Neil Lennon believes Celtic are on a par with Liverpool when it comes to global appeal, but can't see the Hoops and Rangers ever being welcomed into the English Premier League.
The Glasgow clubs heading south is a hypothetical that rears its head every few years, with an acceptance that it’s unlikely to ever happen.
Celtic and Rangers armed with the financial weapons that even midsize clubs south of the border now have in their arsenal is an intriguing thought when it comes to upsetting the status quo in the self styled "best league in the world."
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And while there’s no doubt both clubs appeal to a huge worldwide audience, Lennon sees no chance of them gatecrashing the billionaire’s playground that is the English top flight, reports the Daily Record.
He told William Hill's No Tippy Tappy Football podcast: “Celtic are a massive club. Every week there are 60,000 fans inside Celtic Park, and Rangers are the same. It’s a bit like Manchester City versus Manchester United but it’s far more historical.
“I think worldwide Celtic would be up there with the likes of Liverpool in terms of support. We went to America for pre-season a lot and there would be thousands of fans in Boston, New York, and Seattle. We’ve been to Australia a few times and there are so many expats out there as well. There’s massive support all around the world.
“The problem is that they are playing in Scotland. If you stay up in the Premier League you get a minimum of £120 million. If you win the Scottish league you get between five to eight million, so you can see the disparity between how Celtic and Rangers have to go about their business and how the Premier League teams do.
“I can’t see it ever happening because the Premier League chairmen won’t vote Celtic and Rangers to come into the Premier League, it would be like turkeys voting for Christmas They would see two massive clubs that would eventually push their clubs back down to the Championship.
“I think if you put Celtic or Rangers in the Premier League, you’d need to give them a couple of years to get the money in and then they’d be able to attract players from all over the world without a problem.
“They get 60,000 in the stadium every week. You look at the Etihad which only holds about 52,000, if Celtic are playing Motherwell on a Wednesday night there’s 60,000 people there, guaranteed.
"So in terms of crowd sizes it’s not a problem, they’d be behind Old Trafford but probably on a par with Tottenham and the Emirates, but I personally don’t see it happening anytime soon.”
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