Scottish Premiership chairman warns reducing league to 10 teams would be ‘huge mistake’
St Johnstone owner Adam Webb has warned that reducing the size of the Scottish Premiership from 12 to 10 clubs would be a “huge mistake”.
Reconstruction plans are being drawn up by the SPFL’s Competitions Working Group which include a proposal to revert to a 10-team top flight and scrap the top-six split.
The option of increasing the league is also on the table – a move which Webb favours with the American giving his backing to the idea of a 14-team Premiership which would grow to 16 sides in the future.
The talks have been partly driven by an increased strain on the fixture schedule, with extra European matches leaving fewer available dates in the domestic calendar. Premiership sides currently play 38 league fixtures per season.
Webb, whose club are currently bottom of the Premiership, told Sky Sports: “That would be a huge mistake [cutting the top flight to 10 teams]. I think the bar for good or bad when it comes to football, UK football and world football, is the English Premier League.
“It is a more familiar system that is more geared towards success on the world stage and on the UK stage. We should absolutely be heading in the other direction.
“From looking at the quality in the Championship this season, I can tell you we have two, three, four clubs for sure that would do just fine in the Premiership, and that’s where we should be headed. We should be growing the Premiership.
“We should be going to a 14-team league very soon, and then five years later – as long as the quality in the Championship is sufficient – projecting to go to a 16-team league, and if you keep growing it on a gradual, very deliberate way, we can make sure that the quality is there.
“We absolutely need to have quality with every team in the Premiership, but that’s the direction we should be going because it’s better for Scotland, it’s better for Scottish football.”
Any proposed change would require the backing of 11 out of 12 Premiership clubs plus 75 per cent of Premiership and Championship clubs combined, as well as 75 per cent of the 42 SPFL clubs combined in order to pass.
Scotland’s top flight has consisted of 12 teams since switching from 10 for the 2000-01 season.
There has long been a demand from many supporters to see the league increased in number in order to add variety and cut down on the number of times teams face each other in a season.
However, there is also concern among those responsible for sourcing TV and sponsorship deals that increasing the number of teams in the league would dilute the overall quality and reduce the number of showpiece fixtures between the bigger clubs.
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