UEFA bigwig in stark Old Firm ultimatum

DAVID TAYLOR is the Scot with clout inside the UEFA corridors of power. The former SFA chief executive is now business czar of a £1.5billion-a-year football empire with its headquarters in Switzerland.

He rubs shoulders with UEFA president Michel Platini as he oversees mega money deals from his stunning offices on the shores of Lake Geneva. Today he pulls no punches about the Old Firm's bid to break free of the SPL for the riches of England's Premiership.

In an exclusive interview, he tells Sport of the World how Celtic and Rangers have failed to do their homework on a viable exit strategy. Also why the Big Two must stop relying on the Anglos handing them a free ticket to their promised land.

DAVID TAYLOR heard the familiar rumblings of Old Firm discontent - as clearly as if someone had just sounded a gigantic Swiss horn inside his plush UEFA office in Nyon!

Scotland's big two chose the same week to make their ill-fated plea to break free of Scottish football.

At Parkhead, Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell reiterated his club's belief that the Hoops belonged in the English Premiership. Across the river at Ibrox, Rangers chairman Alastair Johnston and Martin Bain were talking up the virtues of the Atlantic League.

Alarms bells sounded for Taylor. If the Old Firm couldn't even agree on the same league they wanted to play in, how were they going to convince the FA, the SFA, UEFA, FIFA, Premiership clubs, SPL clubs - and Gers' supposed new European partners - they had the faintest clue in what direction they were heading?

That's why the former SFA chief didn't bat an eyelid when the Premiership gave a thumbs down to the prospect of the Old Firm joining EPL II last Thursday.

Taylor revealed: "The Old Firm must think these things through in future before they talk. It's difficult for me to advise the Old Firm. I would have to resign from UEFA and then set up my own consultancy firm!

"Seriously, having worked at UEFA for the last few years, I do have an insight into the way European football works and the various forces within the game.

"The first and most obvious point I would make is the Old Firm must spend more time themselves, working through the various options they have because nobody else is going to do that for them.

"However, they both appear to be pulling in different directions between the Premiership and the European-based Atlantic League. Obviously if England ever extended an invite to them, that would make a big difference. After this week's vote does anyone really see that happening?

"Dave Richards of the Premier League was quoted as saying: 'This has been talked about for many years and will be talked about for many years to come'. He's the chairman of the EPL so clearly there was a lot of work to be done.

"Strangely enough, if England was the route they took it is potentially more straight-forward than the Atlantic League. They have an existing league system and they need a certain number of votes to change that system. Sounds simple.

"But that's not enough. You can't just go and win your votes from English clubs and that's it. You then have to win over the English FA and the Scottish FA, which means the Scottish clubs, and you need to win over UEFA and FIFA.

"There are so many hurdles in this. It's a very complex matter, even just to cross the border at Berwick. I understand that they feel imprisoned because they feel they are big clubs in a small market.

"That's not easy when football is organised along the lines of national associations. That broadly equals countries. The UK may be a special case in world football but that doesn't make it any easier. Why aren't there regional leagues in, let's say, the Balkans or the Baltics?

"UEFA and FIFA find that concept very difficult. It's not impossible but at least there, you have good, strong geographical reasons. Now let's take something like the North Atlantic League. What is the actual geographical link between the clubs? Is it the Atlantic?

"You can understand to an extent there is approval, in a limited way, to a competition between Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, because they are three small Baltic nations who literally live next door to each other but here the suggestion seems to be Scotland, Portugal, the Netherlands are somehow linked. Where's the geography in that?

"It's not for me to say what the Old Firm should do but I would suggest that Scottish clubs play in Scotland. They are not going to physically relocate, so they are from Glasgow and therefore play in the Scottish Football Association's territory. If there is to be any change from that they have to speak to the SFA before they speak to anybody else. I don't know if that sort of dialogue is going on at present, but I very much doubt it.

"Of course I understand the issues affecting the big two in Scotland but it doesn't explain away all their problems on the pitch.

"Society changes but would Celtic against Blackburn, with all due respect to Blackburn, be any more interesting than Celtic v Hibs? I'm not so sure and there's no simple answer to it.

"In terms of the overall structures of the game, breaking away is a very difficult thing for them to do, but basically it must start at home.

"UEFA and FIFA would be unlikely to consider any proposal which didn't come with the support of the national football associations involved. In one case, that would mean the Scottish FA and the English FA. Any form of proposal would have to be agreed by them in the first instance.

"You would think there also has to be some kind of consensus from the Old Firm clubs themselves though. Surely part of the attraction for any league who might want them would be the prospect of them playing each other at least twice a season?

"Wouldn't it be awful if they were in different divisions or different leagues and they didn't actually play against each other? Have they even thought about that? Yet that seemed to be what they were proposing when Celtic spoke out about the prospect of joining the Premiership and Rangers talked up the Atlantic League."

Taylor says the Old Firm needn't hope a major backer such as Sky TV will ride to their rescue.

He said: "I despair when I hear some limited 'analysts' saying: 'All it needs is for Sky TV to offer more money'. They could do that, but what does that mean, other than the fact they believe Sky TV runs football. Sky TV are great partners, they are great investors and great supporters of the Champions League and all the rest of it but it's far too simplistic. In fact it's worse than that. It's completely wrong to suggest if Sky offer X-million this will happen, because it cannot happen under the current structures. Please, think this through.

"First you have to go against all the structures of European football, which means they don't get into the Champions League, which is where all the money is.

"Are they really going to risk putting themselves outside of that competition? UEFA has shown we are always open to the development of football because our ultimate aim is to promote the game.

"It is not simply to make money. It is not simply to run the best competitions. These things are really important because they serve the game or help promote the game.

"If Celtic and Rangers can come up with new ways and means of helping European football people are always willing to listen but an Atlantic League? Three floors above us we rent space to a new body called the European Club Association. We helped set up the clubs' get-together to form this and there are now 103 of them who play in European competition and they formed their own organisation.

"Rather than having conflict, they actually work with us and are a good sounding board for us. Far from them plotting in darkened rooms somewhere, they are actually here, literally in the same building.

"If Michele Centenaro, who is the general secretary of that body, has a problem with any of UEFA'S competitions, he can pop downstairs and have a chat with me about it over a pot of tea!

"We would know about it before many of the clubs would know about it. We're in talks with TV companies all the time, marketing companies, sponsors, the people clubs need to get on board if they are going to test the water about some breakaway movement.

"They have to take soundings with the people we already do a great deal of business with, so we know about these things and as far as a European League or North Atlantic League or any other breakaway is concerned, we don't sense any appetite for it at all.

"The clubs have been pleased with the revenues generated by the Champions League and the standard of competition which is being delivered. I am listening to what is happening all over Europe and I am not hearing any prospect of new leagues, new formats springing up. There is no easy route for the Old Firm to leave Scottish football."

Taylor also claims the Old Firm may have missed an open goal by failing to push for a Great Britain Olympic football team.

He added "If they had canvassed support and received backing for the idea, the SFA would have been put in an incredibly difficult situation.

"If the Old Firm demanded their Scottish and Northern Irish players should be allowed to take part and represent Great Britain at the 2012 Olympics, the SFA may have been forced to back down.

"That would have had very serious consequnces for the entire status of the Home Nations and the structure of the British game. Who's to say it couldn't have led to a British League one day?"

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