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A British Football League is a proposed association football league in the United Kingdom that would involve the merger of clubs from the present Scottish, Welsh, and Northern Irish football league systems into the larger English football league system. It is considered a possibility distinct enough that police in Scotland have reviewed their anti-hooliganism framework in preparation for its creation. A supporter of the proposal was Roger Mitchell, the chief executive of the Scottish Premier League between 1998 and 2002. FIFA President Sepp Blatter reacted positively to such an idea, but said he would prefer this to be done in conjunction with the amalgamation of the four British football associations. Alternative proposals The formation of a British league is merely a single proposal, and several other suggestions have been made to reduce the divide between club football in the Home Nations. British Cup A 'British Cup', that is a domestic cup competition involving teams from all league systems, has been proposed. Originally, the FA Cup included teams from across the United Kingdom, and this continued even after the Scottish Cup was established; of Glasgow reached the FA Cup final in 1884 and 1885. With questions being asked about the future of both the English League Cup and the Scottish League Cup, it has been suggested that they be merged into a single competition. Other plans for the respective League Cups involve a merger between the later stages of the competitions, and an annual play-off between the two winning clubs. Cup competitions involving English and Scottish teams has been attempted before, in the form of the Texaco Cup and the Anglo-Scottish Cup, but these were not successful. In 2011, BBC Scotland reported that the Scottish Premier League's strategic plan included unification with the Scottish Football League, which would "enable the SPL to explore the possibility of cross-border matches (potentially British Cup matches) via the Scottish League Cup". Expansion of the English League Supporters of the Old Firm clubs, Celtic and Rangers, have frequently argued that they should be admitted into the Premier League, but the Premier League have consistently rejected this proposal. With a direct path to the Premier League blocked, it was proposed that the Old Firm would join the Football League instead. They would have then attempted to gain promotion to the Premier League in the same way as any other English club, but this proposal was also rejected. At one point Wimbledon F.C. hoped to relocate to Dublin, which would have expanded the Premier League into Ireland. Atlantic League Due to the possible paths to the English league system being blocked, the Old Firm also considered joining an Atlantic League. This would have incorporated the top teams from Scotland, Portugal, Netherlands and Belgium. The plan was to have this competition work alongside the existing UEFA competitions and their own domestic cup competitions. The idea was never supported by UEFA and enthusiasm seems to have faded for this proposal in recent years.
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