10 team SPL? Better off with the status quo

Last updated : 05 January 2011 By Stuart Gillespie

A few months back, the SPL's chief executive Neil Doncaster said plans were being worked on to come up with a radical way forward for Scottish football. It would be an overhaul, not mere tinkering. We all got excited, wondering if we'd finally get a 16 or 18 team league.

Instead, the geniuses at work - including Saints chairman Stewart Gilmour - suggested two leagues of 10. The revolutionary concept that was ditched in 2000. Brilliant. It would also see the reintroduction of play-offs and the Old Firm allowed to play their reserves in the SFL. Except no one seemed to have told the SFL about that - or the proposals for regional leagues or a pyramid system.

With it looking likely the clubs would go for it - despite laughable suggestions of play-offs for the title - the fans revolted. A survey carried out by Supporters Direct revealed that 88% of people were against a return to a 10 team league and most people preferred a bigger one.

But yesterday, it seems, the SPL showed we don't matter a jot by deciding a 10 team league is the way forward, with it seeming there was a consensus at a meeting of club chairmen. A bigger league won't happen because it reduces the number of Old Firm games for the TV companies. The fact so many fans are against it is irrelevant.

Listening to Doncaster trying to justify it on BBC Scotland last night was laughable. He was ripped apart by Billy Dodds, journalist Gordon Waddell and Dunfermline chairman John Yorkston. It's hardly Jeremy Paxman and John Humphreys, but they still pulled up Doncaster time and time again - as did the punter desperate to make his voice heard after having had it ignored.

The highlight came when Doncaster said we can't have a bigger league as it means smaller shares of the cake - at which point Yorkston pointed out the two leagues of 10 idea means yet smaller slices. There was some nonsense spouted by way of a response but it made little sense.

If a 10 team league is brought in for season 2012/13 we won't be in it. The bottom three clubs will be relegated and I can't see us finishing outside of it. We'd have more chance if we were relegated this season and won the league next season!

The fans have blatantly been ignored and Saints fans spent today e-mailing the club telling them just where they could shove their season tickets if they supported a 10 team league. Laughably, the club released a statement saying they'd be releasing a statement tomorrow on the issue. I wait with baited breath.

Thankfully, it seems four clubs - including Dundee United and Inverness Caley Thistle - have been listening to the fans and are dead against the proposals. They plan to vote against it, and as the SPL has a stupid voting system requiring 11 teams to be in favour of something before it happens, it looks like salvation may be in sight.

But it shouldn't have had to happen. If any business ignored nearly 90% of its customers because it decided it knew best, it would quite simply die. What gives our chairmen the right to think they know better and that they can do a 10 team league better than the previous effort?

The final decision will be made later this month. A poll has been set up at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CWQCVJZ, with the results being forwarded to the club later this month to show them just what their fans think. There's also an online petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/10teamsp/petition.html

It only takes a minute to take part in each and maybe, just maybe, we can force a rethink on these ludicrous proposals.