Scottish football's Gordian knot and accusations of fascism - why SPFL reconstruction plans are doomed

“Ha ha ha ha ha ha. No.” This was the concise response from the X account belonging to The Terrace Podcast to an April Fools' day report that Scottish football had decided it was time to consider eating itself again.

The SPFL’s Competitions Working Group are in the process of considering various options, including reverting to a ten-team top division, something last seen in the 1999-2000 season, to try to tackle the problem of the ever-more crammed fixture schedule. The recent expansion of the Champions and Europa Leagues has only increased the pressure on top clubs.

If a worldwide epidemic cannot see a way to reconstruct the Scottish football league system, then a couple of extra matches in Europe for a select band of teams won't push it through, whether there is the will or not.

Scottish football league reconstruction is back on the agenda. (Photo by Alan Harvey / SNS Group) | SNS Group

In the Covid 19 era, when an existential threat was placed over so many clubs, there was definite impetus to shake things up five years ago. Hearts owner Ann Budge proposed a 14-14-14 format to be implemented for two seasons. It was designed to assuage some of the outrage caused by the controversial decision, via a contentious vote, to relegate teams when the first ‘Covid campaign’ was curtailed. Her best-laid plans predictably went awry when it came down to the crunch.

Then, as now, it required only two clubs from the top flight to scupper any such plans to enlarge – or reduce – the number of teams in the top flight. As many as six clubs had indicated they would not back the proposals to change the 12-10-10-10 set up before the 2020-21 season got underway. Budge had been invited to lead a reconstruction working group and described such intransigence as “disrespect”. She should have known not to take it personally. One wonders how Scottish football has ever found the required consensus to force through change.

Reconstructing Scottish football was once described to me by a former SPFL office bearer as a “Gordian knot” for the authorities. It’s one that has not become any easier to unpick. It will never get easier if the voting structure remains as it is. How many times can one write that turkeys don’t vote for Christmas in relation to this subject? “I get the problem, but this isn’t the solution,” a former official at a lower league football club complained to me yesterday with reference to a ten-team top-flight proposal.

Bottom club St Johnstone have already come out in public with their opposition, surprise surprise. The former official wasn't so sure about what the solution is, admittedly, which sums everything up. He suspects - as many do - that a 14-team top division is the optimal number in a country the size of Scotland, but then to retain four Old Firm league clashes without simply accentuating the headache of fixture congestion is a huge obstacle. It would obviously involve some kind of split, something the new ten-team proposal would automatically abolish.

Hearts chair Ann Budge saw her proposals for league reconstruction kiboshed during the Covid pandemic. (Photo by Mark Scates / SNS Group) | SNS Group

That is appealing to some, who dislike what they describe as the artificial drama of cutting the league in half to settle the relegation and European issues and confirm the champions, which too often has been all-but decided long before.

As we all know, the same team has won the Premiership in 12 out of the last 13 seasons. They are nearly over the line for a 13th time. Again, as we all know and have long since stopped being embarrassed about, which is part of the problem, one or other of the same two teams have won the league every season since 1984-85. So the idea that something does not need to change is absurd. Of course it does. It needs dramatic change.

There’s no point saying, 'let’s listen to the fans'. The fans’ view – which can be summed up as finding a way, whatever it takes, to stop the monotony of teams playing each other four times a season - won’t be considered as long as the television companies in question, currently Sky Sports, keep demanding four Old Firm fixtures before even sitting down at the broadcasting rights negotiating table.

Not that Sky Sports, or any other broadcasting company, can be blamed for introducing a ten-club top flight and the concept of teams playing each other four times a season.

In January 1974, six of Scotland’s top clubs at the time produced a blueprint to improve Scottish football. It was described as the most comprehensive plan ever put forward in 15 years of abortive attempts “to cure Scotland’s ailing football”. Within those 15 years, Scotland had still managed to produce British football’s first European champions as well as a European Cup-Winners’ Cup winning team.

Scottish football's TV deal with Sky Sports - and the requirement for four Old Firm derbies per season - makes league reconstruction difficult. | SNS Group

Successive failures to qualify for World Cups in 1966 and 1970 were, however, weighing heavily. A successful mission to reach Germany in 1974 did not make the desire to tinker with the league format, then arranged into just two divisions of 18 and 20 teams, any less urgent, it transpired. Attendances were declining and running costs were soaring. A smaller top division was deemed to be the answer for better, more competitive football.

Hibs, Celtic, Rangers, Hearts, Aberdeen and Dundee were the so-called “big six” involved although others quickly got on board.

Dumbarton chairman Bob Robertson, a “staunch Liberal” noted the Daily Record, branded the moves “fascism”. He added: “It seems to be a question of the clubs with the money wanting to run the show their way…if the six clubs win, then it is fascism. There’s no other word for it.”

The proposal was voted through in March 1974 by 29 votes to eight at a meeting of all 37 clubs in Glasgow (a two-third majority was required for change in those days).

Not so much fascism as democracy – the Airdries and Arbroaths of the world had the same power to shape Scottish football as Rangers and Celtic.

And it is democracy, or more accurately a weighted 11-1 voting system, passed by all the inaugural members when leading clubs split from the Scottish Football League to form the SPL in 1998, that, ironically, now stands as a bulwark to change.