The greatest private monopoly in history was the Standard Oil Company. At its peak in the late 19^th century, Standard controlled 90% of the US oil market and influenced the railway, steel, wood, and drilling industries. If it involved any aspect of the life cycle of oil, there would be Standard. Frequently, Standard was depicted as an octopus, extending its tentacles across North America and into other latitudes of the world.

Monopolies were on my mind as I watched Celtic romp to a somewhat underwhelming 2-0 victory over Hibernian last Sunday (11/08). “5-0, I think,” my Celtic-supporting co-worker said. “You’re underestimating how wasteful they are in front of goal. Only four,” I called back.

There is a trend of despair surrounding much of Europe’s professional football. It feels like the same teams are going to win titles fending off challenges from the same teams. Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester City. You expect them to win. It’s gotten to the point where some teams in England don’t sell out their seat allocation away to City because their fans know they’ll lose – what’s the point in getting on a coach at the crack of dawn when only losing 3-0 is considered a good result?

This state of affairs is hyper-charged in Scotland. As of the end of the 2023/24 season, Real Madrid have won 39% of all Spanish titles (36); the most successful team in England, Manchester United (20 titles), has won 16% of all First Division titles; Bayern Munich, a team that has become synonymous with monopoly and dominance in no small part to their 11-in-a-row run, have won a little over a third of all German titles.

Celtic and Rangers have won a combined 109 titles (85%). Put another way, the last time a team other than Celtic or Rangers won the League was in 1985. You can get odds of 20/1 that Celtic will go undefeated this season. The debate this season isn’t about who will win, it’s about who will come third.

This can seem mind-boggling to some. Sure, there is some resignation to the Premier League title league coming down to Arsenal or Manchester City for the third season running, but it’s still not out of the realm of possibility that someone else could displace them. In Scotland, it would genuinely take a near act of God for one of the Old Firm to not finish in the top two. There were a few seasons where someone did, but that was due to Rangers being shunted down to the bottom of the professional pyramid and having to rebuild themselves. In the intervening years, Celtic won nine in a row to tie the record. The team that stopped them from winning ten? Rangers. Because of course it was.

The question then comes to why. Why are the Glasgow teams so dominant in the League? Early on in the history of the Scottish League, some key moments helped to shift power towards Glasgow. The Edinburgh rivals both saw their teams gutted at various points in their history, like when Celtic brought most of Hibernians championship winners in the 1890s over to Glasgow or when Hearts saw most of their early 20^th-century decimated on the Western Front.

Overall though, the answer, I think, is three-fold. One: Glasgow is the capital of Scottish Football. The national stadium, the HQ of the Scottish FA, and the largest sports papers, are all situated in Glasgow. All things football are pulled in by its sheer sporting gravity.

Secondly, wealth. In the 19^th and early 20^th centuries, Glasgow was a key city for Britain. This early wealth helped to entice the best of Scottish talent to either Celtic Park or Ibrox. Not to mention that, as Celtic and Rangers won titles, they would win the largest pot of prize money, and then qualify for Europe. Repeat that cycle over the decades with increasing pots and an extra European spot means that Celtic and Rangers found themselves in a growing cycle while many other Scottish clubs stared deep into a financial abyss.

Finally, rivalry. There had been Irish Catholic teams in Scotland before Celtic, but there was something about them being in the heart of a British city with a massive immigrant community that scared many in the deeply Protestant nation. When Celtic won the league for the first time in 1892, a newspaper asked who would take up the mantle and defend Scotland against them. Rangers said they would answer.

So, what is to be done about this Glasgow Trust? Standard Oil was hit with an anti-trust lawsuit and broken up into smaller companies. Obviously, you can’t break up the clubs (although I think that many wouldn’t be opposed to it). But there can be ways to level the playing field. And that field is already fairly level, outside of the big two. The majority of the league has shown in these early stages that they could challenge for third: it’s just that they are already left behind in Celtic’s dust.

There are ways to try and blunt the financial power of the Glasgow teams, such as spending limits and salary caps. But the problem with Trusts is that they will try and hang on at all costs. Rockefeller hid all over the country to escape US Marshalls. AT&T promised that American telecommunications would collapse if they were broken up. The East India Company maintained three standing armies to enforce its monopoly over the Indian subcontinent. The Glasgow teams will try every trick in the book to make sure that one of them will be champions. It is a question of whether the other teams and the Scottish FA will be able to break them up.