Dinner and a Show but Without the Show

So apparently there's something special about today. Champions League re starting? A day without a handshake being in the news?

No? Okay I'm at a loss, seems like a normal Tuesday to me.

Any how in the footballing world it's been a rather busy day, and that's before Europe's aforementioned premier club competition restarts with the knock-out stages, but then when was the last time there was a quiet day?

Today's stories, as with most of the recent controversial football stories, were shrouded with lots of mystery and confrontation. In the North West of England we've been reintroduced to an old 'friend' of the region in the form of Carlos Tevez.

Meanwhile in Glasgow and Portsmouth, two cities separated by roughly 440 miles but never closer in footballing terms than today, issues of a far more serious nature were unravelling. Both Glasgow Rangers and Portsmouth F.C owe millions of pounds to HMRC  and have been forced to go into, or apply for, administration. Football clubs building up so much debt is not a new thing nor is football clubs having to go into administration, Portsmouth themselves have already had to take this measure as recently as 2009, but it is striking the regularity that football clubs, which now fully accept need to run as much as businesses as any other  business, find themselves in trouble.

Ibrox

The case of Rangers is the story attracting the most headlines, and rightly so, because of the size of the club involved and because of the massive effect the 10 point reduction, as a consequence of going into administration, will have on their season. What?! Really?! They've lost points and they're still in second place? Right well the first point still stands. Rangers are a massive club, they're in Europe every season and have won the domestic league 54 times. Of course the reason Rangers have managed to hold onto second place, despite the 10 point loss, is that the Scottish league is essentially a two horse race, every year- like The Boat Race with members of other Universities throwing stones to slow down the Oxford and Cambridge boats- with Rangers contending with their city rivals Celtic.

Celtic fans will not shed a tear for their rivals downfall, and many will be hoping that Rangers fall from grace continues with insolvency the next punishment for them, and they will no doubt point to the Gers spending beyond their means to win trophy after trophy for the previous few years as well as their already built in hatred for the team from Ibrox as reason for their glee. And who can really blame them? Those of us who are United fans may have been crossing our fingers for the same to happen to Liverpool when previous owners Hicks and Gillett  attempted to run the club into the ground. But the truth is that we need each other, much as Celtic need Rangers. Of course, there are Celtic fans who will refute my last statement, again, they will find reasons- they will point to a time, in the 80's when Aberdeen, Dundee United, Hearts and Motherwell regularly competed for top honours, they will point to continued yearly profit being made by their club and at an average attendance that is the 12th best in Europe but these would all be fickle arguments.

The very fact Rangers will still be in 2nd place in the league automatically throws out the argument that there is other competition to Celtic's thrown, perhaps in the 80's this was not the case but only once since 1996 have one of Celtic or Rangers finished outside the top two, and that was in 2006 when Hearts finished 2nd, a team on the brink of administration themselves. Celtic may well hold onto their fantastic support in the absence of Rangers but it is in their profits where they will surely be hit hardest. With no Rangers there is clearly no competition and with no competition there is less appetite for an already floundering league and by consequence television companies, like Sky and ESPN, will refuse to pay as much for T.V rights, if they indeed want them at all. The Hoops may think that joining the English leagues would act as a reprieve from this but there is currently not much call for them to join and there would be less so without Rangers.

Overall my argument would be that football fans need to stop being so partisan sometimes, be it in cases of racial abuse, seeing a magical player return to the Premier League or seeing a team go into administration but actually there is one more argument that allows for partisanship;

Who won't miss moments like this

Let's suggest I am completely wrong, as usual, and Celtic can 'survive' without their rivals. They can win competitions whilst being pushed all the way by another Scottish football team and continue to make profit whilst bringing in near 50,000 supporters every week, wouldn't there still be something missing? Even as someone who shows little interest in Scottish football there are always 4 dates that excite me- Old Firm matches! Without Rangers Celtic Park will not pulse and vibrate with the sort of passion and vitriol that those occasions create.

Now back to today what in the world is it? Oh wait it's not Valentines Day is it? Fortunately I've no girlfriend so I won't get in trouble for forgetting. And with no one to take out I'm like Celtic- surviving is fine but what's dinner without the show!