Scottish football chiefs have been accused of “relegating 200 clubs in one go” with their plans to create a new Conference division at tier five.
The blueprint would see a 10-team league made up of four Premiership B sides and six clubs from the Highland and Lowland Leagues and is being earmarked for 2024-25. But it has been slammed by Mick Kennedy, the manager of ambitious West of Scotland Premier League side Darvel who stunned Scottish football by knocking Aberdeen out of the Scottish Cup this year.
And he has urged Lowland and Highland clubs to block the proposal by refusing to take part. The Pyramid Working Group met on Tuesday and discussed the Conference idea. It would be funded by the Premiership sides taking part - expected to be Rangers, Celtic, Hearts and Aberdeen - and established as a separate company meaning there would be no need for the 75 per cent approval from SPFL clubs to vote it in.
It could even be fast-tracked for next season if the B teams don’t get an extension to their current ‘guest’ status in the Lowland League. But Darvel and other clubs below League 2 - including the Lowland, Highland and South of Scotland Leagues and the five divisions of the West of Scotland League and four divisions in the East - would all drop a tier as a result of the new division being plonked in at level five.
And Kennedy told Record Sport: “Put Darvel to one side - this is impacting every club in the pyramid below League 2. It would be the only reconstruction of any league in European football that managed to relegate over 200 clubs in one go.
“That’s what is going to happen here - and just to create a platform for four teams. To create a league for them right in the middle of an existing pyramid system is astonishing. There’s not another European country this would happen in. Anyone who supports this should be ashamed.
“The only reason it’s happening in this country is the power of Rangers and Celtic. There’s a reason the new Conference requires no voting power - because they already know it’s wrong on so many levels.”
Celtic, Rangers and Hearts currently have B teams playing in the Lowland League as guest clubs. But with doubts over their inclusion again next season the trio have been in discussions with the SFA and SPFL over alternative options to help them give players between 17 and 21 regular football in a competitive environment.
They are barred from winning promotion in their current Lowland League arrangement and similarly would not be able to rise beyond the Conference should it be passed. However the six non-B teams WOULD be able to win promotion to the SPFL’s main body with League Two clubs relegated in return.
Other options discussed at Tuesday’s meeting were expanding League 2 to 16 teams or creating a 10-team SPFL 3 both of which would accommodate the B teams with clubs from the Highland and Lowland League making up the numbers - and crucially allowing the B teams to progress up to League 1.
But under current SPFL voting rules those two proposals would require 75 per cent of the league clubs’ support which is unlikely. A separate company Conference league - along similar lines to the Scottish Womens’ Premier League - would avoid that level of voting so long as B teams were barred from promotion.
It would look to exploit commercial rights for the benefit of its member clubs and with added financial might would be able to offer parachute payments to clubs relegated from League 2. But Kennedy, whose club has a well established plan to win promotion through the levels into the SPFL, has urged current tier five clubs to hold firm.
He said: “If the Highland and Lowland Leagues don’t give them any clubs then it can’t go ahead with only four teams in it.” Lowland League clubs will discuss the situation at a meeting on Monday night.
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