Scottish Championship side Rangers and Scottish Premiership side Aberdeen will "join forces with Celtic in fighting against the plan to shut Scottish teams out of the Champions League," according to Scott McDermott of the Scotland DAILY RECORD. Scottish Professional Football League CEO Neil Doncaster has "already blasted the bid by Europe’s elite to make the competition a closed shop." Now Scotland's three biggest clubs are "ready to unite and resist any such changes to the tournament." Rangers Managing Dir Stewart Robertson said, "It's a time to put club rivalries aside and unite against this. I can only speak for Rangers but I'm sure the views of Celtic and Aberdeen -- or any other club in Scotland -- will be the same. Maybe this will help the clubs in Scottish football get behind one cause." The European Clubs Association board is "deeply concerned about the latest proposals," which were revealed by Bayern Munich CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. They involve the Champions League becoming a 20-team tournament from season '18-19 and "consisting only of sides from Germany, Spain, England, Italy and France." But Robertson wants the Scotland FA and SPFL to "fight Scotland’s corner and keep the Champions League’s key principles intact." He said, "Scottish clubs at least want a chance of being at Europe’s top table. From Rangers’ point of view, we’d certainly resist and lobby strongly against this. They are loose proposals, clearly to try and test the water. So we’ll need the SFA and SPFL to lobby quite strongly" (DAILY RECORD, 2/14).
