SPFL destined for ‘moaning and screaming’

STEWART REGAN has predicted Scottish football will always descend into ‘moaning and screaming’ unless it changes the voting structure at the top of the SPFL.

The former Scottish FA chief executive has likened the current crisis to ‘herding cats’ and believes the ‘governance model’ employed by the League is at the root of the in-fighting that sees polarised clubs head into a potentially ill-tempered EGM today.

Regan reckons the requirement for an 11-1 top-flight majority to make major changes to the game is preventing meaningful progress and causing resentment that could take years to heal.

He said: “It’s been very interesting sitting on the outside watching what’s been going on in Scotland.

“It’s one hell of a mess, that’s for sure, and it needs unravelling. I think it needs some strong leadership to actually try and get all the relevant parties into one place. “It’s a bit like herding cats by the looks of things. “You’ve had clubs intervening in other club’s futures and that puts relationships on the line and, right now, it has escalated to the point people are issuing statements and making legal threats.

“It’s got the potential to cause relationship damage that might never be fixed and that’s not a good place for

Scottish football to be in. At the heart of it is the governance model.

“When you talk about making decisions that are in everybody’s interests, at the very top of the Premiership two clubs can actually stop change if they feel that’s not right for them or for the top tier.

“It’s not necessarily the leadership that’s causing the vacuum, it’s the governance model that’s preventing change from happening.

“Rather than clubs moaning about other clubs, if they do have a real issue with the way things are being run then they have an opportunity to change it from within.

“That’s not going to be easy, clearly, because it’s been set up for many years and they had an opportunity back in 2012 to change it and didn’t change it then.”