Think you're attractive? Depends how rich you are.

Celtic's chief executive, Peter Lawwell, was at the Soccerex conference in Dubai last week. Socccerex dubs itself as “the only global convention dedicated to the professional b2b football environment”. In layman’s terms, “how to make money out of the world’s favourite sport”.

Peter Lawwell gave a speech in which he characterised Celtic as one of only 5 or 6 clubs with global appeal, hampered by a domestic league that is “fairly unattractive”. Lawwell has finally accepted that the chances of Celtic joining the English Premiership are non-existent, although expect to hear a lot of bleating from Glasgow if Cardiff ever make it to the promised land. Instead, he is agitating for a yet further expanded elite European competition, a long stated dream of that unlikeable group G14. The aim, of course, is to make more money.

But one wonders if he had the chance to watch last weekend’s Hibs v Celtic match last Sunday before he flew out, because here was football that certainly was attractive for all the right reasons – fast, technical, and exciting. It was a football match that kept the crowd on the edge of the seats for the full 90 minutes, as Celtic fought back from 2-0 down and Hibs held on, before conjuring a chance that would have won them all 3 points right at the death. For all that Scottish football is dismissed as agricultural, just look at the squad of the runaway leaders. Players like Shaun Maloney (last season’s player of the year, by the way), Aiden McGeady and Kenny Miller are quick, skilful and like the ball played to feet, not hoofed at them from 40 yards.

Yes, there were full-blooded tackles, and confrontations between players, that would probably not be allowed anywhere else, but these are part of the character of Scottish football, part of its unique identity, and to be treasured all the more as football increasingly becomes a contact-free sport elsewhere. Not better, not worse – just different.

Compelling spectacle though it was, this match is nowhere near as valuable as a commodity as even the most mundane fixture in the English Premiership. Scottish football is a poor relation compared to its obscenely wealthy neighbour. Easter Road has a capacity of around 17,000, which is an obvious limit on the number of tickets that can be sold for the game. The domestic TV market in Scotland, with a population of only 5 million, is also limited, so the obvious route to growth is through “overseas” sales. In the poly-channel digital TV market, live sports events are increasingly unique, as viewers cannot skip through the ad breaks. This makes them attractive to advertisers and broadcasters alike – just today, BT announced a deal with Setanta to sell Premiership and SPL matches to their broadband customers.

It is not entirely fanciful to suggest that the SPL could grab an increased share of the “overseas” market for televised football. After all, leagues fall in and out of fashion: a decade ago, Serie A was much admired and watched across Europe, before viewers started turning away after too many boring games, and there are signs that the all-conquering Premiership is losing some of its excitement. To do so, however, depends on making the league competitive on a consistent basis. Unfortunately, Hibernian’s own experience of the past week show just how hard that is.

Scott Brown had a great game against Celtic. A tenacious and dynamic midfielder, he is a genuine flair player and has a very promising career in front of him. Everyone – including Hibs – accept that his future probably lies at a bigger club. Unfortunately, that is not enough for the Old Firm. Along with Kevin Thomson, the Hibs captain, Brown changed agents in the summer, and has been promised immediate riches by Willie McKay. Despite only signing an extension to his contract in the summer, McKay has now declared the terms of this contract unacceptable, and has been agitating to renegotiate terms, aided by the Daily Record, who have printed a succession of leaks from the agent while Hibs remain silent. When this failed, the player handed in transfer request after Saturday’s game against Dundee Utd. The clear aim is to force Hibs to sell in January, probably to Rangers, and hopefully for a knockdown fee.

None of this is healthy for the Scottish game. Either Scott Brown stays, and helps Hibs to compete against the Old Firm. Or he leaves, to the highest bidder, earning Hibernian the money to try and replace him and strengthen their squad. Having one of their key players deliberately destabilised is not in Hibs interest, obviously, but here’s the interesting thing – long term, it’s not in the Old Firm’s interests either.

It might be unrealistic to expect Lawwell and his fellow delegates (Willie McKay was at Soccerex too) to put short-term, narrow self-interest aside for a while, and think of the bigger picture. Dubai, after all, is the prime exponent of such thinking - a desert state that found billions of dollars worth of oil under the ground, and had an unprecedented opportunity to create a sustainable legacy for generations to come. Instead, they are splurging the lot on 7 star hotels, environmentally ruinous golf courses and holiday apartments on artificial palm-shaped islands, all built through exploiting cheap migrant labour from the sub-continent.

Celtic – and Rangers – need a healthy SPL. It’s about time they recognised this fact, and did something constructive, rather than endlessly moaning about it.