Scottish Football - Why?

[Kermit power]

I don't know much about football, so apologies if this is an oft-covered debate, but why do the Scots bother with a separate football league?

The sports news on the radio on the way to work this morning said something about both Rangers and Celtic winning games yesterday. This seems somewhat monotonous, I thought.

I've just done a quick google, and sure enough it's over quarter of a century since anyone other than Rangers or Celtic won the Scottish league.

Why do they bother? Wouldn't it just make more sense for them to join the English leagues to give the top two clubs more competition, and at least give all the rest the added variety of being beaten by someone else from time to time?

[Kermit power]

Devilstreak said:

This comes up all the time. But why should they get a pass into the Premier League? Why not the Championship? League 1/2 and work their way up?

I'm not saying they should necessarily start in the top flight. Just questioning it in general.

Devilstreak said:

And do you think the likes of the London teams would want to travel god knows how many miles to Scotland at the weekend?

That was my initial thinking, but it turns out that Glasgow actually has an airport. You can get there from Heathrow or Gatwick in 90 minutes.

I was gobsmacked to discover that even Hull actually has an airport, but it seems you have to fly via Aberdeen or Amsterdam to get there (some form of quarantine regulation or something, I'd imagine) so it's actually faster to drive there than it is to fly, although both take a good 4 hours.

Thus, by virtue of the Scottish teams being a little further away, they're actually quicker to get to than some of the English tundra clubs.

[Kermit power]

ammw said:

Only 4 teams have ever won the English Premier League, and it's been over 15 years since anyone other than ManU, Chelsea or Arsenal won it. So, maybe all the other teams should just give up or maybe the 'big-3' should move into a European league and leave the minnows to fight it out for the EPL.

Fair point, but even so, it's not quite the same as Scotland, is it? Between them, Celtic & Rangers have won 4 times out of 5 for the entire 120 years that the Scots have been playing football in a league!

[Kermit power]

Derek Smith said:

And 'south' includes Jersey.

And they were National 3 last season. Their annual airfare bill alone must rival the salaries paid to the whole of the rest of that division put together. Most certainly not papuers, Jersey RFC!