Celtic Cups All The Way Down The Levels.
I think we should have Celtic Nations Club Football Cups all the way down the levels of Celtic soccer.
So that is cross border trophies involving teams from the Celtic nations of Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, Cornwall, the Isle of Man and Brittany.
My idea would be cross border trophies between club sides from the 6 nations, on top of domestic and European football.
The top trophy would be a Celtic Nations Club Cup consisting of all Scottish Premier sides, plus the big Welsh sides in the English league that is Wrexham, Newport County, Cardiff City, Swansea City and Merthyr Town. Plus the big sides of Brittany like Nantes and Rennes. Plus selected sides from Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and the Cymru Premier. Plus a side each from the Isle of Man and Cornwall.
So there could be games like Aberdeen v Cardiff City, The New Saints v Linfield, Glasgow Celtic v Swansea City, Newport County v Dundee United, Rennes v Glasgow Rangers, Nantes v Shamrock Rovers, Hibernian v Cork City, Motherwell v Truro City, and Heart of Midlothian v Wrexham.
Thus would be a group stage trophy followed by knockout stage leading to a final.
The UEFA authorities allowed Welsh, Irish and English sides in the Scottish Challenge Cup. So UEFA would allow cross border trophies.
Travel would not be a huge issue when you consider the trips that teams do in nations like Brazil, India, Canada, the USA, Mexico, Russia and China.
In rugby union the Scottish, Welsh, Italian, Irish and South Africans have had cross border club trophies, So North West Europe is not that tough to travel around.
I think the Scottish sides would like to open up to a larger market.
The big Welsh sides in the English league would get to play European style matches.
The Irish sides could be awakened from being sleeping giants.
The Breton sides could connect with their Celtic cousins.
The Isle of Man and Cornwall need to enter a team each as they are Celtic nations who should be represented.
But the Scottish Challenge Cup could also continue with sides from other countries.
But all the way down the levels there could be cross border cups involving the Celtic nations.
With for instance smaller part time sides having multi-team events at a single stadia. They could be called things like the Celtic Second Tier Cup, or the Celtic Secondary Shield.
I also think this should be done at men's and women's soccer.
So we could have Celtic Club matches trophies all the way down the levels.
There are also territories in the North West of Iberia, that are often seen as Celtic nations. These are regions in parts of Northern Portugal, and North West Spain. Including regions such as Galicia, Asturias, León, and Cantabria. Some of these regions have been referred to as Gallaecia and Astures. They are often considered Celtic nations. So perhaps these regions and nations could enter teams in the cross border Celtic trophies.
We could also invite sides from Yorkshire, England, and other parts of Western Europe such as from Belgium France, Denmark or the Netherlands.
Perhaps Scandinavia could enter sides and Central Europe could enter teams such as from nations like Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia.
Countries like Finland, and Greece could enter sides by invitation.
