DURING a managerial career that spanned four decades, Jim Jefferies experienced many different league formats.
He led promoted Falkirk to fifth place in the old Premier Division after it changed from a 12 to a 10 team league during the 1994/95 season.
And he was also in the dugout at Tynecastle when Hearts finished in the same position in the revamped Premier League when it returned to a 12 club set-up in the 2000/01.
Jefferies, who spent eight years in charge at Kilmarnock, also sampled the 20 side Premier League and 24 side First Division, now the Championship, when he was with Bradford City down in England.
So the 74-year-old is well placed to offer an opinion on the proposed return to a 10 side Premiership, a controversial move which is being driven by Celtic and Rangers due to their heavier European schedule, from the 2026/27 season.
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Like many supporters, the former Scottish Cup winner and Premier League Manager of the Year believes that a larger, not a smaller, league would be the best for Scottish football. He is hopeful that common sense will prevail.
“I'd be more in favour of it going up,” he said. “You could still have fewer games if there are more teams, you just don’t need to have clubs playing each other four times a season.
“If you have a 10 team top flight with just one relegation place it makes it harder for teams to win promotion. Clubs which go down have to cut costs and reduce the size of their squads and their coaching staff. It can be pretty bad. Doing that obviously makes it more difficult for them to get back up there.
“I was always in favour of increasing the league in size and clubs only playing each other twice. There are a lot of clubs in the Championship who are potentially capable of competing in the Premier League, with the likes of, no disrespect to them, Ross County.
“Falkirk have done fantastically well and it is looking like they could be up there. But if there is a move to a 10 team league and there is only one relegation place it is only going to make it tougher for clubs to win promotion.”
“I would like to see us looking at ways we can get back to playing each other twice a year and figuring out how some other teams can get promoted. In my opinion, that would be better for Scottish football.”
Critics of the current set -up – there are 12 teams in the Premiership and 10 teams in the Championship, League 1 and League 2 – believe that it makes managers wary of giving promising youngsters game time.
They are convinced that a move to a 14 or a 16 side top flight would see more kids make the difficult transition from the age-group sides into the senior ranks.
Jefferies, though, is not sure that is the case. “A lot of young players in the modern ame are good enough to go in there and deal with first team football,” he said. “James Wilson at Hearts and Lennon Miller at Motherwell have shown that this season. Their managers have been under pressure and it hasn’t stopped them. I don’t see that as an issue.”
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However, the former Falkirk, Hearts, Kilmarnock and Dunfermline Athletic manager predicted that many supporters will have serious problems if the Premiership is cut in size and will grow bored.
He feels leading clubs won’t suffer too badly if they no longer have four matches against Celtic and Rangers – as is currently the case for those who make the top six split – to play every season.
“I think fans will get a bit fed up if it is the same eight or nine teams they are playing all the time year in year out,” he said. “For me, having 10 teams is just too tight. It makes it hard for the Championship clubs to get up.
“I doubt the other clubs will agree to it. I think a lot of clubs are favouring increasing the size of the league. In England they play each other home and away and that is it. I know the leagues have more clubs, but if we could move towards that it would be better.
“I know clubs want the revenue that two home games against Celtic and Rangers brings in, but I am not sure that it necessarily works like that now. I think a lot of clubs are reducing the size of their away allocation and are doing fine.”
