Scottish football merger agreed

A merger between the Scottish Premier League and Scottish Football League has been agreed by the country’s 42 senior clubs.

A meeting lasting a reported 15 hours was concluded with the formation of the Scottish Professional Football League finally ratified on Thursday.

The current 12-10-10-10 league structure will remain under the new organisation, with a new financial redistrubiton model and play-offs introduced.

Eric Riley (Celtic), Stephen Thompson (Dundee United), Duncan Fraser (Aberdeen), Les Gray (Hamilton), Mike Mulraney (Alloa) and Bill Darroch (Stenhousemuir) have been named on the new board for the SPFL, which comprises three members from the top division, two from the second tier and one person from the bottom 20 clubs.

“It’s been a difficult day for a lot of people,” Hibernian and previous SPL board member Rod Petrie said after the meeting.

“There has been a lot to consider, but everybody has approached it in a positive and professional manner.

“I think it’s right that everybody took their time and made sure that we got the fine detail correct. Here we are in agreement and all the clubs can go forward in a positive vein now.

“People have had strong opinions and they are right to have strong opinions to do what they think is right for their club and we now have 42 clubs who have agreed on a way forward and that’s got to be a positive stance for Scottish football.

“From a supporters point of view, they probably don’t see a lot of change but from the management of the game and the way that we organise ourselves, it will streamline the way things are done and hopefully we can all get behind some new initiates for the game going forward to help things on the pitch.”

Stirling Albion operations director Stuart Brown was happy a concensus was reached among the 42 clubs.

“There were some due diligence matters that had to be addressed,” he said.

“The SFL board is happy that this has now all been successfully concluded and our board was happy to sign up.”