CELTIC have pulled out of talks to be part of an Atlantic League according to The Times after it failed to capture the imagination of the club’s majority shareholder Dermot Desmond.

A spokesperson for the Atlantic League talks said:

“We received a call a few weeks ago from the principal shareholder of Celtic to say that he and Celtic were not interested in pursuing the project any further, preferring the status quo or the concept of a British isles league,” 

“This was both a surprise and a disappointment to us given our lengthy engagement with the clubs and our success in receiving proposals for underwriting the league worth well over one billion euros.

“However, of course, we must respect their decision.

“We remain of the view that the interests of all stakeholders in small and mid-sized European countries are best served by consolidating their markets and that resolving the competitive balance issue can only be achieved in this way.

“We know this is UEFA’s greatest concern and were very encouraged by our stakeholder engagements to date.

“However, having consulted with various clubs on this we have come to the decision, in light of feedback, that when we combine this news with the issues caused by Covid and by the proposed ‘Super League’ and related developments, we are best to press pause on this project until the landscape has changed.

“This may not happen in the short term. We will take time to consider alternative models and may engage with some of you over time on them.”

Dermot was high on the idea of an Atlantic league not so long ago, bringing Celtic away from Scotland to a more lucrative league where the club could flourish.

However, the pandemic has put a halt to a lot of things and Desmond must not see much value in what’s been talked about to this point.

The status quo sounds depressing, we have been talking about different scenarios for Celtic since the 90s but we continue to play in Scotland and be a big fish in a small pond.

Our European standing shrinks with every passing season when we struggle to make the grade in the Europa League, never mind the Champions League top table.

The English side have a monopoly on television revenue and would never share the pie with any club in Scotland. Reform in Scotland might be the more realistic option, what that would entail, we just don’t know.

Getting football back to normal after the pandemic is the major focus right about now.

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