London, Nov 13 (DPA) Premier League clubs voted Thursday to reject a proposal that would have seen Scottish giants Rangers and Celtic join the English top flight.
The scheme had been proposed by the Bolton Wanderers chairman Phil Gartside, as part of a wider plan to increase the Premier League to two 18-team divisions.

That part of the proposal will be fed into the league’s ongoing strategic review, but it is understood that 14 of the 20 clubs voted against allowing entry to Scottish sides.

“Bolton Wanderers submitted a discussion paper detailing ideas concerning the restructuring of the Premier League into two tiers with the inclusion of Celtic and Rangers,” said a Premier League statement.

“The clubs welcomed the additional input into an ongoing process, however, they were of the opinion that bringing Celtic and Rangers into any form of Premier League set-up was not desirable or viable.

“The other relevant ideas contained within Bolton’s paper will now be taken forward as part of the wider strategic review being undertaken by the Premier League since November 2008 with the aim of providing recommendations before December 2010.”

Gartside’s proposal stems from his concerns that the top four clubs in the Premier League receive too great a share of existing revenues.

Last season, for instance, champions Manchester United picked up over 20 million pounds ($32 million) more in television revenues than bottom club West Bromwich Albion.

The four clubs involved in the Champions League - United, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal - collected between 20 and 33 million pounds from television and prize money from that competition, and also secure far greater revenues from advertising, sponsorship, merchandising and gate receipts than smaller clubs.

“Addressing this polarisation of clubs and the increasing revenue differentials will, I believe, be the major strategic issue for the Premier League over coming years,” said Gartside.

“The Premier League is an exciting product for supporters and for television viewers, but there is no doubt that as the years go by, and the same few clubs continue to benefit from the huge additional revenues from the Champions League, the remaining clubs find it enormously difficult to challenge.

“At the same time, the gap between Premier League revenues and those of the Championship continues to widen and I believe a ‘fear factor’ is beginning to emerge amongst Premier League clubs outside the top few.”