Top-flight clubs today gave their "unanimous backing" to plans for a revamped 12-12-18 Scottish league structure.
Scottish Premier League chief executive Neil Doncaster revealed consensus had been achieved at a meeting of the 12 clubs at Hampden today.
Scottish Football League clubs will meet to discuss the proposals, which include a merger of the two bodies, on Thursday.
See our new dossier on league reconstruction - and how you can shape the debate
Doncaster said: "We got unanimous backing of the way forward today so it now goes to Thursday and the Scottish Football League clubs will have their views.
"But today, the Scottish Premier League clubs were united in their view that this is the way forward."
The plans were originally backed by SPL clubs last year before Doncaster stepped up talks with his SFL counterparts.
But some doubt had emerged since both leagues agreed in principle to the plans earlier this month in conjunction with the Scottish Football Association, whose professional game board (PGB) has been driving reconstruction attempts.
Some clubs who were not involved in the previous meeting had requested more information amid scepticism from fans but they appear to have been satisfied today.
Doncaster said: "We provided further details that have arisen from meetings over the past weeks.
"The last time that all of our SPL clubs got together was on December 3 so in the intervening time there has been some more detail that's been discussed with the PGB and with the SFL board.
"All of that was provided today and the clubs are clear and united and unanimous in their view that this should be taken forward to the next stage."
The plans, if approved by the SFL clubs, would see both leagues merge and a fairer distribution of income, along with a pyramid system that would allow clubs to move into the professional league.
The controversial aspect of the new structure is a plan to split the top two leagues into three groups of eight after 22 games to create an extended play-off system.
The middle eight clubs would all have their points reset to zero and the top four at the end of the season would start the next campaign in the 'Premiership'.
The SFL needs 22 of its clubs to back the plans with Rangers not allowed to vote as they are only associate members.
Rangers came out vociferously against the proposals when the leagues reached broad agreement with chief executive Charles Green vowing to look for a way out of Scottish football if they were introduced.
Rangers would still be in the bottom tier if the new system comes into force in time for next season, but the timescale of their anticipated ascent to the top flight would not be affected.
However, there is no guarantee the plans would be ratified in time to take effect next season.
Motherwell will aim this week to meet directors of the Well Society, the fans' group which has a stake in the club, in order to state their case for change.
A club statement read: "There was no formal vote today however as a club, we indicated our support to the SPL executive to progress discussions with the SFL.
"It is now our intention to share what we heard today with our supporters so we can have the same discussion and outline why it is our view this is the best option for the game at this time."
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