Why no team except Rangers and Celtic will ever win the league

This is a clip taken from the upcoming The Tifo Football Show - a weekly panel show where we answer the questions you ask us.

JJ Bull looks at the wage discrepancies in the Scottish Premiership and explains why no club will get close to Celtic and Rangers in winning the league.

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[Hakimi]

Without JJ Bull “the Bullet” I wouldn’t know that 15 is more than 1.

[martinhartecfc]

JJ, please, please do a video on how the SPFL could be fixed. Even as a Celtic fan I don't like this situation. I'd love to see Aberdeen, Hibs, Hearts as genuine challengers. What could we realistically do about this?

[alerog]

All these numbers certainly are more, thanks for answering my question JJ.

[AeolianMusica]

Awesome video. One of the best analyses. Only thing to mention is - the comparison across leagues isn’t exact. Wage and transfer fee distribution isn’t linear, so the comparison isn’t necessarily direct. In other words, 20x less transfer fee in the Scottish Prem doesn’t get you a player that would be the same amount proportionally lower quality as 20x less transfer fee in the EPL.

[shuddafukkup]

Back in the mid or late ‘90s, the SFA turned down Sky’s offer of televised football which would have allowed the clubs a more equal share of the money. The SFA said no, and Sky offered the same deal to the English Championship, who happily accepted and the rest as we know, is history.

I often wonder how different things would have been if the SFA hadn’t turned the offer down. Would the Old Firm still have more money that the rest if us? Possibly. Would the League be more achievable to clubs like mine (Motherwell)? Perhaps. But due to unnecessary hubris, I guess we’ll never know.

[gunnarolidagmararson]

This is the most interesting video TIFO has ever put out! Thank you JJ, you absolute unit of a man.

[saure]

Love this, great to have some representation for Scottish football, excellent to see.

[thechriscrowing]

As a Dundee fan living in Glasgow, this makes me sad but its so obviously true. The Old Firm are operating several financial levels above everyone else and its dull as hell. I'd love for almost anyone else (not Utd) to win the league like some sort of Super-Leicester but it's barely plausible. Especially when teams that do come consisterly third (Hearts, Aberdeen etc.) tend to have collapses after 2-3 years and teams that have good seasons (top half, win a cup or more) then also collapse the next year (looks at St Johnstone.)

[alexanderevans_]

Question: When the new format of the UCL was announced, there was discussion of whether the prize money should go to the league rather than the club. How has the decision they made shaped the modern game?

[dominickirwan]

Genuinely, nothing is more depressing as a Scottish football fan than the Old Firm dominance.

[ohyeah]

Thanks for the insights as always. However, I'm intrigued by this disparity. What lies behind this data? Why is everyone else so far behind the Old Firm? Purely sporting reasons? Perhaps sone socioeconomic factors, maybe even political? A video delving deeper would be fascinating

[KindredBrujah]

The funny thing is, in 1985 the spend differential between Aberdeen (and Dundee United for that matter) and the Old Firm was not that large. And, indeed, the spend differential between the Scottish top flight and the English top flight was also not that large.

Roll on 35 years or so and the Scottish game has had the life sucked out of it by the Old Firm and by English bias in TV revenue through BSkyB contracts freezing out the Scottish game.

[TheAdamsteve]

I won the SPL (and Champions League!) with Raith Rovers?!... all you need to do is use the 'in game editor' function

[elliotnoble]

What league do you think would be most likely to compete with the big 5 leagues in the future? Question for the Tifo Football Show!

[GavinandJemmaTravels]

Would love to see more discussions from JJ about how we in Scotland could improve our teams and become a more competitive league. Great to see Tifo and the Athletic taking a bit more of an interest in Scottish football but would love to hear the guys thoughts on how to actually improve the league as a whole… would make an interesting video/podcast… hint hint wink wink nudge nudge… 🤗👍🏼⚽️

[dejflukac]

Great video but I would expect more points of view to be used and not only the soccernomics one. Coming from the Czech Republic where we have quite a similar league to the SPL, you get three clubs (Slavia, Sparta and Plzen) who consistently spend more than everyone but the crucial part of their success is that they canibalize on the smaller teams. These in return have less time to develop and sell their players abroad and when these players leave for abroad, it is mostly from the top three clubs and they also keep most of the overall margin gained on the player. That being said, looking past money, the key for the big teams to keep their position is not to let the smaller teams grow organically.

[charlieclemmow]

How has Ajax constantly been able to compete with Europe’s biggest teams (especially this season) with a budget significantly smaller than the other leading contenders?

P.S: Tifo is life x

[kiezorfc]

Sad truth is this even if someone with more money than rangers and Celtic wanted to buy a club the old firm’s influence in the SFA would block any takeover

[Omar_Little]

How prevalent is doping still in the professional levels of football? Particularly club or national team endorsed doping. We hardly ever hear of players getting caught but there's way too much at stake for there not to be loads. Please explain the doping situation and why the competitions don't actually try and catch anyone because it benefits nobody.

[partyringsparty]

Question - Is there any justification for 'goalkeepers shouldn't be beaten at their near post'? It happens so so frequently and pundits/commentators/fans always give really harsh criticism of the goalkeeper because they think it's really easy to save at your near post.