Ah, reconstruction. The dictionary definitions include "The action or process of reconstructing or being reconstructed", "A thing that has been rebuilt after being damaged or destroyed", or "that thing that everyone involved about in Scottish football has been arguing about whilst doing nothing for what seems like forever".
Come on, it's now only a matter of time until the latter definition makes its way into the Chambers Dictionary.
So, let's recap. Currently, the Scottish Premier League is the top flight of professional football in this currently. Formed in 1998, it broke away from the Scottish Football League, blatantly for no other reason than that the elite teams wanted more of the cash. The SPL has twelve teams, with one relegated every year and replaced by the winners of the SFL's first division. There is a split after 33 games with the top six and bottom six playing each other again once.
The SFL is made up of three divisions of ten teams. There's some playoffs involved so that, potentially, two teams can be promoted or relegated between the divisions - except between the first division and the SPL, and between the third division and - well, there's no division below the third division, so there's no relegation at all.
If you're a team in the Highland League, or the East of Scotland League, or the South of Scotland League, or in the Junior Leagues, and you aspire to make it into the Scottish Football League, all you have to do is, um, wait for a team (who isn't Rangers, of course) to go bust. It doesn't matter how good you are, or how hopeless the team at the bottom of the third division is, you can't get in.
So, that's the current system.
Everyone hates the current system.
Everyone agrees there needs to be change.
Sadly, that's about the only thing anyone agrees on.
From what I recall, the SFA promised that it's 'working committee' would come up with a proposal by the end of November. What has actually happened, is that the SPL and the SFL have come up with their own ideas.
The SFL struck first. They want to expand the top flight to sixteen teams, with a third tier of sixteen as well, and a division of ten between them. They want to expand the League Cup, so there is a group stage; the top teams get more home games, increasing their chances of getting through, whilst the weaker sides get some extra cash. There is a pyramid system of sorts, where the bottom team in the third tier would face a playoff against a non-league side. The entire system would come under the jurisdiction of one body...and the SPL would be made defunct.
The SPL responded with their own plan. The top division remains a twelve team league. The second tier would also contain twelve teams...but midway through the season, these divisions would be amalgamated and then split into three groups of eight - the best eight sides in the top division are in a 'Championship' group, the bottom eight sides in the second tier play to avoid relegation to a third tier, and the top four in the second tier and bottom four in the first tier have their own league where the top four at the end of it will play in the top tier at the start of the next season. (Got that? It's a bit complicated, but not that complicated. Just because Daily Record journalists aren't bright enough to understand it doesn't mean it's complicated) The entire system would come under the jurisdiction of one body...in this case, the SPL.
There doesn't seem to be much common ground here. The SPL want rid of the SFL, and the SFL want rid of the SPL. The SFA, who should be in overall charge of all this, appear to be doing, well, SFA about it (those who don't get that quip need to get better at their internet acronyms) - a bunch of Emperor Nero's, fiddling away...
On the face of it, the SFL plan looks closer to what supporters are generally perceived to want - mainly because there is an expanded top flight. Moreover, I don't think any Scottish football supporters trust the SPL to organize a piss-up in a brewery, and that fits in well with the fact that the SFL clubs remain scarred by the abysmal, arrogant attitude shown to them by the SPL during the Rangers crisis. We all know that the SPL is loyal not to Scottish football in general, but to those twelve elite clubs that come under its jurisdiction at one given time...in fact, it can be argued that its loyalty, historically has really just been to Rangers and Celtic.
But what strikes me about both these reconstruction plans is that neither of them appear designed to strengthen the whole of Scottish football. It's all about the short-term, about protectionism. The SPL want to keep the bulk of the money for their teams, and to make relegation from the SPL less terrifying for their current members. Their plan seems to cater for twenty-four of Scotland's clubs, while leaving the rest to scavenge. In contrast the SFL wants the cash to be distributed around all the 42 clubs, and increase the number of teams feeding at the top table, whilst still protecting its poorer teams from losing their league status.
It seems that everyone is looking to league reconstruction as the panacea that will rescue Scottish football from the doldrums. But will it? I don't think so. Neither seems particularly superior to the current, detested setup. I'm not convinced either will attract more sponsors, or higher television audiences, or bring back the fans who appear to be deserting the domestic game in their droves, or lead to better players both for the clubs and for our National Team. As my close friend (and former contributor to this site) Iain Meredith put it, it's like rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic.
But neither plan is really about that. It's just a power struggle between two organizations interested only in their own. And, sooner or later, the SFA has to step in, like a referee in a boxing match, and stop the fight, because it is the organization that is supposed to look out for all of Scottish football. It's the one that should be coming up with these plans, not these cartels with their self-interests and bias.
Until it does, we seem stuck on an inexorable path filled with bickering and squabbling, where no-one wins and we all lose.
L.
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