The Scottish Premiership will continue with 12 teams after talks over a potential expansion failed to find consensus.
At a meeting of the league’s Competitions Working Group, however, there was ‘broad agreement’ on proposals to revamp the Championship, League One and League Two.
Herald Sport broke the news of a fresh move to reshape the leagues on April 1. And discussions will now revolve around expanding the Championship from 10 teams to 12 or 14, with Leagues One and Two merging to form one league of 16 or 18 clubs. Further talks are scheduled for May 7.
The move followed a feeling by lower league representatives on the CWG that the time was right for a conversation.
SPFL Chief Executive Neil Doncaster has also spoken of the need address the issue of fixture congestion caused by the expansion of UEFA club competitions and to help to secure a softer landing for community clubs like Brechin City and Cowdenbeath when they drop out of the senior set-up to the largely unfunded Lowland and Highland Leagues.
While supporters broadly favour an expansion of the top flight to end the practice of clubs playing each other four times, the Competitions Working Group were unable to come up with a plan likely to obtain the 11-1 majority required to for major change in the Premiership. An assessment of ten, 14 and 16 teams found flaws in all three structures with no agreement reached.
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In contrast, there was a consensus around the idea of expanding the Championship and reshaping Leagues One and Two.
In a statement the SPFL said: The Competitions Working Group met on 29 April to discuss the possibility of league restructuring.
“It was agreed that there was no reasonable prospect of achieving consensus around a new format for the William Hill Premiership.
“There was, however, broad agreement around potential changes to the William Hill Championship, League 1 and League 2.
“These will be worked up with a view to conducting a consultation with clubs and other stakeholders.
Any rule changes are unlikely to take place in time for next season, with 2026/27 is considered a more realistic timescale.
Any formal resolution put to clubs by the SPFL Board would require the backing of 11 of the 12 Premiership clubs, eight out of 10 Championship teams and 15 of the 20 teams in Leagues One and Two to pass.
A recent discussion sent to clubs proposed that the current fifth tier of the pyramid – the Highland League and Lowland League – should be replaced with a new tier of three regionalised leagues, based on the north, the east and the west.
