I HAVE maintained, from my very first post in this blog, that only radical thinking and solutions can ever prevent Scottish football from vanishing down the tubes. And this radical thinking MUST come from the top, the "blazerati" within Hampden's corridors of power.
Sadly, I do not detect enough men of vision and radical thought within the ranks of the power brokers; mind you, that said, I never saw the agreement which produced the junior football superleagues and revitalised the true home of football in Scotland - but, it happened, so maybe I am being unduly pessimistic.
It is for the reasons outlined above, that I fear our brave new world of three leagues of 12-12-18 clubs will, like the Scottish Football League's Premier Division, First Division, Second Division plan of 1975 or the Scottish Premier League's breakaway of 1998 failed. Every time Scottish senior football re-organises, it is on the basis of maintaining the same number of clubs as there were when the re-organisation happened.
And the brutal truth, which nobody dare speak, is - WE'VE GOT TOO-MANY SENIOR CLUBS IN SCOTLAND.
We don't need three leagues, to accommodate 42 teams. When the SFL introduced the ten-club Premier Division in 1975, we had 38 clubs, playing in an 18-club First Division and a 20-club Second - and that was seen as a case of too-many clubs.
Fast-forward to 1998-99 and the start of the SPL and their top-ten broke away and rather than fewer clubs, Scottish senior football had more clubs, 40 in all, all seeking a greater share of a shrinking "cake" in terms of gate income.
The only two clubs to have benefitted from these cosmetic changes in numbers of divisions, numbers of clubs per divisions and gate money are Celtic and Rangers, yet, the rest somehow, seduced by the glamour of the Big Two, seem incapable of realising this, so we stumble on.
Thankfully, unless the News International/ESPN management send round the 21st century equivalent of Messrs Kray & Co, Enforcers, tooled-up and ready to use their tools, to a future meeting of the FA Premiership executive; Celtic and Rangers are stuck in Scotland until that day in the future when, totally pissed-off with UEFA and FIFA the European Clubs Organisation breaks away to form a European NFL. Then, maybe, since they are, regardless of Celtic's protests to the contrary as a two-club job lot, we will be rid of their imbalancing act and Scottish football can re-form and maybe move forward.
I still see no alternative other than a 24-club Scottish National League; the 24-clubs playing in two, 12-club American-style conferences, with wild-card games and play-downs leading to the top-eight clubs - the top four in each conference, playing -down via European-style two-legged games to an eventual "Superbowl" game to determine the champions, while those clubs which didn't make the top eight or who lost out in the quarter and semi-finals play each other until we have a 1-24 pecking order.
Below that, we should have Regional Leagues, atop a pyramid to include the junior clubs, the Highland, East of Scotland and South of Scotland Leagues. These clubs would, as in England, have entry to the national cup competition, but, again, as in England, would have to play through qualifying rounds.
I would have a cap on the number of players each of the SNL clubs could employ - what's wrong with a Champion's League-style cap at a 25-man pool of players? I would allow them, in fact I would insist, they have an Under-21 player development/academy coaching set-up in place; but, I would insist that, at aged 21, the players be farmed-out to regional league clubs and given until at least the age of 23 to show they might make it, before they could come back into the SNL in an American-style "draft" system - with the team ranked 24th having first pick and so-forth.
I don't say we should abandon the long tail of clubs in the lower reaches of the senior ranks, rather, let them find their own level, sink or swim.
In 1975, when the first attempt at genuine post-war re-organisation was made, the Division Two final table read, in descending order: Falkirk, Queen of the South, Montrose, Hamilton Academical, East Fife, St Mirren, Clydebank, Stirling Albion, Berwick Rangers, East Stirlingshire, Stenhousemuir, Albion Rovers, Raith Rovers, Stranraer, Alloa Athletic, Queen's Park, Brechin City, Meadowbank Thistle, Cowdenbeath, Forfar Athletic.
In 1998, as the Top Ten broke away to form the SPL, the clubs in the bottom half of the senior games were (again in descending order): Division Two: Stranraer, Clydebank, Livingston (formerly Meadowbank), Queen of the South, Inverness CT, East Fife, Forfar Athletic, Clyde, Stenhousemuir, Brechin City.
Division Three: Alloa Athletic, Arbroath, Ross County, East Stirlingshire, Albion Rovers, Berwick Rangers, Queen's Park, Cowdenbeath, Montrose, Dumbarton.
As I write this, the pecking order in the bottom two divisions of the SFL reads (again in descending order) - Second Division: Queen of the South, Alloa Athletic, Brechin City, Forfar Athletic, Arbroath, East Fife, Stenhousemuir, Ayr United, Stranraer, Albion Rovers.
Third Division: Rangers, Queen's Park, Montrose, Peterhead, Elgin City, Berwick Rangers, Annan Athletic, Clyde, East Stirlingshire, Stirling Albion.
There are 30 clubs in the above three lists; 12 clubs - Queen of the South, Montrose, East Fife, Berwick Rangers, East Stirlingshire, Stenhousemuir, Albion Rovers, Stranraer, Alloa Athletic, Queen's Park, Brechin City and Forfar Athletic have featured in all three bottom-half listings. A further five clubs: Clydebank (now Airdrie United following the take-over), Stirling Albion, Meadowbank Thistle (now Livingston), Cowdenbeath and Arbroath featured in two of the three lists; so we can safely say that there is a hard-core of "bottom feeders" in the senior game who are making little or no contribution to Scottish senior football other than by filling a spot in the membership - do they deserve to be allowed to survive in perpetuity whilst the lack of a pyramid system prevents ambitious clubs such as Spartans from coming in to replace them?
Are these "bottom feeders" producing a stream of talented, ambitious young players for clubs higher-up the food chain? So why should they be allowed to continue as "Senior" clubs - to my mind, they do not merit that status.
However, as regional clubs, fostering young talent from their own communities, plus a sprinkling of farmed-out young talent, from a higher status club - they would, I suggest, have a brighter future.
Under 12-12-18, they will simply bumble along as they have for the last 40-years, as will Scottish football, and we've declined as a football nation in that time.
Yes, it is time for change - but the changes have to far-more radical and far-reaching than has been suggested this week.
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