Premiership CEO on reconstruction roadblock and one avenue left to combat 'frustration'

Daily Record

3 hours ago

Falkirk chief Jamie Swinney got the topic briefly back on the agenda this year but says it's time to think bigger with the independent working group
It darted on to the agenda as quickly as it disappeared off of it.
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Reconstruction ... it generates enough heat that a little light should surely follow.
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Jamie Swinney saw all of this unfold from inside the room on the SPFL competitions working group where he sits with representatives of mostly other top-flight clubs.
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The Falkirk CEO's takeaway? If an appetite for change - however it may look - is to be met, leaving it for clubs to lead is venturing on a fool's errand.
It was from outside his ground in February that fan Kieran Hennigan, founder of the Improving Scottish Football podcast, championed a 14-team top flight in a video clocking more than a million views online.
Seeing the social media reaction, and having been on his podcast, Swinney started conversations with three Premiership clubs that suggested merit in at least discussing reconstruction, which he floated to the SPFL and was on the agenda come April.
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"What happened from there caught me a bit by surprise," he said.
"My proposals were all about: 'Can we have an open discussion about bigger leagues and looking at maybe reducing four games a season and finding ways to play young players?' "What it turned into was, all of a sudden, a 10-team Premiership... it appeared out of nowhere.
"The SPFL put it on the table, which is fair enough - if you're going to consider alternatives, you should consider all alternatives.
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"But it was obvious from minute one there was no interest from anybody in a 10-team league so we then got to the point of having the discussion at the competitions working group.
"What I'd always advocated was a proper holistic look at the overall game - not one thing in isolation.
"The approach we should have taken was: 'What are all the things we'd like to try to improve?' Let's put them all on the table and see how many we can potentially fix.'
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"It's not just looking at the Premiership and its size.
"How do we get a better transition for young players?
"How do we help clubs relegated from League Two and give them a better chance of getting back into the professional leagues?
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"How do we reduce the number of games from playing clubs four times a season to two or three to make it better for fans?
"How do we make the leagues more competitive? Can we make the Premiership more competitive so the gap - the kind of closed shop it has become isn't healthy for the game - is not quite as drastic?
"Put everything in there but what it turned into was the appetite from the bigger clubs was not to have a bigger Premiership. You're looking at the big four or five, all felt there would be a dilution of quality.
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"Actually, one of the biggest things we wanted to try to do was improve that top end of the game by not being a closed shop and trying to reduce the number of games if possible."
No system is perfect but Swinney doesn't buy how a 14 or 16-team league would preclude four Celtic and Rangers games - two pre and two post-split - to keep Sky happy.
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Greece manage it with a 14 in a 32-game season, albeit it rises to 36 if in the relegation play-outs.
A 16-club set-up could split into four mini leagues, culminating in a 36-game campaign and jeopardy in three of the four lots if Europe stretches to fifth place.
Intensified Euro commitments mean a winter break is no more, which, Swinney suggests, with fewer league games in a bigger league might be restored. He said: "Everything should be put on the table.
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"But the frustration is every time it comes to league reconstruction over the years, there's either been an agenda to shoehorn B teams in or it's been driven by the agenda of a very small number of clubs instead of looking at the wider game.
"That's where it falls down every time.
"If you got an independent - I say independent - working group with a mix of clubs across the 42 and some representation from outwith the SPFL, gave them a blank sheet of paper and said: 'Here are the things we need to do - maybe we must retain four Celtic-Rangers games - but we also think there are a whole number of areas where we can improve the game.' If you approach it that way, instead of just trying to tackle one or two problems, there is a way to resolve things and actually improve the game.
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"But the minute you went to the table to say: 'Right, larger league?', you got the reply: 'We don't want that, it dilutes the quality' and everything else fell apart."
Swinney paints a picture of dominoes failing to fall - because the first didn't move, the Championship was left with little incentive to and then Leagues One and Two as well.
"Keith [Lasley] at St Mirren was asked to present on why he felt 14 teams was a good model and I was asked to present why I felt 16 was," he said, caveating it was for the purposes of debate rather than club policy.
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"But we never even got as far as that because I asked the question: 'Is there an appetite to make the Premiership bigger?' And the answer was no.
"So the whole thing stopped, essentially, almost before it had even got started. We never even really got into the mechanics. It was gone.
"But again, that's not the right approach. We should start with: 'How do we make Scottish football better?' and work back from that.
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"Then have a working group taking feedback from different clubs but working collaboratively, without an agenda, to say: 'We'll come to the table and propose what we believe is right for Scottish football.'
"Without looking at it, with all due respect, through your own tinted glasses - which any club would and I include ourselves in that. You would always, first and foremost, look at, 'How does this help my club or does it?'
"But the question should be: 'How do we make Scottish football better?'
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Swinney doesn't sugarcoat "articles we have collectively signed up to as clubs prevent meaningful change in the game... they prevent progression".
An 11-1 majority in the Premiership for any proposal to pass muster means few clear the first hurdle to then give lower leagues a say - the only chance, he claims, is a rethink on who leads.
He said: "It's got to be stripped down to be as independent a group as possible. They would have only one remit - to look at improving the game overall.
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"You would need people who understand how clubs operate so you would have some club representatives on it, but also external people. Whether that's the Scottish Football Supporters Association, or looking outwith football to perhaps somebody with experience of other sports.
"If you just have the clubs we're going back to the same problem, which is, regardless of how hard you try, you always have tinted glasses on.
"You'd have to consult the clubs all the way through but the group should have a real mixed experience.
"The starting point would have to be trying to work out what the biggest clubs want and what they are willing to compromise on - because if you don't get buy-in from the Premiership, it falls apart anyway.