Top-flight needs change, but not change for change's sake

Published on Wednesday 12 January 2011 12:29

Everyone concurs, Scottish football is badly in need of yet another shake-up. But, while that much may be agreed, there appear to be as many differing opinions as to how that goal is achieved as there are clubs.

It is, of course, a debate which has exercised the minds of the games legislators for more years than they'd care to remember.

The first tinkering with a league which had been basically untouched since its inception in 1890, come as early as 1964 when the Scottish Football League management committee petitioned member clubs for their views on a proposed change from two divisions of 18 and 19 to 14,12 and 12.

It wasn't until 1975, though, until reconstruction took place, the old First Division becoming the Premier Division, the number of participants reduced from 18 to ten, producing a 36-match programme.

However, the predictable tedium didn't take long to set in and by 1986 the league had increased to 12, giving an unwieldy 44-game championship. Two years later it was down to ten but back to 12 by 1994, the format which remained until 1998 and the secession of the ten original founders of the present-day Scottish Premier League from the SFL.

It was a move driven by Rangers and Celtic who believed, although it didn't prove to be the case, that they'd soon be negotiating their own television deals.

Two years later the SPL was back to 12, but to avoid the seemingly never-ending schedule, the notorious and unloved "split" was introduced.

And so it has been ever since.

Despite the continual criticism, the set-up has drawn on a number of levels, the imbalance of home and away fixtures, the over-familiarity of teams playing each other four, five, six and even seven times a season when cup competitions are taken into account and, not least, the unshakeable grip the Old Firm have taken on a title which hasn't been won by another club since 1985, the end of the short period of dominance enjoyed by the "New Firm" of Aberdeen and Dundee United.

Now, as an SPL working party has proposed returning to a ten-team league, the arguments for and against have resurfaced once more with the suggestions for a simpler, longer-lasting solution seemingly no closer today than they were almost 50 years ago.

The ten-team option backed by SPL chief executive Neil Doncaster and chairman Ralph Topping has been rejected, according to one survey, by an overwhelming 88 per cent of customers, namely the fans who already believe they are being asked to pay over the odds for a sub-standard product.

More than a few clubs, including a number of those in the top flight, are also opposed, but other than being against what has been put on the table, no-one seems quite sure of what they want.

A smaller league, so their argument goes, leads to a climate of fear in which the primary objective will be simply to avoid defeat, leading to a safety-first approach from managers.

In turn that, it is said, will stifle the development of young players as no-one will risk untested talent with relegation the price to be paid, former Dundee United boss Jim McLean claiming that having taken the title to Tannadice for the first and only time in 1983, his sole ambition for the following season was to avoid the drop.

Those in support of ten insist it would be an attractive proposition to broadcasters, retaining four Old Firm and four Edinburgh derbies and a balanced programme of home and away fixtures for all.

Whether fans like it or not, TV companies pump huge amounts of money into the game, cash they'd be unwilling to part with unless they get exactly what they want and, again, while supporters of other clubs will rail at the suggestion, the games they want to broadcast are those involving the Old Firm as they guarantee an armchair audience of subscribers not just in this country but world wide.

There is also likely to be the question of self-preservation with some chairmen asking themselves if their club could survive with fewer visits from Rangers and Celtic and, to a lesser extent, Hearts and Hibs.

Alternatives suggestions of 14, 16 or even 18 have been mooted, each with a degree of support but, again, should a return to the 18 which prevailed all those years ago be agreed, are there enough teams competitive enough to ensure all those old questions of meaningless games, are avoided this time round?

Although Doncaster has embarked on a charm offensive to sell the controversial proposal, which would see the creation of an "SPL 2" also of ten, leaving another 22 senior teams augmented by, possibly, the reserves sides of top clubs, to create two regional leagues of 16, it seems highly unlikely that with at least four clubs opposed or highly sceptical, Monday's meeting will achieve the necessary vote in favour required for change.

What then?