BARRY FERGUSON has hit out at League Two clubs for banding together in league reconstruction talks and is convinced they are running scared of ambitious Lowland and Highland League outfits.
The Kelty Hearts manager should be looking forward to a promotion play-off against Highland champions Brora Rangers for the right to face League Two basement boys Brechin City.
But, with the SPFL resolution ruling out play-offs, and the 14-14-14 model gaining the block vote of all the League Two clubs, it looks like the Fife team are going to be denied the chance to jump up a level from the fifth tier.
Lowland and Highland League chiefs are still lobbying for a 14-10-10-10 structure that would promote both Kelty and Brora, but Ferguson reckons Scottish football is only paying lip service to the pyramid system if they ignore non-league clubs during the current discussions.
The former Rangers and Scotland captain said: “I don’t like [14-14-14] because it will deny ourselves and Brora the chance of going up.
“My take on it is they don’t want teams like ourselves or Bonnyrigg [Rose] or Brora or a BSC Glasgow or Spartans because I think we’ll leapfrog them.
“You see what’s happened with Cove Rangers over the past season, winning the league. Edinburgh City came up from the Lowland League and are sitting towards the top of League Two, challenging.
“In terms of attendances, we would overtake them on that as well."
He added to PLZ Soccer: “For me, I look at it and [having] the pyramid system in Scotland is pointless.
“It’s so difficult for the Lowland League teams and the Highland League teams to get in, because we’ve got to play each other in a play-off and then the winner of that plays the bottom of League Two. They make it so difficult as it is to get in.”
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