Source: PA
Ten-team SPL a backward step - Jefferies
Hearts manager Jim Jefferies believes reverting to a 10-team top flight would be a missed opportunity to improve Scottish football.
The Scottish Premier League will next Monday present proposals for a two-tier competition with 10 teams in each division following more than a year of research into reconstruction.
Top-flight clubs have been playing at least some of their rivals four times a season since the leagues were reconstructed in 1975, and Jefferies feels it adds to the staleness that SPL chief executive Neil Doncaster is trying to eradicate.
Eleven of the 12 SPL clubs need to vote in favour of the plans and Jefferies is sceptical over the chances. "We had 10 before and it was very tight, there were a lot of complaints about that," he said.
"If it's still remaining at four games, I've been an advocate of trying to get away from that. I thought the only way of doing that was through a bigger league. Playing each other four times isn't conducive to a lot of good football.
"You get too familiar with each other and it makes for some tight matches with a little bit of a fear factor in there. It's a long way from going ahead because it's still to be passed and there will be some chairman for it and some against."
