The Old Firm are talking about joining the WSL. Will it happen?

Matt Dallinson on the likelihood of the Glasgow clubs joining England's top league

Credit: Rangers FC

Here we go again.

On Tuesday, The Times reported that Rangers and Celtic have held informal talks about joining the Women's Super League. It’s important to note that no official approach has been made to the Scottish Football Association or the Scottish Women’s Premier League and approval from the SFA would be required for any sort of move.

The news comes as the WPLL, the organisation now in charge of the WSL, has been exploring options for the competition’s future, including the possibility of a closed league.

Forget everything you think you know about Celtic and Rangers. We need to ignore the all-conquering dominance in men's football and focus on their situations in the women’s game. They do not have the history of their male counterparts with just nine titles between them, although eight of those come in the last three seasons as both clubs have invested significant sums to set off the full-time era in the SWPL. By comparison, Hibernian have won twice as many with 18 and Glasgow City have 31.

Both clubs are well attended by SWPL standards, particularly in the bigger games, but would not meet the current WSL average. Similarly when it comes to investment, their playing staff costs are both at the top end in the SWPL but would rank towards the bottom in the WSL.

Celtic won their first SWPL title in 2023-24. Credit: Celtic

Why are these discussions even taking place?

It is the obvious “what can we do different in women's football” idea for both clubs – and for the WPLL.

A cynical perspective would be that both clubs are looking to leverage their status in men's football to board a train that they see as having already left the station.

Both clubs are said to be frustrated with the lack of growth in Scottish women's football. This in itself feels like an odd statement considering Dundee United and Spartans have offered part-time contracts in recent seasons, Aberdeen are open about being on a similar path, and Hibernian and Hearts are almost entirely full-time. Attendances are also continuing to trend upwards despite failures at national organisation level.

Rangers and Celtic are represented on the SWPL board, growing the game is under their remit. If they aren't happy with how things are going they have the power to make changes – such as altering how finance is distributed throughout the league to allow clubs lower down to sustainably go full-time. Growing the game was one of the reasons given for voting through a controversial league restructure at the end of last season, a restructure that was designed to address concerns these very clubs had.

How likely is it?

I would suggest about as likely as it was when the men's clubs suggested joining the Premier League in the ‘noughties’. The negative reaction on social media, including from their own fans, will not have gone unnoticed. But, even ignoring the protests that would arise from fans of the two, and the Championship clubs that find themselves skipped over to accommodate the change, it is a logistical nightmare.

We are talking about two clubs that can't even co-operate to enable away fans to attend fixtures between them. Are they capable, or even do they have the desire, to work together to move both clubs into a different country's pyramid? Would they be willing to sacrifice silverware for mid-table, or even relegation battles? They would also have to satisfy the SFA, who would be wary that a decision to allow them to leave could be the domino that leads to the men's clubs leaving. If they manage all that, they then have to spend two seasons in purgatory while they serve their notice period with the SWPL.

For the WPLL there are also a number of show-stopping problems. Both clubs currently play on plastic pitches, against WSL regulations. They also both play outside of Glasgow, something that has been raised within Scottish women's football circles as a barrier to growth, which the WPLL would have to accept to the cost of away fans.

Neither club look likely to be permanently playing at the stadiums of their men's teams in the near future, and Glasgow is short on medium sized grass pitch stadia for them to move to. Then there's the question of what happens if they get relegated, what happens if they have failed to win anything in five years and want to rejoin Scottish football? How do you address different work permit and registration rules between the two countries? Does the English FA allow them to play in the FA Cup or does the Scottish FA allow them to play in the Scottish Cup? Perhaps a bit more existentially, what happens if Scotland pushes for independence from the UK?

Put the idea under a microscope and it falls apart almost immediately. It's not a particularly good idea for either club considering the vast increase in investment the move would require from the off, alongside the response from fans. It's also a lot of work for the WPLL for not that much return other than the brands of Celtic and Rangers, neither of whom are currently huge names in women's football nor are they pulling up trees with giant attendances. The WPLL has already faced criticism for focusing too much on the brand and not enough on the fans.

Would it be good to see more co-operation between the English and Scottish leagues? Absolutely, replacing the league cups with a UK-wide competition has been suggested by fans for years and would likely help solve the problem of WSL clubs entering the Subway Cup in the final stages and offer a more balanced schedule for clubs down the leagues. But, this is not the way and it is a really poor look for two clubs that are supposed to be leading growth as members of the league's board to be flirting with English football rather collaborating to grow the game at home.