CONSERVATIVE, inward-looking, prone to looking back to better days - the perennial curse of "Aye Beenism" - no wonder Scottish football seems to be in an eternal search for its soul.
Once again, in mid-season, there is much talk around the game, of change to the league format - the basic template for the season. There will be much sound and fury, while the debate rages on, but, I would reckon, the only way we will get, real, meaningful change, will be if either the Rangers Tribute Act or Hibs fail to negotiate a way back into the top flight next season, either by winning the Championship outright, or coming out on top via the play-offs.
The basic premise of the Scottish Football League, when it was started back in Queen Victoria's reign in the 1890s, was to ensure regular fixtures between the top clubs back then. When the new league kicked-off, all the top teams, with the exception of Queen's Park, whose hegemony in Scotland was already collapsing in the face of that club's aversion to professionalism, joined.
Ever since, Scottish senior football has been a two-tier body. We have the "Top" teams, who seem to be ever-presents in the top-flight: pre-2012 Rangers, Celtic, Hearts and Hibs, Aberdeen, the two Dundee clubs, St Johnstone, Kilmarnock, Motherwell, St Mirren and Partick Thistle.
The two Highland clubs, Inverness CT and Ross County have, to their credit, muscled into the establishment, as have Hamilton Academical, while one or two of the smaller establishment clubs - Airdrie, Falkirk, Dunfermline Athletic, Ayr United, Morton and Queen of the South for instance have become yo-yo clubs, given to good seasons and bad, but, always capable of shocking the so-called big boys in one-off cup ties.
It is a given that the RTA is the chosen successor to real Rangers, therefore, we have 20 middle-to-upper class clubs in Scotland. Add Livingston and Dumbarton or Clyde - who have never recovered from being decanted from Shawfield, and we have 20 clubs who deserve the title: "Senior Clubs". The other 22 so-called "Senior Clubs" are, in my view, little better than the best of the non-league teams.
These numbers do not add-up in the popular current context of a return to a 16-club top flight. Sorting-out the first 10 or 12 clubs would not be too-much of a problem, but, picking the final four would leave some deserving clubs on the outside looking in.
Fairness demands that all these clubs, all of which have made considerable investment in stadia and facilities deserve to be in the top-flight. So, how do we decide who gets in and who is left out?
I would suggest we find a way of keeping all 20 on board, by adopting the North American conference system. We have 20 clubs, which could be split into two conferences of perceived equal status. To do this, we do what they do across the Atlantic.
There, in cities such as New York and Los Angeles, which are large enough to support two fully-professional clubs in a single sport - we split these clubs; thus, Celtic go into one conference - the RTA into the other, ditto in Edinburgh and Dundee. Near-neighbours, with a history of rivalry are similarly split - Kilmarnock into one conference, Ayr the other, ditto St Mirren and Morton, Motherwell and Hamilton and so on.
These clubs play each other home and away in the first part of the season, 18 fixtures, then, following the mid-season break, we get down to the nitty-gritty of the cross-conference play-offs.
The top four clubs in each conference then go into a new eight-club pool, to play-down European-style, to the final two, who will contest the Championship Game. The pool games are knock-out, over two legs.This was the top Scottish clubs gain, in the domestic game, experience of playing such games in Europe.
The losing clubs in each round of games would then play each other, so, at the end of the season, we would have a one-to-eight ranking of the clubs.
I would also have the other 12 clubs, those not involved in playing-down to the Championship Game, play each other using the same format. Thus, at the end of the season, we would have a 1-20 pecking order. I will return to this later.
What of the other 22 "Senior" clubs? If we reduce the senior Scottish League to a mere 20 clubs they lose status and would seem to have nowhere to go.
Well, we redefine these other clubs as "Development" Clubs. They would be limited as to how many players over the age of 23 they could field in any match - I would suggest three.
Their principal remit would be to groom the next generation of players. It might be worthwhile having, as is the case in Rugby for instance, for having pairing agreements with the 20 senior clubs, so that when a young player with one of the top 20 clubs reaches 21, he moves to the associate Development club to continue his career.
Then, when he turns 23, he could go into a pre-season North American-style draft, whereby the lowest ranked of the top 20 clubs, has first pick of the available young talent, and so forth, thereby ensuring the best talent is spread around.
I know my suggestion breaks new ground for Scotland, but, we have to try something, the status quo isn't working.
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