WALTER SMITH insists Scottish football needs the Old Firm rivalry as Rangers and Celtic get set to do battle for the first time in three years this weekend.

The derby clash will take centre stage at Hampden on Sunday as the teams square up bidding for a place in the League Cup final.

While Rangers have been making their way back through the lower leagues, Celtic have eased to three-straight Premiership titles and are expected to make it four-in-a-row this term.

And former Ibrox boss Smith reckons our game has been a poorer place without the regular duels between the two Glasgow giants as the spotlight gets set to shine on the National Stadium.

He said: "It is a good environment. Sometimes it spills over and there are problems that we could do without. Scottish football needs it, it needs a Rangers v Celtic game.

"The profile that this game will achieve over Europe, and even the world, will be massive and it gets that profile focused onto Scottish football again, which we are struggling to achieve at European level at present.

"Celtic have been left for another season to try and hold up our European profile. I think it is a game we can look forward to.

"If Rangers had been faced with playing Celtic four times a season for the last three seasons we might not have seen the same circumstances occurring at Rangers as they have done.

"I think things would have been sorted a lot quicker if they had remained in the Premier Division and had to play the Old Firm game four times a season.

"In the circumstances they are in, Celtic would have been favourites in each of those games. A few Old Firm defeats focus you, and certainly focus the Rangers support.

"I don't think the game itself will be as straightforward as everyone is saying."

Despite the huge gulf between Rangers and Celtic on and off the field at present, the rivalry on the terraces has not diminished in recent years as the clubs have been kept apart.

Scotland's heavyweights will soon go toe-to-toe once again and Smith hopes the eagerly anticipated encounter will be remembered for the right reasons.

He said: "The Old Firm game does bring up some elements that we would rather do without but, overall, it is a big loss to us that we don't have the Old Firm fighting for Championships

"It is always a frenzy, it just depends what type of frenzy.

"You have got to stress that there are elements of it that are unsavoury. But, by the same token, for all the problems that are created every now and again, I feel Scottish football needs it."