DAVID LONGMUIR, the chief executive of the Scottish Football League, has revealed he plans on sitting down with his counterparts at the Scottish Football Association and Scottish Premier League later this week to discuss league reconstruction but labelled talk of a newco Rangers starting life in the first division as "speculative" at this stage.
Reports at the weekend had suggested the SFA were poised to oversee the merger of the SPL and SFL into one governing body responsible for all four senior divisions, while also implementing a raft of changes recommended by Henry McLeish, the former first minister, in his report on Scottish football published in 2010. Should these changes come to pass before the start of next season, it could potentially pave the way for newco Rangers to begin life in what would effectively be the second tier of the SPL, should their application to receive oldco Rangers' share in the top division fail to receive the eight votes required to be passed.
Longmuir, however, revealed that idea had yet to be discussed at executive level. "A lot of this is just people thinking things through in their own head and asking questions about how Rangers could be accommodated in the first division and what would then happen in that regard," he told Herald Sport. "But it's all speculation at the moment. I expect we'll have a sit down and have a look at it all later this week but that's as far as we've got at this moment in time.
"Talks about league reconstruction have been ongoing now for some time and are still live discussions. The Rangers scenario has maybe sidelined them for a couple of months as that was going to have a major impact on everything but the talks have never gone away. So this isn't new news to anybody or at least it shouldn't be. It's just people have put the Rangers scenario into the mix to see if their impact could make it happen sooner."
With the SPL season due to start on August 4 and the SFL a week later, Longmuir cast doubt on whether so many changes – including the introduction of a new non-league pyramid system and play-offs in all four divisions – could be implemented in that time. "I would find it hard to believe that all of this could be done in the timescales talked about. But we can't rule anything out," he said. "We're announcing our fixtures [today] and we've already made the Ramsdens Cup draw. We've got to prepare for the new season as we always have, putting our clubs first and looking after their interests."
The prospect of the Rangers newco being allowed to begin life in the second tier does not sit well with some first division clubs, most notably Livingston who were demoted to the third division from the first three years ago for breaching league rules on insolvency.
"We're monitoring the situation closely as rules are rules," said Ged Nixon, the chief executive of the West Lothian club. "The SFA were complicit in upholding the SFL's decision against Livingston and I would expect them to treat Rangers in exactly the same way.
"Everything I've read on the matter seems to centre around what Sky TV want and that in itself isn't healthy. This is a great opportunity to shake up our game from top to bottom so it should have nothing to do with them whatsoever.
"Why should Rangers get straight into the first division? Just to appease the sponsor of another division? That just doesn't stack up for me. I'm fully in agreement that changes are needed but we need to go about it the right way and for the right reasons."
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