Structure and change in professional football: an Old Firm’s search for a new market

Abstract

Football in Scotland is dominated by two clubs, Celtic and Rangers. For more than a decade these clubs have been regularly linked with a move out of Scottish football, usually to a league organized in its much larger neighbour, England, or to some form of pan-European league. The discussion of possible structural change within the European football field has been stimulated by adjustments to its financial arrangements. Many of these changes have had a particularly marked impact on clubs in smaller countries within that field such as Scotland. Moreover, the political union, that is the UK, provides a distinct context within which to consider issues of football policy and structural change. Within this context, this paper seeks to use institutional theory to explain the behaviour of Celtic and Rangers in seeking to change the logics of the European football field and to describe responses thereto from other actors in the Scottish part of the field.

Notes

1. Murray, Glasgow’s Giants.

2. PWC, The 22nd Annual Financial Review of Scottish Premier League Football.

3. Allan, Dunlop and Swales, ‘The Economic Impact of Regular Season Sporting Competitions’, 63–97.

4. For example, the Football League in England was established in 1888.

5. King, ‘After the Crunch’, 880–91.

6. See, for example, the Special Issue on the Financial Crisis in European Football, Journal of Sports Economics 7, no. 1 (2006); Beech, Horsman and Magraw, ‘The circumstances in which English football clubs become insolvent’, Boscá, Liern, Martínez and Sala, ‘The Spanish Football Crisis’, 165–77.

7. UEFA Financial Fair Play. http://www.uefa.com/uefa/footballfirst/protectingthegame/financialfairplay/index.html (accessed October 20, 2010).

8. Deloitte, National interest; Morrow, The People’s Game?

9. David Conn, ‘Premier League Clubs Reject Old Firm but Consider Expansion’, The Guardian, November 12, 2009.

10. In a press interview in September 2011, the new owner of Rangers FC, Craig Whyte, is quoted as saying ‘[Joining the FA Premier League] is clearly something that we would like to see examined, it is something we are working on behind the scenes. But there are other potential ideas in terms of European leagues, joining some of the Nordic countries, the Netherlands to create a league’. Paul Kelso, ‘Craig Whyte actively seeking to leave the SPL to secure Rangers financial future’, The Daily Telegraph, September 27, 2011.

11. Groot, Economics, Uncertainty and European Football: Trends in Competitive Balance. Earlier this season fans of Spanish side Deportivo La Coruna unveiled a banner which said ‘No Queremos Otra Liga Escocesa’ (We don't want another Scottish League), in protest about the distribution of television money in Spanish football and the implications for competitive balance.

12. King, ‘After the Crunch’, 880–91.

13. Washington and Patterson, ‘Hostile takeover or joint venture’, 1–12.

14. Di Maggio and Powell, ‘The Iron Cage Revisited’, 147–60.

15. Ibid.

16. Ibid.; Meyer and Rowan, ‘Institutional Organisations’, 340–63.

17. Leblebici et al., ‘Institutional Change and the Transformation of Interorganizational Fields’, 333–63.

18. Oliver, ‘Strategic Responses to Institutional Processes’, 145–79.

19. Wooton and Hoffman, ‘Organizational Fields’, 130–47.

20. Thornton, ‘The Rise of the Corporation in a Craft Industry’, 81–101.

21. Marquis and Lounsbury, ‘Vive la Resistance’, 799–820.

22. Washington and Patterson, ‘Hostile Takeover or Joint Venture’, 1–12.

23. O’Brien and Slack, ‘An Analysis of Change in an Organisational Field: The Professionalization of English Rugby Union’, 417–48; Morrow and Idle, ‘Understanding Change in Professional Road Cycling’, 315–35.

24. Gammelsӕter and Senaux, ‘Perspectives on the Governance of Football across Europe’, 1–16.

25. Ibid.

26. Morrow, The People’s Game?

27. Jarvie and Walker, Ninety Minute Patriots.

28. Inglis, League Football and the Men Who Made It.

29. Morrow, The New Business of Football.

30. Deloitte, National interest.

31. Deloitte, The untouchables.

32. Neale, ‘The Peculiar Economics of Professional Sports’, 1–14.

33. Soccer Investor, The Old Firm’s Contribution to Scottish Football.

34. Allan and Roy, ‘Does Television Crowd Out Spectators?’, 592–605.

35. See the Special Issue on the Financial Crisis in European Football, Journal of Sports Economics 7, no. 1 (2006).

36. PWC, The 22nd Annual Financial Review of Scottish Premier League Football.

37. SPL club Gretna FC did go out of business at the end of season 2007/2008. Although founded in 1946 the club, located in a small town close to the border with England, came to prominence since 2002 as a result of an estimated investment of £8m by local businessman and philanthropist, Brooks Mileson. In its six seasons in senior football in Scotland, Gretna became the first British club to achieve three successive promotions, culminating in gaining a place in the SPL in season 2007/2008. However, with limited attendances and no history of community support, it was wholly dependent on funding from its benefactor. When Mileson took ill in March 2008 his financial support was withdrawn and the club’s financial demise was inevitable. Mileson passed away in November 2008.

38. Duke and Crolley, Football, Nationality and the State.

39. Vamplew, Pay Up and Play the Game.

40. Boyle and Haynes, Power Play.

41. Schlesinger, Scottish Devolution and the Media; Schlesinger, Miller and Dinan, Open Scotland.

42. Boyle, Dinan and Morrow, ‘Doing the Business’, 161–81.

43. Morrow, The Business of Football.

44. Cousens and Slack, ‘Field Level Change’, 13–42.

45. PWC, The 21st Annual Review of Scottish Premier League Football.

46. Deloitte, Pressure to change.

47. PWC, The 22nd Annual Financial Review of Scottish Premier League Football.

48. Michie and Oughton, ‘The Corporate Governance of Professional Football Clubs in Britain’, 517–31.

49. Wooton and Hoffman, ‘Organizational Fields’, 130–47.

50. Brand and Niemann, ‘Europeanisation in the Societal/Trans-National Realm’, 182–201.

51. Holt, ‘The Ownership and Control of Elite Club Competition in European Football’, 50–67.

52. Morrow, The People’s Game?

53. David Conn, ‘Premier League Clubs Reject Old Firm but Consider Expansion’, The Guardian, November 12, 2009.

54. DiMaggio and Powell, ‘The Iron Cage Revisited’, 147–60; Djelic and Sahlin-Andersson, Transnational Governance. Institutional Dynamics of Regulation; Djelic and Quack, ‘Institutions and Transnationalization’, 299–324; Garcia, ‘UEFA and the European Union’, 202–23; Henry and Lee, ‘Governance and Ethics in Sport’, 25–42; Holt, ‘The Ownership and Control of Elite Club Competition in European Football’, 50–67; King, ‘After the Crunch’, 880–91.

55. Garcia, ‘UEFA and the European Union’, 202–23.

56. Hoffman, ‘Institutional Evolution and Change’, 351–71.

57. McLeish, Review of Scottish Football.

58. Seo and Creed, ‘Institutional Contradictions, Praxis and Institutional Change’, 222–47.

59. Slack and Parent, Understanding Sport Organisations.

60. Morrow, The People’s Game?; Senaux, ‘A Stakeholder Approach to Football Club Governance’, 4–17; Wolfe and Putler, ‘How Tight Are the Ties that Bind Stakeholder Groups’, 64–8.

61. Celtic sees itself as proud Scottish institution with Irish roots. In recent seasons the issue of sectarianism has become more visible in Scottish society, with football a very visible manifestation of this. Season 2010/2011 saw Celtic Manager Neil Lennon attacked at Hearts’ Tynecastle Stadium in Edinburgh, while Lennon and a number of prominent Celtic supporters received death threats. The Scottish Government convened a Football Summit attended by relevant football stakeholders (http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Justice/law/sectarianism-action-1/football-violence/football-summit) and has promised to bring forward anti-sectarian legislation by the end of 2011.

62. Paul Kelso, ‘Craig Whyte actively seeking to leave the SPL to secure Rangers financial future’, The Daily Telegraph, September 27, 2011.

63. King, ‘After the Crunch’, 880–91.