In my financial services career over three decades, I have seen multiple devastating financial crashes and bubbles which have burst with catastrophic consequences for tens of millions of people. Certainly, when it comes to bubbles bursting, there are some universal truths.

One being that rare voices of concern are pummelled into background noise by overwhelming vested interests. There’s a bubble because people/companies have invested heavily, often recklessly, and many of the more vulnerable do so toward the end of the cycle.

By the time you’re hearing down the pub that ‘thing x’ is a great investment, it’s far more likely the profit opportunity has passed, or the cycle is about to end in a way that would be extremely damaging to your financial health.

Occasionally there are those with enough inside knowledge, insight, intelligence and substantial funds to see disaster approaching and make vast bets against the market in the face of overwhelming general opinion, such as betting against the US housing market.

If you have seen The Big Short, which I highly recommend you do, you’ll be aware of a couple of famous examples. In this scenario, though, you don’t need to worry about those guys, because whatever information they have, they definitely won’t be sharing it with you. They are not heroes, just opposite sides of the same coin.

Also, this doesn’t just apply to members of the public, who you wouldn’t expect to have in-depth knowledge of such situations. Remember how often vast institutions, and every flavour of investment fund, have thrown billions at a bubble. Sometimes they may appreciate the risk but bank the personal financial rewards. Sometimes just because it’s easy, comfortable and viewed as the accepted reality.

Until it’s not.

Of course, by then it’s too late for the vast majority.

Football is replete with potential bubbles, and it’s impossible to predict what may be the trigger that either significantly deflates or dramatically bursts them.

If I could predict such things with any certainty, I’d be dictating this to my supermodel PA from the deck of my mega yacht in the Caribbean!

However, when you start hearing enough chatter about events in related fields, you do start to wonder about consequences for the future of the game. In my case, as much as I find that a peripherally fascinating topic, my immediate thought is: how might our club benefit?

Let’s take the football bully that’s eating everybody’s lunch: the English Premiership. A seemingly irresistible force which seems a long way from meeting an immovable object. Yet, let me test a theory and ask you this. If I said it looks like a bubble to me, would you disagree? In my experience, most fans believe this to be the case.

Propped up by a vast broadcasting rights deal, it’s doubtful we should break into a chorus of ‘a change is gonna come’ any time soon, but what may trigger an escape of air from that bubble?

Maybe one of the biggest cheating scandals in the history of the game?

When you delve into the possible sanctions and potentially hundreds of millions in civil claims for damages from other clubs, it’s definitely possible that Manchester City may cease to exist, certainly in it’s current form.

The purchase of City via the Abu Dhabi United Group controlled by Sheikh Mansour is considered to be a textbook example of ‘sportswashing.’This is when a state purchases a beloved cultural trophy asset to soften its international image, obscure domestic human rights abuses and build geopolitical influence.

Although the Sheikh and his family may have to struggle by with a fortune of a mere $300 billion, they didn’t buy the club for the money. Quite the opposite. They bought City to throw money at it until it became a globally recognised and loved brand and, by extension, brought all the right kind of attention to the Emirates.

They now face a potential ban as owners. I don’t believe that will happen, for the exact reason that state-sponsored ownership of clubs should never be allowed. There have already been explicit threats made to the British government that if that were to happen, or indeed significant sanctions were imposed, billions of UAE investment in the UK will be pulled.

However, although I don’t believe the owners will be banned, the Premier League have already set multiple precedents which make severe sanctions almost inevitable. Given that Man City can only generate a fraction of the legitimate income of their serious league competitors, their footballing achievements will inevitably decline.

Allied to the global humiliation of being painted as one of the biggest cheats in worldwide sporting history, the club then becomes the opposite of a trophy asset. It becomes toxic to the UAE’s reputation.

What will the Sheikh do then? I think we’re all fairly sure of the answer to that.

If you think this episode can’t damage the Premier League, I suggest that the devastating impact of the Juventus cheating scandal on Serie A would be a relevant comparison.

Another state-owned club may also face consequences, as yet another sportswashing regime faces regional political calamity. Newcastle United is owned by the notorious sovereign wealth fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia. Currently, the existence of the Saudi Royal family is under threat from the Houthis. Many regional analysts believe this threat is existential. Will Newcastle United become the next LIV Golf?

The next couple of bits of research are thanks to the gents on the business of sport podcast, which you should follow if you are interested in how sport finances can dictate the future of many sports.

French football lost its 500-million-euro domestic rights deal with Canal +. The rights were then picked up by DAZN for 450m, but they exited that deal after a year. The direct-to-consumer replacement deal is worth a mere 150m. Reports indicate that every owner or ownership group in Ligue 1 (excluding PSG) is desperate to sell.

Sky Italia used to pay 780 million Euros for primary rights to Serie A. They now pay roughly 500m for a combination of Champions League, Premier League and secondary rights to Serie A. Although DAZN took up the primary rights for 700m, that contract finishes in 2029 and leaves them as the only realistic bidder, which means a predictably massive downgrade in their offer.

What many European broadcasters have realised via their advanced analytics is that they can maximise their ‘football views’ with a combination of Champions League, Premiership and a few selected domestic games. This seems to be true across many leagues and is a massive threat to domestic broadcasting deals across Europe.

Might a tarnished Premiership, with club share prices declining, revisit the possibility of entry to Celtic?  Might multiple European leagues with collapsing domestic broadcasting revenue have to seek a new ‘Atlantic League’ type situation which would be massively beneficial to Celtic?

Long before any of this happened, or indeed whether any of it is the trigger for change, I have said repeatedly on A Celtic State of Mind that it’s absolutely crucial Celtic remain relevant in Europe. Change is inevitable; whether it’s these events that might cause it to happen is almost immaterial. But they do demonstrate just how quickly change may come when it does.

Who would be perfectly placed to benefit from a situation where, for example, the collapse of domestic broadcasting rights values triggers a change? Would it be a club that has demonstrated the ability to be profitable with a frankly pathetic domestic rights deal?

Celtic must be at the table when any possible change happens. We must have the voice of a potential giant, perhaps just on the periphery. Not the whisper of a once supreme European power, now faded into irrelevance and obscurity.

The spiral of European failure on which we are currently embarked is not only massively financially damaging in the short term and reputationally destructive in the corridors of power and influence, but it threatens our long-term future in a way most don’t seem to consider.

Given that we are controlled by a man who was betting on us getting into English football, you would think these scenarios would be contemplated and appreciated.

However, today’s Desmond is just an old man with a toy, likely more concerned with his own mortality than proactively planning for future European eventualities.

His functionaries are barely capable of day-to-day operations and entirely devoid of the sort of vision, or love for the club, needed to ensure the future by anticipating possibilities and how Celtic becomes an invaluable part of whatever new landscape emerges.

They say you make your own luck. That’s true, but when that luck arrives in the form of opportunity, you better be positioned and prepared to grasp it with both hands.

With our current custodians, we have both arms tied behind our backs.