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SFL clubs vote in favour of merger with SPL

Last updated on .From the section Footballcomments595

SFL chief executive David Longmuir addresses the media at Hampden

Scottish Football League clubs have voted in favour of a proposed merger with the Scottish Premier League.

The bodies will form a new Scottish Professional Football League in time for next season, averting a threatened breakaway from Division One clubs.

A revised financial distribution model will be introduced, feeding more money into the second tier.

The league structure will remain the same, with a top flight of 12 and three lower divisions of 10.

Media conference - SFL chief executive David Longmuir

SPL clubs had already unanimously agreed on a package of measures that would deliver a merged league body for the new campaign and play-offs between the top league and the second tier.

There had been dissenting voices from Second and Third Division clubs but 23 of the 29 clubs voting backed the plan for restructuring.

A minimum of 22 votes was required, while Third Division champions Rangers did not get a say as they remain associate members having joined last summer.

Earlier plans for a 12-12-18 divisional set-up were jettisoned in April after the model failed to get the 11-1 majority backing required from the 12 SPL clubs.

A meeting of all 42 senior clubs will now be called to formalise the creation of the new governing body in time for next term.

SFL chief executive David Longmuir: "I feel there were some reluctant heroes today. We have always embraced the big principles but once you go behind the big principles like governance, distribution and one league body, there were areas of major concerns.

"But nevertheless a lot of them have seen it for the good of the game and we all accept that Scottish football is better governed under one roof.

Media conference - SFL president Jim Ballantyne

"On 27 June there will be a formalised completion of the process and the first board meeting of the new organisation - the SPFL - will take place that day and at that point a board will be appointed."

Jim Ballantyne, president of the SFL, described the restructuring as a "takeover" rather than a merger.

"We are joining their company, their organisation," he explained. "They have swallowed us up. We could use nice words about it, but it is a takeover.

"It is very sad that the Scottish Football League has had to be a casualty but unfortunately we were left with one option.

"Did I want to see the end of the Scottish Football League? Absolutely not. Did I want to see football strive forward? Then yes. It will be for others to decide if this step takes us to where we want to go."

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595 comments

  • Comment posted by dave, at 11:26 12 Jun 2013

    what needs to be restructured is the overpaid, inept and totally useless people who claim to run the Scottish game.

  • Comment posted by User0752893382, at 13:34 12 Jun 2013

    Look at the Dutch format - a country 1/3 the size of Scotland, with 3x the population, yet all they require in their professional league set up is 2 leagues of 18 teams; The Eredivise (Premier) and the Eerste Divisie (First Division). All other leagues are regional. Why would this not work in Scotland??

  • Comment posted by User0239143340, at 11:01 12 Jun 2013

    We need a top league of 18.

    12 team league is mickey mouse and does not serve the teams or more importantly the fans.

    C mck

  • Comment posted by theweerovers, at 10:57 12 Jun 2013

    Do the clowns in charge of Scottish football EVER do anything apart from hold votes on reorganisation and restructuring themselves. It's one of the oldest corporate charades going - keep changing things and reorganising yourself to create the illusion of progress whilst achieving nothing. The whole caboodle has been going down hill fast for years now and they know it.

  • Comment posted by Drasticus Maximus, at 12:20 12 Jun 2013

    @ 8.

    Err, no you don't speak for the majority of English fans. You speak for a handful plus those desperate to push Rangers/Celtic into the English football structure. England has nothing to gain from Scottish clubs joining. No disrespect to Scottish teams. Truth is that probably 90% of Scottish fans want a bigger league of one sort or another. That's the change that is needed.

  • Comment posted by Richard P, at 18:47 12 Jun 2013

    All these English 'fans' are knocking Scots football .... would love to see them try and win something without Scots managers or other foreign managers ......

    Who would they have ..... Stuart Pearce .... Harry Redknapp .... Roy Hodgson.

    English may have the money, but lack the brains to use it!

  • Comment posted by sillybhoy, at 12:46 12 Jun 2013

    @56

    we dont just have 42 though we have 42 so called senior teams and many more in other leagues, highland, east of scotland, west, south, junior teams and on. i'm not saying they should all not exist but we should cut the number of teams in the senior leagues, have two top leagues and then a number of regional leagues feeding into the senior leagues. Look at the Danish leagues

  • Comment posted by D1679142460639, at 10:49 12 Jun 2013

    The proposals essentially perpetuate the status quo. As always the "industry" is hidebound by short-term financial considerations and is incapable of vision.

  • Comment posted by Zzzzzzzzzz, at 12:46 12 Jun 2013

    #8 Please don't speak on behalf of others. I think you'll find you're the only person in the whole of Britain who wants a "GB League".

  • Comment posted by Killie Saint, at 12:37 12 Jun 2013

    @53. No team was kicked out of the SPL. The limited company of one of the teams SPL dissolved last year and a new company using the same team name was granted permission to join the third division where there was a vacancy. Maybe that's what you were thinkng of.

  • Comment posted by User0362458550, at 12:32 12 Jun 2013

    41 sillybhoy - I agree with your first point, but I think the number of teams in the league system is irrelevant. Countries always have smaller teams, it's just that in our case they're in our official league system, whereas in other countries they're classed as "non-league".
    It's just semantics; in England they have 6,500 clubs in their football pyramid and in Germany it's over 33,000. We have 42

  • Comment posted by User0301188528, at 09:54 12 Jun 2013

    Shouldn't they have a vote that they should stop voting on this every other week and just get on with it? Merge the SFA, SPL and SFL for a start.

  • Comment posted by Iain, at 22:04 12 Jun 2013

    I applaud Scotlands attempts to raise the profile of their game and i hope they succeed but please, don't make the same mistake as we did in England by ploughing all the money into the top league, it's killed English Football and shattered the dreams of millions of English kids hoping one day to play top league football. Give your kids a chance Scotland, do it right.

  • Comment posted by weeMartian, at 14:45 12 Jun 2013

    @177 - "We don't want a leg up into your stinking league. We want to work our way back for reasons of "sporting integrity"." - So you DO want to be in our "stinking league" then ? Not hurting much, are you ?

  • Comment posted by User0926465618, at 10:13 12 Jun 2013

    This farce is not reconstruction it's the spl bully boys aggressive takeover why should the div2 and div3 teams vote to lose any say they had without getting anything in return? And yet again regan pronounces its our last chance! How many last chances is that so far I've lost count?

  • Comment posted by WSV, at 16:11 12 Jun 2013

    I'd say that the amalgamation of leagues is the first step, but a top tier of 12 teams is not broad enough. The next step must be to create a top flight of 20 teams and a second tier of 22. This will encourage more stable and competitive clubs that will have time to plan, grow and improve without the constant fear of relegation. As a result Scottish football will find its domestic feet.

  • Comment posted by User0696145681, at 22:42 12 Jun 2013

    @442 [ Oz ]

    "Its a pity the SFL folded."

    Oh I dunno. We can just do what Rangers did when they folded.

    Start the new league, pretend it's the old league, say we "bought their history" etc.

    It seems to satisfy them. : )))

  • Comment posted by kingmonkey, at 13:09 12 Jun 2013

    The fact that these 3 men remain in their positions really sums up the utterly shambolic state of Scottish football.

  • Comment posted by sillybhoy, at 12:18 12 Jun 2013

    @37

    and in the 60's and 70's people were chewing their fists over so many meaningless games as mid table teams went through the motions in the second half of the season.

    Scotland can't sustain 42 clubs in this day and age. Its almost half the number of the teams in the English senior leagues with less than one tenth of the population. Do the math!!!!

  • Comment posted by Younger Z, at 12:27 12 Jun 2013

    So, hopefully this will save on Admin? At least we will only have 2 governing bodies now, bound to help a little when it comes to consistency.

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