Scottish football faces some big decisions about its future between now and Christmas. The Scottish Premier League are trying to get their plan for, as they see it, the rescue of the country’s football in place for the 2012-13 season. A summit of top clubs was held at Gleneagles on Sunday. Next Monday SPL’s Strategic Working Group will put forward its proposals.
Scottish football faces some big decisions about its future between now and Christmas. The Scottish Premier League are trying to get their plan for, as they see it, the rescue of the country’s football in place for the 2012-13 season. A summit of top clubs was held at Gleneagles on Sunday. Next Monday SPL’s Strategic Working Group will put forward its proposals.
Rangers chief executive Martin Bain is arguing that it is a day of talks which could make or break the game north of the border. He stated, ‘Unless we come up by something by putting our heads together for the overall benefit, [quoting SPL supremeo Neil Doncaster], we are facing Armageddon. He used that word deliberately, because I think there is a financial Armageddon for some clubs in the current structure.’
Bain argues that there is a collective recognition of the need for change in Scottish football. The current formula is not working in terms of engaging fans and bringing in revenue. But what change? Some fans think there is too great a focus on financial gain rather than what is good for the game as a whole in these proposals.
To over simplify, there are three types of club in Scottish football. First, there is the Old Firm of Celtic and Rangers that dominates everything else. Then there are the next tier of clubs that are either in the SPL or reasonably aspire to be. Some of these are, of course, ‘bigger’ than others in terms of support, for example the two Edinburgh clubs and Aberdeen. Then there are the smaller clubs, operating often on a semi-professional basis and struggling in many cases to survive.
In subsequent posts, we will look at two aspects of the proposals and their pros and cons. One is the size of the top divisions with a proposal for a SPL 1 and SPL 2 with ten teams each. Then there is the issue of regionalisation which would happen below the SPl2 level.