If any SPL club chairman needed to do something to improve his relationship with the fans (aside from Vladimir Romanov, of course), it's Michael Johnston at Kilmarnock.
Rightly or wrongly, Johnston has developed a reputation as a stooge to the Old Firm, whether be it in terms of happily selling out three quarters of Rugby Park to away fans so that in successive years Rangers and Celtic could not so much contest a match against Kilmarnock as hold a title-winning party, or when Johnston was the sole SPL chairman to abstain on the thorny issue of whether Rangers should be thrown out of the league or not. Killie fans just don't trust him.
So when it comes to 'reconstruction', Johnston was likely to face an unenviable task in placating Kilmarnock supporters. That might be why the club's website published this and this, at last revealing important information about the plans to redesign Scottish football.
The first document goes through the alternatives to 12-12-18, giving the reasons why each system is considered unpalatable. It doesn't tell you anything that a person of average intelligence wouldn't have deduced already - insert joke about Rangers fans being knuckle-draggers here - but its at least coherent and makes sense. What it doesn't do, of course, is go through the negatives of the proposed idea. Interestingly, it hints that a 14 team top flight was considered, and that 'bigger clubs that fear they might not make the top six every season' derailed a 6/8 split.
The second document confirms the plan for the top two divisions splitting into three groups of eight teams after twenty-two games. Ultimately, it could lead to four teams being 'promoted' to the Premier Division at the end of the season. Alternatively, it could lead to nobody being promoted at all. Mind you, it is stated that one of the reasons the status quo is unacceptable is that 'only one team in twelve is relegated - the lowest proportion in Europe'. Yet it is curious that the idea of introducing a '2 up, 2 down' system (or introducing playoffs for a further promotion/relegation spot) and otherwise keeping the current format does not seem to have been countenanced.
I was particularly intrigued the extra information divulged on the third tier - the eighteen team division. The top two in that division will be promoted; the third, fourth, fifth and sixth placed teams go into playoffs with the fifth and sixth placed sides in the third group of eight. And a pyramid system finally seems closer to reality (East Stirling beware!) with the bottom two sides in the third tier forced to playoff with two non-league teams.
But the most important nugget revealed by Kilmarnock is the redistribution of money. The top eight teams in the SPL will take a hit. The other teams in the top two tiers will reap the benefits, particularly the sides in the second tier. The thirteenth best side in Scottish football will make £387,000 in prize money, rather than the current paltry £78,000. In contrast, the share of prize money going to the SPL's top two sides drops from £4.1 million out of £17.9 million to £3.2 million. The cynic in me notes that the champions are hit less than the second placed team, and the gap in cash between first and second gets bigger - a concession to placate Celtic, perhaps? Certainly it doesn't seem conducive to increasing the competition at the top of the table, but maybe that's not the idea.
None of the extra money will find its way to the teams in the third tier, incidentally. It seems they will have to try and survive with the same meagre resources they have now.
So, the situation is a little less cloudy, and we have a bit more transparency. So do I feel a bit warmer to the prospect of 'reconstruction'?
Not a bit of it. Not whilst the words 'can't organize', 'piss-up' and 'brewery' come to mind whenever I remember who is in charge of it all. The smart money remains on the whole thing turning into one great omnishambles.
L.
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