ST JOHNSTONE manager Craig Levein would be content to say farewell to Celtic and Rangers if other Scottish clubs could profit from a £100 million annual bonus.
Levein, whose Saints face Philippe Clement’s Rangers today, believes Scottish football’s present TV deals are “terrible.”
He isn’t a fan of the prize money split either – but he reckons the answer to improving the overall standard would be Celtic and Rangers leaving – assuming certain conditions are met.
Reacting to comments from Derek Adams savaging the standard of the Scottish game, Levein said: “How do you gauge whether it’s in good health? That’s what I find difficult.
“Is the game in good health financially? Probably not. I think the TV deals we have got are terrible.
“We are sitting next to the biggest football nation in the world and they get hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of millions and we get a fraction of that.
“Maybe if we got a fraction more of that we would be able to improve things.
“I also think the way the prize money is split in Scotland, the top two get a massive amount compared to the rest and that keeps the rest down.
“There’s a lot of people trying extremely hard and I see Scotland as a place where people still want to come and play football.
“The game on the pitch is really competitive until you look at the money the Old Firm have got compared to everyone else.
“But the rest are really competitive.
“I have seen a lot of good games this season and St Johnstone have been involved in quite a few good games.
“I think it’s no worse than it was last season or the season before.
“I will come back to my base camp – I would love to see the Old Firm playing in the English Premier League.
“They would be able to afford to pay £50million each per season to the rest of Scottish football and then I would support Celtic and Rangers playing in the English Premier League.
“But will it ever happen? I don’t think so.”
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