Scottish football icon Graeme Souness is convinced Celtic and Rangers would become English Premier League big-hitters if they built a shared super stadium in Glasgow.
The 69-year-old has been left miffed by the pair's results in the Champions League this season and now the former Ibrox boss has floated radical stadia reforms to compete with the world's best. Both Celtic Park and Ibrox are world-renowned for their atmosphere, however, he believes meagre TV revenue on offer north of the border compared to the mammoth sums in the EPL means a collaboration should not be dismissed. Souness thinks if Celtic and Rangers came together to create a 100,000 arena then it would set them up for success if long-mooted murmurings of a move down south turned into a reality.
Speaking in his Daily Mail column, he said: 'It has been a dire Champions League campaign for the two Glasgow clubs, who so far have mustered just four goals and two points between them from ten games. It is a disappointment for Scottish football but people ask me why they are uncompetitive.
"Well, I live in Bournemouth where the club has an 11,000-seater stadium but play in the Premier League on the back of annual TV income upwards of £90million. Celtic and Rangers are huge clubs with massive fanbases and capacities in excess of 50,000 but their TV money is about £2m or £3m a year. So there is your answer.If they agreed to build a 100,000-capacity stadium to share and joined the Premier League they would soon be top-half clubs. I would have them down here in a heartbeat. The rest of Scottish football would not collapse. It would simply have to find its own level."
Celtic and Rangers have long been linked with a move south and a report on Thursday claimed the Glasgow pair are being eyed for a spot in the revised European Super League. But that tournament remains in the planning stage until a court date in December as the ESL seek the green light to become a bonafide contender to the Champions League.
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