ON March 13, 1890, at 7.30pm, representatives of 12 Scottish football clubs met at Holton's Commercial Hotel on Glassford Street in Glasgow to discuss the prospect of organising competitive league matches.
And so the Scottish Football League was born. On June 27, 2013, three months into its 124th year, the second-oldest national league body in world football will exist no more. Its demise was effectively sealed by its own members during a one-hour meeting yesterday, when 23 clubs voted in favour of proposals to create a new Scottish Professional Football League in time for next season.
The changes include the introduction of a fairer financial distribution model, a pyramid set-up below the fourth tier, and extra play-offs, and, perhaps most significantly, just one body ruling Scottish senior league football for the first time since 1998.
Billed officially as a merger, in reality this will involve the larger, more commercially driven Scottish Premier League subsuming the SFL given the company running the SPFL will still be the Scottish Premier League Limited and it will have the same company registration number. Under TUPE employment law, the SFL staff – six of whom are full-time – will be transferred over to the SPFL but what roles await them is unclear. David Longmuir, the SFL chief executive, once considered the most popular of the three men running Scottish football and the one most fans would prefer to lead any new merged organisation, will now have to wait to see what job he will be offered, if any, once the takeover is concluded.
"That is something I'm not considering at the moment until such times as the completion [of due diligence and legal formalities] on June 27. Others will tell me if I have a role or not," was all he would say on the matter yesterday.
Although there was some relief that the long, drawn-out process of league reconstruction had finally delivered tangible change, the overriding emotion among some SFL members was that of resentment tinged with sadness. If the SFL clubs in the bottom two tiers had voted against the proposals as had been threatened at an indicative vote last month, those in the first division would likely have started the process of ceding from the governing body to join the SPL, leaving the SFL with just a husk of 20 largely part-time clubs. Faced with that choice, many members chose to bury their principles and pushed the vote through.
One of the consequences will be the winding-up of the SFL after 123 years of continuous governance.
"Did I want to see the end of the SFL?"asked the president Jim Ballantyne. "Absolutely not. Did I want to see football try and strive forward? Yes. It will be for others to decide whether this step will take us to where everyone wants to go.
"It is very sad that the Scottish Football League has had to be a casualty. Unfortunately, we were left with one option with regard to the proposal put to us. The original plans and discussions were for a new, merged, independent body to take it forward. As time went on, it became clear that wasn't going to happen so the SFL is the one which has had to take the hit. I'm very sad about that. It is a positive vote today in terms of the 'Yes' and 'No' numbers but a lot of people have left this room with a heavy heart."
Longmuir echoed the sentiment. "Today's decision will lead to the winding-up of the SFL as we currently know it. It is an organisation which has been the bedrock of our professional game for over 123 years.
"The legacy of the SFL will now be long remembered and admired. We trust that the custodians of the new body will continue to work in an open, trustworthy and professional manner at all times for the good of our national game. SPFL still contains the words Scottish Football League in it so I just hope that the values of the new organisation reflect the values of the SFL."
Asked just what the SFL's objectives had been over 123 years, Longmuir's reply was lengthy. "To deliver professional football, to create drama and excitement, to deliver for fans, clubs and players, to give them an infrastructure to play under, to give them a set of rules to govern themselves, to give Scottish football the platform that it needed as it's our national game, to run two national cups, to run reserve leagues, to run youth football, to cope with issues of insolvency, to cope with clubs wishing to further their expectations somewhere else, and at the same time to be relevant and investible in terms of people who wished to sponsor us. "Before I came to the SFL I worked for a company [Diageo] that sponsored the league and we didn't do that just because we liked football. We did it because the SFL stood for values that we as a brand wished to be associated with. Irn-Bru feel the same way. So do all our sponsors. I just hope these learnings and ways of going about your business can be taken forward and embraced."
Longmuir's words as he left the room after what was likely the SFL's last media conference were apposite. "Will somebody put the lights out?"
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