The recommendations on the “Crown Jewels” of British sport will be published today following an inquiry headed by David Davies, the former executive director of the Football Association in England.

The list safeguards major sporting events for terrestrial broadcasters and Mr Davies’s inquiry is expected to propose it now include international football qualifiers.

But Mr Smith said: “If the revenue stream is not there then it’s going to have a disastrous effect on the game. That’s why we’ve gone with satellite. It’s nothing to do with depriving supporters from seeing football.”

Mr Smith fears the move will dramatically reduce the SFA’s investment in the grassroots game. “It seems like a great idea to say your games should be free-to-air,” he said. “It sounds like you’re really considering the public but it would have serious financial repercussions in terms of income that we bring in.

“The biggest part of it is the development of the game. We work along with Government and they realise that the more kids we have involved in football, playing the game, the better it will be for football, for health and fitness levels.

“It would have a massive impact. We know from the negotiations we’ve had recently that terrestrial stations can’t compete with satellite stations in terms of the funding.”

The SFA’s current four-year rights deal with Sky is worth about £60 million and includes live Scottish Cup matches in addition to Scotland’s European Championship and World Cup qualifiers.

Mr Smith said: “We would have no problem at all provided the free-to-air broadcaster paid the same money as a satellite broadcaster.

“Or maybe the Government would make up the shortfall in terms of the deal that we get, in order that we can continue to offer the services we offer at grassroots, youth and professional levels.

“However, the money would not be available to us, so it would affect the budget greatly and we would do a lot less in the game in Scotland.

“It would affect football going forward in terms of the amount of people who can enjoy the game and play it – and the amount of players we would be developing for the professional game.”

The review is likely to recommend that the England cricket team’s home Ashes Tests should be screened on free-to-air television, along with World Cup and European Championship qualifiers involving home nations, plus the Wimbledon tennis championship and golf’s Open Championship.