The Scottish Play(or MacBeth or Throne of Blood)

After a long bout of gout, two assasination attempts and a stint in rehab the Dallas office of this venerable institution has crawled out of its refuse infested bunker and finally seen sunlight.And lo and behold one of the first news to hit me square in the head was the loss of the Scottish Premier League’s second spot in the Champions’ League. It turns out the rather anemic performances of Celtic and Rangers in the mega Euro competition has lowered the league’s UEFA coefficient. Coupled with the demise of Setanta sports and the resultant TV revenue, the SPL seems on the brink of a major devaluation. Even the rather non-pulsed Walter Smith has in recent months called for what he refers to as an “Atlantic League”. Clearly there are signs that one of the more venerable European leagues seems to be going through a metamorphasis. What is worrying about this is that this is one league where the current economic downturn may effectively wipe Scottish football off the face of the planet. With each new issue the Scotts face the end result is a loss of money, funds that in turn could be used to nurture, buy, and/or rebuild the human resources needed to keep any league alive. A nation that can boast of producing Kenny Dalgish, Graham Souness, Billy Bremner, Archie Gemmill, and Alex Ferguson is now on the verge of joining the ranks of Europe’s chaff. And this problem may soon spread to other nations. Recently UEFA revealed that the debts of the EPL clubs represent over 55% of all the debts incurred by all European football leagues. Will a soccer bubble or meltdown be the next domino to fall similar to debt crisis of Greece and Dubai.