SFL has key role in reconstruction plans

Every revolution has its casualties. The Scottish Football League, and its member clubs, must keep eyes and ears open during the coming months to ensure they are not the victims as the Premier League presses ahead on various fronts with ambitious plans for the latest restructuring of the game.

The SPL is putting together one set of proposals, which could be placed before clubs as early as 1 November, which would arguably be the most wide-ranging ever seen within Scottish football. Currently, the top flight's senior figures have a preference for the establishment of a 14-team Premier League, including an 8/6 split after two rounds of fixtures and the re-introduction of play-offs to determine relegation at the end of each season.

Below this, the SPL would ideally like to see another two 14-team leagues as first and second divisions or SPL2 and SPL3. Crucially, finer details also surround the involvement of "colt" teams - potentially including U23 players only - from bigger SPL clubs. The very scale of these matters render the SPL's plan to have radical change before a ball is kicked next season as increasingly ambitious, something they are now willing to admit. Commercial pressures, though, mean matters could still move apace.

Whether the SPL can successfully convince 11 of their 12 members to vote that their chosen scenario would represent their best means of improvement remains open to question. As is whether or not the required two-thirds of those presently within the SFL's structure would support the move, a key point which should not be overlooked.

SFL management stress that they have not received formal proposals and therefore can make little comment; the same issue has caused anger within certain SPL clubs, who believe the media have been more informed of developments than themselves.

Yet the SFL's position in this complex business must not be ignored. And thus far, it has not been, with the SPL chief executive Neil Doncaster meeting with SFL board members earlier this week. The mood of the SFL as dialogue continues is described as "perfectly relaxed." The idea of regionalisation underpinning the Scottish League structure, as has been mooted, was dismissed by Doncaster during those latest talks. A complication to the SPL's strategy is that many are confusing it with the work ongoing by Henry McLeish's review of Scottish football.

Whilst lobbying his own member clubs, Doncaster must be aware of the ability of the other 30 outfits in Scotland's league structure to block wide-ranging change if not seen as being for their benefit.

David Longmuir, Doncaster's counterpart at the SFL, has been consulted on reconstruction plans, with senior figures within the league confident that the relationship between those two bodies - and the Scottish Football Association - is better than ever. The SPL could argue that commercial revenues, via sponsorships and television, can only be increased by a new format, not least with the possibility of the Old Firm fielding teams in a second or third tier. The caveat to that, of course, is that there will be more SPL clubs with which to share the financial pot. Self-interest, at every level, will be prevalent.

Strict rules have to and would apply to colt teams. Namely, they would be locked into the bottom league with no chance of promotion - which has its own negative connotations in a competition sense alone - and could not play in cup tournaments.

The opportunity for more clubs to gain promotion to the SPL than is the case just now is also likely to appeal. One serious option would still see one team relegated from the top division, with the second and third bottom teams entering that play-off with the second and third-placed teams from the First Division.

More basic implications apply to this very season. Promotion and relegation matters in the second and third tier could become irrelevant if those divisions are to be rebuilt in any case; an issue Dundee will have cognisance of as a potential point penalty looms. And if the SPL is to have its wish of boosting the top league by two teams next season, First Division clubs will take an especially keen interest.

The only legitimate means of allowing the SPL to be expanded to 14 would seem to involve no relegation at all at the end of this campaign - which would remove one of the key areas of interest but likely find favour with those clubs fighting at the bottom of the league - with two sides gaining promotion, or a one down, three up result. Either way, First Division teams would be roused by the potential of more than one promotion slot as the season heads into the final stretch; but that change in competition would need to be made clear at least with a meaningful period of the season left to go.

The SPL has given no indication that it will seek to run roughshod over the rest of Scottish football during its bid to implement alternatives to the status quo. It must be aware, though, that the wishes and ambitions of clubs outside of the current top 12 vary more widely than those within the existing top flight.