Celtic go in search of greater riches

Celtic will give the others a head start when the Scottish Premier League kicks off this Saturday. It is an offer, though, that the relentless Martin O'Neill is unlikely to repeat.

The Scottish champions are not being blasé about their new-found position of power, simply complying with the laws of economics. The League flag will be unveiled around tea-time at Parkhead, as a nationwide audience joins the 60,000 devotees inside before Celtic begin their title defence against St Johnstone after the other games have been wrapped up.

Sky and the SPL have come up with a new slot for live televised games for Scotland's top clubs, though it remains to be seen if the move away from Sunday evening will prove any more popular with paying supporters or viewers. With the £80 million four-year-deal expiring next summer, some fine-tuning is going on as the League try to convince the satellite company that an increase is merited for the new package.

Even if the SPL crank the sum up to £100m it is unlikely to placate Celtic, or Rangers for that matter. A business with a £50m turnover cannot grow if it has to rely on television revenue which was one fifth that of Bradford City's last season, despite being a far bigger box-office draw to Sky.

Celtic are on the crest of a wave after last season's Treble success by O'Neill's side. Commercially, plans are in place which would see the club improve on their ranking of 18th richest in Europe, but the only thing which makes the picture fuzzy is television.

Only last week, Celtic's biggest shareholder, the Dublin-based Dermot Des-mond, mooted a move to England to solve the growth problem. It is an old chestnut. Yet Desmond, or his chairman, Brian Quinn – a former Bank of England executive – might not feel quite so constrained by the past as others in the club's 113-year history.

Which is why Celtic plc's vision of 2001-02 may revolve as much around the pursuit of a European League as the title O'Neill will be charged with retaining.

Quinn is in charge of the club's latest share flotation, which will raise £25m, but he knows that there is a passion for Celtic that has few parallels. For example, more than 57,000 people paid to see Tom Boyd's testimonial match against Manchester United in May, even though it was live on Channel 5. And last September, Parkhead housed the biggest crowd of the Uefa Cup that night when over 40,000 watched O'Neill's side play HJK Helsinki: more remarkable, however, was that even more watched the fixture live on the internet, an area in which Celtic have successfully dipped a toe.

The 50,000 barrier was broken on Friday night for a match with Fulham which U>direct paid to screen live, as they will Tuesday's friendly with Sunderland. No wonder Celtic are thinking about "league-hopping" in order to get a bigger TV reward.

"For some time now, we've had a vision of a midweek European League," Quinn said."Work goes on to develop that possibility. Current arrangements throughout Europe, not just Scotland and England, can't go on.

"Whether that means Celtic, Rangers and other Scottish clubs migrating immediately to another league in a different structure for British football is still to be thought through. But the discussions I have had [with the SFA and the FA, who are led by Celtic fan Adam Crozier] is that they recognise the task to accommodate the commercial and financial forces to make the game better."

Before that, though, Quinn wants Celtic to get a bigger share of the SPL cake when the new deal is concluded. "The figures are compelling," he said. "Celtic and Rangers account for 73 per cent of the viewing audiences [on Sky's Scottish coverage] but together get only 38 per cent of the revenue. We wish to support the SPL but we are asking for something closer to our fair share.

"But we have plans to generate further revenues from other sources. Celtic have a strong brand that has great appeal throughout the UK and beyond, especially north America. We can reach supporters by the internet and are well advanced technically. Crucially, we have kept independent control of our media rights [Rangers sold theirs to NTL for £30m] and I am confident that is the correct position to be in."

O'Neill, however, is simply focusing on the pitch, and being drawn against Ajax for next month's third qualifying round of the Champions' League has whetted his appetite for the new season. "The Champions' League is bigger than ever," he said, "and if we consider ourselves a big club, that is where we have to be on a regular basis."