The British Premiership?

This week Cardiff won one of the most lucrative matches in their history.

A 0-0 draw with Charlton Athletic was enough to secure their passage to the English Premiership.

However Cardiff isn’t in England.  Neither are Swansea, who recently won the English League Cup and will compete in European competition next year.

Welsh influence

There are a further four teams in the English league structure that come from Wales.  As the Welsh Premier League was only founded in 1992, many of the Welsh clubs who had already been part of the English League set up for most of their history rejected the chance to move to the Welsh League.

It is not a phenomenon that is unique to England.  San Marino Calcio, from San Marino play in the Italian League, Vancouver Whitecaps from Canada play in the USA’s MLS, Wellington Phoenix from New Zealand play in Australia’s A-League and even Monaco is technically a principality, and therefore Monaco FC are not based in France!

Open Borders?

What this does raise questions over is why should the English Premier League not allow entry to clubs from other countries?  With the Scottish Premier League suffering crisis after crisis, the most recent being a failed attempt at reconstruction of the league, Scotland’s most famous clubs, Rangers and Celtic have long pined for a move to England.

Tradition

The main difference between the case of Celtic and Rangers, and Swansea and Cardiff, is that the Welsh pair have been a part of the English League set up for a long time.

When it comes to football, tradition always plays a major part, especially in Britain.

Rangers and Celtic have always been Scottish clubs, and that is the way it will stay according to tradition, unless there is an overwhelmingly convincing reason for the English leagues to accept them.

Opposition

Even if the move could have minor benefits for all involved, the change won’t happen.  Football fans are opposed to changes, as demonstrated by Cardiff City themselves at the start of the season when owner Vincent Tan insisted on a kit change from red to blue.

Fans of the ‘Bluebirds’ were outraged, despite the commonly known fact that teams in red statistically win more, and the greater association with the red of Wales.

Maybe they will be more convinced to wear their bright red kits next season in the Premiership when going up against teams like Manchester United and Liverpool who have some experience of the advantage of a red kit.

Whether those teams will ever see the advantage of facing Rangers and Celtic on a regular basis is another matter.