Consensus remains the scarcest commodity in Scottish football.

Monday's meeting of Scottish Premier League clubs ended with accusations and allegations being traded on the steps of Hampden and for now there remains little prospect of a widespread agreement on the best way for the game to evolve. The only issue that generates no dissent is the fact that something needs to happen, because Scottish football is slowly but surely diminishing.

The Scottish Football Association has attempted to facilitate discussions between the SPL and the Scottish Football League but they can only directly intervene if the two organisations allow them to. A mandate to take control would allow the SFA to assist, but a majority of all 42 clubs would need to agree to letting them step in to help.

The SPL offered some ground yesterday, inviting Stewart Regan, the SFA chief executive, and Campbell Ogilvie, the SFA president, to attend a board meeting and present their vision for change. Herald Sport understands Hearts would welcome the intervention, although some SPL sources were later reported to have stressed that "structural changes" would remain in their control.

Nobody at the SFA is under any illusions about the difficulty of attempting to steer a clear and purposeful path through the competing interests. Nonetheless, a working party, perhaps chaired by Regan and including professional independent mediators, could provide perspective and fresh insight into the issues bound up in the proposals. There are five core principles that are generally accepted as being beneficial – merging the SPL and SFL, an all-through finance distribution model, more play-offs, parachute payments and a pyramid structure beneath the bottom tier – and a working party put together by the SFA would attempt to find a way to introduce those elements of the plan.

The SFL, however, intend to remain committed to their own notion of how to proceed. After a meeting yesterday, they released a statement thanking the SFA for their offer, but essentially saying that they would like to offer up their own alternative next. That is, effectively, to introduce some small changes for next season, then attempt to tackle the bigger issues in the coming years.

"The time pressures placed on people made it difficult for them," said David Longmuir, the SFL chief executive. "Let's take a couple of small steps next season and let's keep the bridge between the SPL and the SFL as wide as possible. We can then take our time on the other things and make sure we get them right. If we're going to merge, let's make sure we do it properly. It gives us space and shows we're committed to change. In three years, we might be able to do something innovative.

"I will go and speak to the first division clubs. We want to be inclusive, we don't want to exclude anybody. I don't think that will be too difficult."

League structure remains the most contentious issue, although the 11-1 voting veto in the SPL for "protected" issues was also a stumbling block. Fans tend to be against the 12-12 structure planned for the top two divisions, with a mid-season split to 8-8-8. As STV reported yesterday, the draft rule book contained provision for any games postponed before the split to be played after it if the two clubs would remain within either the top or middle eight regardless of the outcome. So in effect, the teams would play a fixture after the split in which the result would be utterly meaningless. With the split coming after 22 games, and at a time when the weather begins to affect the Scottish football card, the warning signals were already evident.

Even so, some clubs are forced into accepting change even if they are not wholly in agreement with it. There are some SPL and first division teams facing severe financial pressures and the proposals were likely to bring in new sponsors and allow the merged league to sell games in the middle, Championship, eight as a separate product. Without that income, there would not be enough revenue to fund the all-through distribution model, in which first division teams could earn up to £300,000 more than they currently do.

"One of the major parts of this was to try and protect the second level of full-time football," said Jim Ballantyne, the chairman of Airdrie and the president of the SFL. "[That] is protecting Scottish football because you need two strong levels."

SPL2 is unlikely because few clubs favour it, and the entire concept of a further breakaway is considered damaging and negative. In truth, time is running out this season, but change will still have to occur at some point. "It's [important] after the events of this week that we don't lose the momentum and good things that were there, because there was a lot of support for it," said Leeann Dempster, the Motherwell chief executive. "If that means that the SFA get involved along with the two bodies, I don't see what harm that can do. It was going to be difficult, although possible, if we'd had the go ahead this week and if our friends in the SFL had supported it. Because it wasn't supported at the SPL on Monday, it would be very difficult to do anything in time for next season.

"I'm still optimistic. Even the two clubs who voted against it want change. The majority of full-time clubs want change, so we have to change. Once things start to settle over the next week or so, we can reflect and hopefully pick up. I'm sure things can be retrieved."