How would Rangers and Celtic do in Ligue 1?

Now the Belgian-Dutch BeNeLiga is an actual thing that’s happening, we’ve entered the Wild West for proposed merger leagues.

As if the idea of a European Super League and its subsidiary, the dreaded ‘Atlantic League’, weren’t enough to cringe at, there are now strong reports of a borderless ‘North American League’, with MLS set to join forces with Mexico’s Liga MX.

And that’s just the start of it. In a pitch absolutely no-one asked for, French economist Jean-Pascal Gayant has mooted the idea of Scottish giants Celtic and Rangers joining France’s Ligue 1.

Outlining the ambitious proposal in his Le Monde column, Pascal reckons it would ‘benefit both the French and Scottish leagues’ if the Old Firm were to be torn out of the SPFL and thrown into a contracted 16-18 team Ligue 1.

Now, even aside from the fact that would unfairly relegate at least two teams from France’s top flight, and the lack of any actual benefit to Scotland (it would be ‘more competitive’ without its two biggest sources of media interest…right then), it’s a pretty terrible idea lacking in substance and viability.

But we’re nothing if not open-minded at 90min, so we’re going there. How would Scottish football’s biggest clubs fare if they were to be thrown into the mix in France?

By whichever way you measure it, the Old Firm clubs are as big as almost anyone in France. Under normal circumstances, Celtic draw in more home fans than anyone in Ligue 1 (58,000), while Rangers (49,000) are beaten only by Marseille (52,000).

The only thing clubs in France have that Celtic and Rangers don’t is money. Much has been made of the collapse of Ligue 1’s TV deal with Mediapro, but even their short-straw agreement with Canal+ is worth around £300m for 2019/20 – ten times more than what the entire 42-club SPFL receives from Sky Sports.

That sort of TV revenue would be a game-changer for the two Scottish clubs. Along with increased access to the Champions League, there would be scope for substantial and rapid growth – so there’s no real limit to how far they could eventually go with that sort of platform.

How would they do now is another matter.

The standard in France’s top flight is clearly better over the piece than in the Scottish Premiership, but players moving between the two tend to fare well. Celtic’s French supply line has more hits than misses: Moussa Dembele and Jason Denayer have both thrived in France after playing in Scotland while Odsonne Edouard and Christopher Jullien have succeeded in the opposite direction.

There’s reason to believe the current Rangers team, still undefeated in this year’s Scottish Premiership, would be at least pushing for a Champions League place. Their defeat to Slavia Prague was a heartbreaker for Steven Gerrard and his team, but they faced up to Benfica, Standard Liege and Lech Poznan in their Europa League group and didn’t lose once.

There’s no denying that Celtic are the weaker of the two, but even they, at their lowest ebb in a decade, were able to take four points off Lille in their group this season. Lille are currently joint top of Ligue 1, behind PSG only on goal difference.

The conclusion we inevitably come to after this wild trip down hypothetical alley is that in the short-term, the Old Firm clubs would do fine in France.

Longer-term, who knows? We don’t, and we probably never will, because it’s not going to happen.

Sorry, Jean-Pascal.