The SPFL have delivered a huge boost to Kelty Hearts and Brora Rangers after approving the pyramid play-off this season.
The Highland League and Lowland League champions are due to meet before facing the League Two bottom club for a place in senior set-up next season.
League chiefs have announced that the match will take place this season as the fixture avoided being cancelled for the second season in a row.
Their professional pathway was blocked last season when the campaign was halted at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.
Barry Ferguson’s Kelty were declared champions after playing only 13 of their scheduled 32 games and Brora managed just three of 16 due to pandemic lockdowns.
Brechin City, eight points adrift at the bottom of the fourth tier, wrote to the SPFL board saying it would be unfair to force them into a play-off as a result and the Glebe Park club’s chairman Ken Ferguson resigned from his position on that decision-making body.
An SPFL statement confirmed both Brora Rangers and Kelty Hearts have been correctly identified as league champions of the Highland and Lowland Leagues respectively and that they both satisfy its membership criteria.
Dates for both legs of the play-off match and the pyramid play-off match will be announced by the SPFL shortly.
Ian Maxwell, Scottish FA chief executive, said: “The principle of the Scottish football pyramid is of huge importance to the integrity of open competition.
"It was vital, given the implications for all three clubs, that the respective organisations took all practicable steps to ensure that the play-offs could take place.
“We are delighted that the decision by the judge corresponded with the view of the Scottish FA and provides the necessary clarity to the league bodies and certainty to those clubs affected.”
SPFL chief executive Neil Doncaster adde: “Like so many aspects of our sport, both the clubs and the SPFL have been in uncharted territory as a result of the disruption caused by COVID-19.
"We are 100% committed to the principle of the sporting pyramid but were understandably keen to ensure that any decisions reached were both fair and in accordance with the rules and agreements of all four organisations.
“We therefore worked with the Scottish FA to conduct an arbitration in front of a senior judge and are very pleased that the position has been definitively clarified, and that this season’s pyramid play-off matches will proceed as normal.”
