Strachan: focus league reform on full-time clubs

While official talks on a new dawn for the game in Scotland stalled, the 10 Irn-Bru First Division sides as well as Second Division champions Queen of the South and Dundee - favourites to be relegated from the SPL - met last night in an effort to breathe new life into the plans.

A working group has now been established to take forward a last-minute rescue package.

An SPL2 that would exclude the bottom two SFL divisions has been speculated on as the favoured alternative and Strachan appeared to throw his own backing behind that when he said protecting full-time football must now be the "priority".

He said: "If you have got to make change, make it but make them big changes. Don't just tamper with it. Do it properly.

"For me, it's quite simple: if you are full-time, make a league for full-time clubs. That includes anyone who wants to be full-time, anyone who wants to bring in money and sponsors. They should be looked after first. That should be the priority of the full-time clubs.

"If you are full-time you are putting money, jobs and necks on the line. Part-time, you are not really doing that. You are a community club. So let's make a full-time league, and for the rest, go and have your own league. That would simplify it all."

The reconstruction plan would have seen the SPL and SFL merged into one body to offer a new structure involving a fairer share of cash and play-offs.

But the bid was scuppered when Ross County chairman Roy MacGregor and his St Mirren opposite number Stewart Gilmour voted the motion down.

While Strachan - who was at Hampden to help launch PFA Scotland's search for Scotland's Manager of the Year - believes the part-timers should be excluded, the union's chief executive Fraser Wishart called for club chiefs to consult players and bosses.

"We've reached an impasse," he said. "But here's something radical, you could actually ask us and the players, Alex Smith and Craig Brown from the Managers and Coaches Association to come in with an input.

"At the end of the day, the people whose jobs are on the line are the players and managers.

"The SPL clubs seem to be caring about the First Division sides and that's good to see because they are the clubs who are struggling. They know that a stronger First Division makes it a stronger SPL.

"We all agree on 90 per cent of the proposals but it's all about how do we get consensus on the other 10. Perhaps it's a situation now where we have to involve outside parties.

"There seems to be a lot of acrimony and debate which does nobody any good. The pitchforks-and-torch mentality directed at Stewart Gilmour and Roy MacGregor was wrong. These are two guys who have put a lot into their clubs."

And Wishart believes stricter financial rules should be put firmly at the centre of the reconstruction debate too.

Rangers were liquidated in the summer and reformed in the Third Division while First Division Dunfermline - already hit with a 15-point penalty - were yesterday warned they could be fined after being issued with a Notice of Complaint by the SFA after going into administration.

Wishart said: "There does need to be a sporting sanction on clubs, otherwise clubs will dip in and out of administration at any point.

"But I think we need to look at Financial Fair Play regulations. Most countries are moving towards that because they realise there is nothing to stop clubs spending and plunging into insolvency.

"We have to find a way of bringing in regulations to save the clubs from their current owners. As we have seen, there is nothing to stop owners coming in and not paying bills and taxes.

"The club and the supporters are the ones who suffer and that's why I think we should be looking at these rules to control clubs' spending and prevent them from getting into trouble in the first place, rather than hammering clubs too much when they are on their uppers."