SFA-SPFL MERGER KEY TO PROGRESS, SAYS MILNE

STEWART MILNE insists a merger of the SFA and SPFL is the only way to move Scottish football forward. Milne will step down as Aberdeen chairman after 22 years at the helm at today’s Annual General Meeting. Handing over the reins to vice-chairman Dave Cormack, the 69-year-old will remain a non-executive director of the Pittodrie club. Reflecting on the one major regret of his two decades at the coalface of Scottish football, however, he believes a chance was missed to create one amalgamated governing body with teeth when the game was restructured in 2013. ‘I’ve said for a long time that if we had one consolidated body run by the right people, we might start to see the game moving forward with a common agenda,’ said Milne. ‘In many ways, Scottish football has come through it’s most challenging period in the last 20 years that it has ever been faced with. ‘There have been some good things done but I think there were some real opportunities there that we missed.’ Aberdeen will provide more details of a new tie-up with MLS side Atlanta United to shareholders today. And Milne believes the Americans have got the balance of power between clubs and administrators right. ‘One of the good things in America is that they’ve got a much stronger central control of the game,’ he said. ‘It’s clear that the environment of the clubs operating in that they are expected to deliver. ‘But the good thing is we have been forced back to doing more on youth development going forward and we have started to see some of the benefits coming through at clubs. ‘That’s the only way we can get back competing in Europe again as we are never going to buy ourselves into a position that so many other clubs are.’ Milne believes the greatest challenge facing the Scottish game is the economic advantage of the Old Firm. Worried that the interests of the Glasgow giants can never be reconciled with those of far smaller clubs, he favours yet another strategic review of the game to find common ground. ‘If we had the courage to bring somebody independent in to come up with a plan and a structure for going forward, eventually a lot of benefits would come through at national and club level,’ he said. ‘But it is difficult to see ourselves getting into that position. ‘We have a particularly difficult situation in Scotland that we have two clubs that are so much out of line with the rest of the game in terms of their scale. ‘Their needs and aspirations are different from the majority of other clubs but I do believe there is a lot more common ground that could be seized upon that wouldn’t be detrimental to them either. ‘But I’m not sure that it will ever happen.’