Comment: Proposals suggest change for all the wrong reasons

Graeme Macpherson

Football Writer

Thursday 12 July 2012

SCOTTISH football continues to try to reform in the midst of a crisis.

Neil Doncaster has previously stated a preference for a 10-team top flight

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Graeme Macpherson

For the last few years the concepts of league reconstruction and a merger of the Scottish Premier League and Scottish Football League into one governing body have been discussed ad nauseum with little sign of a resolution to either part. The McLeish Report, published in 2010, also made similar recommendations which were taken to the debating table on numerous occasions but never went any further.

It has taken the demise of Rangers to finally get some movement on both fronts. It has been apparent for some time that having two bodies to run four divisions is far from ideal. Throw in the Scottish Football Association and it is a miracle anything ever gets signed off. The growing enmity between the SPL and SFL in recent weeks over which division a Rangers newco should be entered into could well have been avoided had the decision been taken by one body with gentle prompting from the SFA. Instead we have endured delay upon delay as the SPL passes the buck on to the SFL, who then find themselves increasingly under pressure to do what the SPL and SFA want.It has resulted in an extended, unsatisfactory chain of events as each entity tries to fight its own corner. A single body, in charge of the four divisions and, eventually, the pyramid system below that, can only be an improvement going forward.League reconstruction has been another matter on which consensus has been difficult to find. Both McLeish in his report and Neil Doncaster, the SPL's chief executive, had previously stated that their preference had been for a 10-team top division, believing a 14 or 16-team league unworkable. McLeish shifted from his stance yesterday."When I worked with the SPL, they were looking at a 10-team league because any increase impacted the size of the cake financially," said the former first minister. "But things have moved on since then. The fans have engaged, the SFL and SPL have engaged and there's now real strong possibilities of new league configurations that will not be on the basis of 10 in the SPL going forward. I suspect that a 16-team league could now be a possibility, although there are alternatives."Of course, change is not finally being driven through simply because it is the best thing for the game. The concessions are all part of the bartering process to try to persuade the SFL clubs to vote Rangers into the first division, rather than sending them to the third, which is the preference of many. Suddenly options previously deemed unworkable – such as the introduction of a 16-team top division that Doncaster last year said would lead to a £20m loss – are up for debate.It is positive change taking place for all the wrong reasons and it will be interesting to see how long the proposals remain on the table should the SPL and SFA not get their wish and Rangers are dumped into the bottom division. The return to the impasse that has blocked meaningful reform could well return.

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Comment: Proposals suggest change for all the wrong reasons

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