FACIAL recognition software 1, League reconstruction 0. On the day the SPFL stole headlines across the land with an idealistic call for £4m in government money to install state-of-the-art, airport style security in stadiums across the land in a bid to target anti-social behaviour, cynicism remained the order of the day when it came to investing further time and energy on more meetings about meetings on the dreaded subject of changing the number of teams in the leagues.

Doug Henderson, the Falkirk chairman, was the man dredging up Scottish football's groundhog debate yesterday and those with long memories couldn't help but greet his desire for a bigger top division – ideally 16 but maybe 14 – rather wearily. Since the turn of the millennium, when the top flight in this country grew from 10 teams to 12 teams as a legacy of the creation of the now-defunct SPL, cries to either increase or decrease the number of top division clubs have been so insistent that every possible permutation has surely been exhausted. Twelve-12-18, 12-12-10-10, 14-14-14, 16-10-16: it is like a form of demented bingo.

It may only have been 16 years in this format but waiting for change in the top flight of Scottish football at times seems about as rewarding as waiting for Godot. If hopes were raised recently by an innovative League Cup format which will start next season, making headway in the impasse which underpins the domestic league game is something else entirely.

Typically, almost all of the 42 club representatives involved cheerfully insisted it had been a positive meeting, all the while kicking this idea into the long grass. Nothing is likely to be resolved until TV contracts with Sky and BT Sports, which expire in 2019-20, are up for renegotiation.

Two seriously insurmountable obstacles remain. Not only do backers of a larger top-flight have to account to potential broadcasters for the two Rangers-Celtic matches which would be lost with a 16-team premier league, any changes to the finances underpinning any shake-up revert back to the same 90% or 11-1 voting tariff which did for so many similar plans in the past. Big clubs like Celtic and Aberdeen, who have always preferred a smaller not bigger top league, remain to be convinced.

"I think they are wary about change and I share their anxiety," said Henderson. "We have to make sure that whatever changes take place we understand what the cash consequences are. We have also got to make sure that in bringing about change, we carry our supporters with us and we also carry the TV companies who are essential for the finances of football." One potential solution doing the rounds is seeded two-legged League Cup quarter and semi-finals, but Henderson accepts that any change is likely to tie in with the new TV deals from 2020 onward.

"We are all a bit weary about it all," the Falkirk chairman conceded, "but there are issues which need to be addressed, getting young players into full-time football, and the supporters, our customers. The ones who come to the games are our main customers, the ones who watch it on TV are also customers. They don't find playing the same teams four times in a league structure attractive. And that is clearly the case both with the biggest sides and the smaller sides. I get people saying that to me all the time."

This was as close to a united front as anyone could expect. Peter Lawwell, the Celtic chief executive, said the talks had been "positive and constructive", while his Hibs counterpart Leeann Dempster was also cagey on the subject. "When it comes to reconstruction it’s good that these discussions are always live and that all clubs participate," said Dempster. "But that’s the state of play at the moment. It’s a discussion. There are too many people who are too many steps ahead in reconstruction. Like everything else, it’s a topic that gets revisited. The minute you’ve got a different league set-up someone is talking about another one."

Rangers managing director Stewart Robertson said the club would formulate a position on league reconstruction soon, and didn't necessarily agree with head coach Mark Warburton, who said recently that he would prefer a bigger league.

"Mark's come from a league when they only play each other twice," said Robertson. "The Rangers board still need to sit down and decide what we want to do. A lot of guys are coming into this new and we'll decide what we want to do soon. It was just a fairly open discussion to get the ball rolling ahead of a more formal discussion. There was nothing too heavy and no real detail. All the leagues are competitive at the moment and it's working reasonably well just now, in my opinion at least. One of the options, and it's a clear option, is to leave things as they are and that will have to be considered."

Robertson was supportive of the facial recognition software issue too – an idea that may have been derided but was at least a fresh, novel solution. "They've set up a working group and that's fine," said Robertson. "That's sensible and again they'll look at all the options. It's not just football – this is a societal thing and we generally need to look at ways to improve it. If all the stakeholders discuss it then we've got a better chance of sorting it."

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