status from administrators Duff & Phelps, their modus operandi will be the same old, same old - they will, like David Murray over-spend on over-rated, over-priced mainly foreign players, hoping to do well-enough in Europe to balance the books. As has been shown, this is not the most-sustainable of business plans, but hey, what do I know. I was covering top-flight football when Murray was still watching basketball and I'm still in there when he's lang syne gone.
Anyone wishing to make money out of Rangers will wait for liquidation, buy the club name, Ibrox and Murray Park, along with a struggling English club, which they then re-locate to Glasgow and get into the English Premiership in the shortest-possible time-scale. That's the only plan which makes sense.
Otherwise, we go down the route of 'Celtic Socialism' - we have a top-flight of a limited number of full-time clubs (perhaps 16 at most), under-pinned by community clubs so that the available talent is developed locally.
Our better players have an element of centralised contracts - similar to that operating in English cricket - which ensures they are not over-played and are generally fit and available for the national side when required and we concentrate on producing Scottish players, playing a Scottish style of football.
I realise the Clan mentality in Scotland might cause problems; there will always be the ocassional loss of players to the greater riches in the south and abroad, but, if we get it right, Scotland, the nation which is most-socialist in these islands, just might emerge stronger on the international front.
We would have to have proper feeder systems, whereby say a future Billy Dodds, growing up in New Cumnock, would know somewhere along his potential path to the top, he would be going through Rugby Park, while a future Kevin Kyle say, down in Stranraer would know he would be going to the top via Stair Park and perhaps Palmerston.
While we were at it, we could abolish the internal transfer market, players would move up or down the club ladder via swap deals. We would end-up with fewer full-time players, but, those who were good enough could still make it to the greater riches of England, while, if we cut our cloth more economically than of late, the players would soon realise they had to practice more, guard their talent better and be a bit more professional.
A fairer domestic system and breeding talent, rather than buying from outwith our borders has to be the way forward. Football is, by the way it is played: the team being greater and more important than the individual, a socialist sport. Let's try Celtic Socialism.
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