Dundee FC could revive glamour Celtic match in America idea

Dundee could revive the idea to play a Premiership game in America.

The Dark Blues and Celtic were “very, very close” to securing a deal to face off against each other in Philadelphia in 2015.

SPFL chief Neil Doncaster described it as an “exciting idea”.

However, concerns raised by Major League Soccer over how it could affect their competition as well as getting FIFA and UEFA consent put a stop to the concept back then.

Now, though, the world football environment has changed and the likes of La Liga are pursuing a plan to play a competitive league match in Miami as soon as 2025/26 season.

They already play their Super Cup tournament in Saudi Arabia.

Dundee FC came ‘very, very close’ to US game in 2015

And Dundee managing director John Nelms says the idea could be looked at by the Dark Blues as he cites the example shown by NFL successfully transferring games to London and Germany.

Dundee managing director John Nelms. Image: DCT — Dundee managing director John Nelms would be keen to revisit the idea of Dundee playing a ‘home’ game against Celtic in America. Image: DCT

Nelms said: “Is it something we’d look at again? Yes, we’re open to all of these things.

“We’re in the entertainment business so anything we can do to entertain, we’d certainly do that.

“That project nearly happened, it was very, very close.

“It would have been fantastic for everybody, financially for the football club, for the eyes that you’d get on the game, everything we thought that that would be fantastic for.

“The NFL are doing it just now, they were in Germany last weekend.

“They see the benefits in doing that.

“Now, with benefits also come the negative side of it which is making sure that your national identity and the league’s identity is there.

“In the United States, their concern was the Mexican League potentially playing a lot of their games because of the loopholes that we found and how we could make it happen.

“In the US, especially in the southern states, the following for Mexican football is huge.

Philadelphia Eagles stadium Lincoln Financial Field was lined up for the Dundee v Celtic match in America. Image: Chris Szagola/Shutterstock

“I think if you put the two games up against each other, an MLS game versus a Mexican League game, you’d have a big group of people that would choose the Mexican League game in certain states in the United States.

“So I understand what the fears were.

“Then Canada said ‘right let’s do it in Canada’.

“But the problem with Canada is during the time of year that we play our games, it’s usually frozen up there, and we weren’t willing to play this game on plastic.

“So that killed that.”

Question of impact on MLS

Nelms says a re-run of the plan would be helped by the experience of the first time round.

But admits he understands the concerns of the host country.

Dundee managing director John Nelms. Image: Mark Scates/SNS

“There are an enormous amount of hoops. It’s FIFA, it’s UEFA and the local leagues,” he added.

“But if it ever arose again that we’re able to do that, we have a little bit more of an understanding of how it works now and we’d certainly be up for something like that.

“The question is how it would affect the MLS and I understand that.

“If we had English Premier League games being played up here, I think we’d be a bit concerned that our stadiums might be empty that week because Man Utd are playing Man City at Hampden.

“I think we’d all have a little bit of a fear of that so I understand it.”