Saints chairman calls for five-league set-up

Saints chief also backs colts teams’ inclusion in new format

Steve Brown believes the reconstruction ship for next season has already sailed and won’t be coming back to shore before the Premiership begins.

But when the SPFL clubs get around the table again to discuss a long-term solution for Scottish football, rather than a temporary patch-up that has proved so hard to agree, a five division set-up should be seriously considered.

The St Johnstone chairman can see the benefit of bringing colt teams into the new structure but wouldn’t limit it to just Rangers and Celtic.

And another benefit of adding on an extra league would be the inclusion of more ambitious clubs from the Highland and Lowland Leagues.

“We’ve been in the Championship and we know the pain that is down there,” said Brown.

“Trying to run a full-time football club in the Championship is challenging – and that is an understatement. I was always mindful of that.

“Over the last few years we’ve had Rangers, Hibs, Hearts, Dundee and Dundee United out of the league. If you take a bigger view on Scottish football, that can’t happen and it’s not healthy.

“You have the likes of Dunfermline, Falkirk, Partick Thistle – full-time clubs – being shut out.

“I’ve been going on about this for as long as I can remember. Reconstruction should be for all of the right reasons.

“There are quite a number of sceptics out there who see it to look after certain clubs. That is disappointing.

“If you bring it in now, you just move the problem to other clubs.

“It is unjust what has happened, there is no getting away from that. But unless you have a better option – which I don’t think we have at the moment – you just pass the pain on to other clubs. It would be Forfar, Clyde, Peterhead and various others. Cove Rangers win the league and would stay where they are.”

Many would say that there are too many clubs in the professional ranks as it is but Brown believes easing the fear of non-league oblivion for the existing ones, which would be a consequence of broadening the SPFL, carries more weight.

“At one point we talked about a fifth division, which for me probably makes more sense,” he said.

“In League Two, maybe half the league is worried about a trap door going from senior football to semiprofessional whether it’s Lowland League or Highland League.

“The other half is thinking that the colt teams are going to clamber over the top of them because they will have aspirations to get promoted.

“In my opinion we should seriously consider having another division for additional colts or B teams, whatever you want to call them. And bring in one or two others from the Lowland League and Highland League. If a club does get relegated, it is a softer landing.

“Other than that, I can’t really see it being voted through by the lower league clubs.”

There will be plenty of his own team’s supporters who recoil at the idea of Rangers and Celtic B teams in the league

but Brown has always seen merit in the concept.

“In terms of the Rangers proposal, I have seen very similar before,” he said. “I was on the competitions working group (SPFL). There are one or two modifications but it’s pretty much how it was presented back then.

“I like it. I think it makes sense but there is no time to implement it.

“Trying to get it all done and squeezed in wouldn’t work.”

The overwhelming will to come up with a workable and lasting solution is there, as far as Brown is concerned. But there is one important, bordering on immovable, impediment.

“The biggest thing, and I’ve spoken to Ann Budge a number of times, is the voting,” said Brown. “It’s the 11-1 vote in the Premiership.

“Until that is changed, I don’t think we’ll have any change.

“In 2012 league reconstruction was put in what they call ‘protective matters’ which requires an 11-1 vote to come out.

“Until that ridiculous scenario is removed, there will never be any meaningful change.”

Steve Brown, above, and Ann Budge.