Smith calls for European league

Rangers manager Walter Smith wants the Old Firm to compete in a European league and leave their respective reserve teams to battle it out for the Clydesdale Bank Premier League.

Smith is frustrated by the current financial chasm that exists between Europe’s elite clubs and Scotland’s big two.

The Ibrox boss, who guided the Light Blues to the UEFA Cup final last season, wants UEFA to formulate a new European league involving big clubs from Scotland, Portugal, Holland and Scandinavia.

Smith believes such a league could run at weekends leaving Rangers to put out a B team to play in the SPL.

“Rangers and Celtic are two huge clubs who deserve to be in a better circumstance than they are in in Scotland,” the Rangers boss said.

“There are a number of big clubs all over Europe who find themselves in the same position.

“We are nearly all hamstrung in terms of finance in comparison to the bigger leagues and few people are doing a great deal to try and equalise that.

“UEFA have got to help bigger clubs in small countries and there are a whole load of them out there, desperate to get closer to the likes of England, Germany, Spain and Italy in financial terms.

“It’s the biggest problem in European football at the moment and it impacts on us at Rangers and Celtic.

“There should still be a Champions League but there should be a European league to rival ordinary domestic leagues.

“We should have a Saturday fixture in a European league.

“If Rangers and Celtic were offered the chance to play in a new European format I would agree to that.

“But that doesn’t mean we couldn’t have teams here.

“I would hope we could still have a team making a decent challenge in the Scottish league but it would give the other teams in Scotland an opportunity to win, which they are not getting for the same reasons we are not getting them European-wise.”