WITH the row over the disrespect shown to those who lie on foreign fields by a small section of the Celtic support showing no sign of abating earlier this week, it was something of a relief when attention briefly turned to those who play on them.
The disruption to the minute’s silence at Rugby Park on Remembrance Sunday was the furthest thing from the mind of Dundee managing director John Nelms as he provided the media with an update on plans to build a new stadium at Camperdown Park.
Nelms was, though, quite happy to stray off message momentarily and offer an opinion on the possibility of the Dens Park club taking part in a William Hill Premiership match against one of their Scottish rivals overseas at some point in the future.
“Is it something we’d look at again?” he said. “Yes, we're open to all of these things. We're in the entertainment business so anything we can do to entertain, we'd certainly do. We have a little bit more of an understanding of how it works now and we'd certainly be up for something like that.”
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Officials at the Tayside outfit, who are owned by Texas-based businessman Tim Keyes, held talks with their Celtic counterparts about staging a Premiership game in the United States back in 2015. Those discussions reached an advanced stage. Boston and Philadelphia were even earmarked as potential venues.
The intriguing proposition was scuppered when FIFA – who have always stipulated that league fixtures must take place within the territory of the clubs’ member association - the MLS and UEFA all expressed their reservations.
But has the hardline stance taken by football’s governing bodies softened in the nine years since? That very much appears to be the case. UEFA president Alexander Ceferin has intimated he would like to put on the Champions League final in America one day.
And Barcelona and Atletico Madrid are currently hopeful they will receive the go-ahead from the relevant authorities to play their scheduled La Liga encounter on December 22 at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. The reason? Filthy lucre, obviously.
Yet, La Liga are very much in favour too. They were frustrated when their attempts to play Girona v Barcelona and Villarreal v Atletico Madrid abroad were thwarted back in 2019 when the dreaded Luis Rubiales was head of the Spanish FA. Now the former Hamilton player has departed, however, they are eager to try again.
The semi-finals and final of the Supercopa del Espana – which sees the winners and runners-up of the Copa del Rey and La Liga slug it out – has been staged in Saudia Arabia in four of the last five years. That has banked the participants a cool €120m.
Going overseas is something which other major sports have done increasingly in modern times. The NFL have been playing meaningful American football matches in England since 2007 and have visited Germany, Mexico and Brazil in recent years. By all accounts, India is their next port of call.
But the NFL are just catching up with the NBA. Regular season basketball games between leading American franchises have been attracting fans in their tens of thousands in far-flung locations like London, Mexico City, Paris and Yokohama since way back in 1990.
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Those organisations see the lucrative exercises as opportunities to spread the b-ball and grid iron gospel in previously untapped markets, increase their global fan bases and so drive up merchandise sales, television viewing figures as well as the value of sponsorship deals, advertising agreements and broadcasting contracts.
Could the SPFL ever consider it? More to the point, should they? The plan to play an Old Firm friendly game at the Sydney Super Cup in Australia back in 2022 caused a helluva stooshie. It was eventually shelved when the Ibrox club, whose fans were incensed about providing the opposition in an event which had been billed as “Ange’s Homecoming”, pulled out.
Seasoned observers of Scottish football would suggest that a Premiership game ever being played overseas is about as likely as The Green Brigade producing a poppy tifo at their next November 11 match.
But if it is a route which the big football leagues, whose clubs are already considerably wealthier as things stand, do start to go down then it would be naïve not to embrace change. Resisting progress would risk this country falling even further behind.
A one-off annual excursion overseas could potentially showcase all that is good about the Scottish game to a wider audience and bring in welcome fresh income. It should not be discounted. Celtic v Rangers at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans anyone? Watch this space.
