THE talks about league reconstruction in Scotland have become increasingly frantic and persistently secretive but the fans have now spoken loudly and clearly.

Almost 7000 supporters have responded to an SFA survey and the overwhelming majority want a larger top league, operated by a single body, and with no more than three divisions. They want greater financial distribution and a merger of the Scottish Premier League and Scottish Football League to be the most important aspect of any reconstruction.

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These results are to be found in the Scottish National Football Survey, which was conducted from November 30 last year until January 2 this year. Most of the findings are unsurprising. For example, 91% believe that the national team is underperforming. The other 9% are presumably on sedatives.

However, they build up an intriguing profile of the football fan. There must be a health warning issued. First, there were only 6755 respondents, a response that would only be rated as a decent Clydesdale Bank Premier League crowd outside Celtic. Secondly, most of the respondents, 57%, were in managerial positions, perhaps a nod to the ease of reply through web pages. Third, a fifth of the responses came from supports of Celtic and Rangers – 1366 from the green and white side and 1069 from the blue corner – but the survey paints a recognisable picture of the Scottish fitba' fan and of his/her concerns, though only 5% of responses came from women.

The headlines are that:

l Fans judge the SFA on the performance of the national team

l Scottish supporters believe more work must be done to meet the imperatives of the Henry McLeish report

l Grassroots football is seen as key and it should be the priority for the SFA

l Supporters believe the major barriers to youth participation in the game are a lack of facilities, competition from other leisure activities and the cost to parents

l Scottish football fans have a very strong emotional connection to their clubs. For many, the club is both part of their life and part of family life

Predictably, those who replied had a very high interest in the Scottish game, with more than half playing five-a-side football and almost a quarter playing amateur matches. Two thirds said they were "keen supporters".

On performance, they believed the most important factors in improving the standard were: better coaching, more playing at grassroots, better facilities, stronger financial regulation, stronger fan representation and an earlier start to the season.

This last will come into being for Celtic at least. They face their first Champions League qualifying tie in the middle of July with players returning to training in late June. Incidentally, despite Celtic's progress to the last 16 of the Champions League and the defeat of Barcelona at Parkhead in the group stage, two thirds of fans think Scottish clubs under-perform in Europe.

On referees, fans believe the most important innovation would be for the officials to explain decisions. This leads to the irreverent thought that Bobby Madden would have had to postpone his holidays after taking charge of St Mirren's game against Celtic on Sunday with its plethora of penalty incidents and a controversial sending off. The fast-track compliance system has been applauded, though.

On league reconstruction, 51% of supporters said a 16-team top division would their preferred model. The survey predates the suggested option of 12-12-18 that is under discussion by clubs. Two thirds want a three division league structure. The major driving force behind the demand for a larger top league is that half the fans want matches against the same team reduced. The merger of bodies has also attracted strong support with it being the top priority in factors for league reconstruction.

The five major barriers preventing people attending matches were: ticket cost (54%), work commitments (43%), kick-off times (38%), family commitments (31%), transport costs (24%), standing prohibited (22%), quality of football (22%), no opportunity to purchase alcohol (17%), standard of policing/stewarding (14%) and poor match atmosphere (12%). The individual cost of a match day was £27 outside of a ticket.

Stewart Regan, chief executive of the SFA, said: "Naturally the league reconstruction is the a hot topic among supporters at the moment but while the numbers remain subjective, the overwhelming majority of fans believe a single league body, fairer financial distribution and a pyramid system are essential in any reconstruction process."

He added: "While ultimately it is a matter for the league bodies to decide upon, the feedback from supporters is in line with the SFA's view and I am sure the results of the report will be taken on board by the respective bodies."

Neil Doncaster, chief executive of the SPL, said: "We recognise that supporters would like safe standing areas to be introduced. A change on SPL rules now allows for safe-standing pilot schemes." Curiously, he did not comment on the overwhelming support to merge all football bodies.

Both Doncaster and David Longmuir, chief executive of the Scottish Football League, praised the passion of the Scottish football fan. Longmuir added: "All three football bodies will take these views seriously and, where possible, deliver against them."

In a mass of statistics, one stood out like Lionel Messi in a Scottish Junior Cup final. That is that 77% of respondents feel that football is an important part of their family's life. That is both encouraging for the game and should play a part in being a foundation of any future moves. Passion must be met with change from the authorities.

It is perhaps best to gloss over one finding. Newspapers were ranked the eighth most trusted media platform, only saved from relegation by Twitter and Facebook.