Scottish league rejects plans for SPL2

SPL chiefs argue that the agreement made when the league was created allows for the addition of a second division. But, following an SFL committee meeting, Peter Donald, the secretary, said: “It’s our belief is that it’s not consistent with the settlement agreement. We will be writing to the SPL seeking a meeting to debate the issue.”

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The SPL pays an annual fee to clubs in the Scottish first, second and third divisions as part of the agreement that allowed them to break away. There are suggestions that, should the first division clubs follow and form an SPL2, they would no longer be entitled to a share of that £1.6 million fee.

But Dave MacKinnon, the Dundee chief executive, told BBC Sport: “It’s going to happen and I think a deal will be done. The only issues are the financial settlement and the timescale.

“A divorce can be acrimonious or it can be amicable but, if lawyers get involved, like in any divorce, the less both parties will end up with.”

MacKinnon insisted that, with the loss of television coverage of first division games and without a league sponsor after the end of the contract with Bell’s, clubs like his had to act to retain full-time football.

“This season we have one of the most competitive first division races in many years,” he said. “The games are superb, but there just isn’t a platform to actually show them.”

But John Smith, the SFL president, questioned that argument. “The TV deal was only worth £50,000 and we have until the end of the season to find a sponsor, so I think that is just a smoke screen,” he said.

“I don’t have any objections to change, but the dialogue has to be right. The 30 SFL clubs met in April and the first division clubs said nothing about this then.

“They produced a paper five weeks later, but I would have thought that they would have had a dialogue with their parent body about that. I’m sure I would have looked at it with some sympathy. But I have slowed down the procedure because it was moving too fast.

“We are trying to get the right structure and recognise that there are full-time clubs whose needs must be met.”

Taken from timesonline.co.uk