Does Scottish football need the Old Firm derby?

When Celtic and Rangers meet on Saturday there will be something completely different yet entirely the same about the contest. A lot has changed since the last time the two rivals met in the league four years ago, with this weekend’s Old Firm derby expected to be a watershed for the Scottish game. A rivalry will be resumed, but also rebooted.

There is an excitement about Scotland’s top flight for the first time in a number of years and a large part of that is down to Rangers’ return to the fold. Aberdeen offered some sort of challenge to Celtic’s supremacy over the past two seasons, but there will be a renewed intensity to the chase at the top of the table this term.

Not everyone will welcome back the Old Firm derby, though. Plenty view it as the manifestation of everything wrong with Scottish football, with the toxic nature of the rivalry and everything that comes with it a stain on the country’s culture. Indeed, the sectarianism and hatred that has become synonymous with Old Firm clashes certainly wouldn’t be missed.

Others, however, viewed the return of Rangers to the top flight as imperative to the recovery of the Scottish game. “Without Rangers, there is social unrest, there is a big problem for Scottish society,” Scottish FA chief executive Stewart Regan once claimed. “There has to be an understanding of how serious this is.”

Neil Lennon, a man who knows the Old Firm rivalry better than most, also expressed the opinion that without Rangers Scottish football is worse off. “It’s essential for the game in Scotland that Rangers get back to the Premiership as quickly as possible,” he said. “They need to get back to the Premiership for the state of the game up there - in terms of revenue, crowds, competition.”

But is an accurate assumption? Does Scottish football really need a strong Celtic and Rangers alliance at the top of the pyramid? Have top flight fans north of the border really missed the Ibrox club over the past four years?

It is undeniably true that the Old Firm derby is the one fixture Scottish football has capable of commanding attention from around the globe. Saturday’s game will be shown in over 100 different countries; the same can’t be said for a routine Scottish Premiership meeting between Hamilton Accies and Partick Thistle. Even faux title deciders like the ones between Celtic and Aberdeen in recent years fail to transcend Scotland’s borders.

“Everyone I know in football watched it,” Rangers manager Mark Warburton said of last April’s Scottish Cup semi-final Old Firm clash. “I had more texts about that game than any other in my life. They all watched it and they saw the passion of the fans, a good quality game, the coverage, everything.” There can be little doubt that the Old Firm derby is Scottish football’s biggest game.

There is a fairly unanimous agreement across the board that the return of Rangers to the top flight will only serve to financially benefit Scottish football. In almost every individual instance, Scottish Premiership clubs’ crowd numbers have fallen since Rangers’ meltdown. A rise of some note is now expected with the Ibrox club back in the top flight. But in terms of the sporting contest itself, does the return of the Old Firm derby and the rivalry between the country’s two predominant clubs actually improve the Scottish Premiership as a spectacle?

It could be argued that the ruin of Rangers opened up the Scottish top flight as a competition, with clubs like St Johnstone, Inverness CT and Aberdeen thriving. Celtic might have effectively won the title by the end of August in every season since Rangers’ demise, but the real intrigue in the Scottish football could be found in what happened below top spot. Will that continue to happen with Rangers now back? That will truly determine whether the sport in the country is better with or without them.

Scottish football doesn’t need Rangers back in the top flight so to speak, with clubs adjusting accordingly over the past four years to ensure that only not only they could survive but in some cases thrive. The question, however, is not one of finance, crowd numbers or anything that can be charted on a spreadsheet. It is an issue of competitive spirit and rivalry, the true essence of football. In that sense, it’s difficult to argue the Scottish game isn’t better off with Rangers back. Or more pertinently, with the Old Firm derby back.