Ally McCoist believes the Scottish Football Association should step into the debate about league reconstruction and take control of the process.

Both the Scottish Premier League and the Scottish Football League have drawn up restructure plans, but it is unlikely the two organisations will come to an agreement. The Rangers manager, however, insists it is the governing body's role to intervene.

The SFL clubs held a meeting last week to discuss their proposals, while the SPL clubs will do the same at their next gathering. At stake is maintaining two separate league bodies, or a merger. The questions of power and finance are the divisive points, rather than the structure of the leagues. Since consensus is unlikely, somebody will have to take a leading role.

"Contrary to what a lot of people might think, outwith our situation I would have been happy for reconstruction," McCoist said. "I looked at the SFL proposals – 16, 10 and 16 – and I don't have a problem with that. Generally speaking, there's a belief among the majority that change is required. We could do with freshening it up a little bit and I'm very hopeful. I think it will happen. You would hope the governing body would look after the game in the way they should. I'm of the opinion that the SFA have the power to do it and if it's to the benefit of the game then they should do it. [The SPL] has possibly gone a little bit stale."

The SPL are considering a 16-team top flight, or two top leagues of 12, both of which would involve inviting a number of clubs to resign from the SFL. Yet the mood amongst the lower league clubs is still influenced by the disagreements last summer over which division should accommodate Rangers.

Under the SFL's plans, play-offs would feature in all divisions and money would be distributed more evenly among all clubs.