Former EFL chief confirms Celtic agreed to join the English pyramid

Former EFL chief Keith Harris has explained how Celtic came close to joining the English pyramid system many moons ago.

It is seemingly a never-ending debate for some, whether Celtic and Rangers should joing the English system having been so dominant in the Scottish system. Although one could argue that it is only really Celtic who have been dominant.

Then again, it is more about budget and how the budgets of those two clubs compare to the rest of the clubs in Scotland. Of course, removing the two Glasgow giants would provide fairer competition for the rest, but the English pyramid has not allowed any new entrants since the six Welsh clubs joined early on, and one of those has since left in Colwyn Bay.

But according to former EFL chief Keith Harris, Celtic and Rangers almost joined the EFL back in 2002, agreeing to be placed in the Championship, or what would have been the Champions back then - Division One.

Speaking on the Keys and Grey Unleashed podcast, Harris said: "What would happen if Celtic and Rangers were to join the Football League? Hmm... I attended a lunch at David Murray's house in Perthshire.

"The Celtic and Rangers board were both there in the same house. David said, 'I'll invite them in, but I won't host them. You can host them.' It was an interesting experience, it was certainly exciting!

"It was quite fast-moving. Between the SPL and the Scottish FA, there was broad agreement that they would come into the Championship. It was a triumph [getting them all to agree to it].

"I'd like to take praise, but it wasn't that difficult. Because suddenly Hearts and Aberdeen weren't playing for third or fourth place, they're playing for first. There was an agreement that some of the extra £40m [of revenue] would go back into Scotland."

Asked about why the plan failed, Harris added: "I got stopped by a journalist who said, 'I've got the story.'

"I think he was an Observer journalist. He said, 'We're going to be running this.' And that blew it, no question. You get some quotes going in, and it died on the maypole. But it was that close."

Celtic have not been close ever since, and the conversation hasn't really gone anywhere for a little while, even with the Bhoys continuing to dominate.

The change is unlikely to be on the cards any time soon.