IT took a full 15 hours of persistent persuasion for the Scottish Football League to finally clamber into bed with the Scottish Premier League late on Thursday evening, but they have found themselves sharing the one pillow.
That might make for a few troubled nights for both David Longmuir and Neil Doncaster, the organisations' respective chief executives, since there is only room for one head of the streamlined league body, and both men are to be considered for the role.
They were back at Hampden yesterday to share the duties of one chief executive; Longmuir and Doncaster attending the draw for the first round of the Ramsdens Cup, with the competition having been transferred from the auspices of the SFL during the formation of the shiny, new Scottish Professional Football League. A new board – on which Celtic's Eric Riley, Stephen Thompson of Dundee United and Duncan Fraser from Aberdeen, Les Gray of Hamilton Academical, Alloa Athletic's Mike Mulraney and Bill Darroch from Stenhousemuir comprise the club representatives – was also formed and its cardinal act of business will be to anoint a chief executive. Ralph Topping, chairman of the SPL, last night confirmed he will hold the same office for the SPFL.
Both Longmuir and Doncaster expect to be interviewed for the chief executive position "over the next 10 days or so" but neither were inclined to discuss their credentials openly. Indeed, amid the convivial atmosphere of a cup draw, both men sought to stifle their own intentions. "There will be a process in place in the next week or so and I will take part in that process," said Longmuir.
He was echoing the words of his erstwhile SPL colleague. "It's not a question of putting yourself forward. There are two chief executives and the new board will select one to be the chief executive of the new organisation. That is the process," added Doncaster.
It had been assumed that the formation of the SPFL would be just as routine, only for club representatives to drag it out long into the evening. The delay was considered to be due in part to the SFL board's dissatisfaction at a lack of detail on the financial aspects of the merger, although it is understood the SPL were not fully convinced of those reservations.
"The only way we could resolve that was insisting on dialogue," said Longmuir yesterday. "I insisted that both boards got together in a room and discuss the issues. And when you get football people in a room co-operating in a good spirit then you can achieve things.
"We were not satisfied with the amount of certainty we could have on certain aspects of the finances. But we got that. I am very positive about the future."
Any lingering financial concerns would likely be assuaged by the announcement of a sponsor for the league and Doncaster indicated that there is already dialogue with some interested parties. "We continue to speak to a number of different people," he said. "I would certainly believe it's a more attractive proposition, talking to one body for the whole professional game.
"The success of merging the organisations can only make the process easier. It makes the organisations more attractive to potential sponsors and broadcasters. We'll see what emerges."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article