Discussions with leading clubs over wide-ranging reforms of the Scottish game will be deferred until the new year after the Scottish Premier League postponed Monday's scheduled general meeting.
Proposals for a two-tier SPL, with 10 teams in each division, and changes to the calendar were set to be put to all 12 Clydesdale Bank Premier League clubs tomorrow.
However, the Arctic weather conditions which have decimated the fixture programme and disrupted travel across Scotland have caused the SPL to rearrange the meeting for January 4.
A strategic review group - comprising SPL chief executive Neil Doncaster, SPL chairman Ralph Topping and representatives from Hibernian, St Mirren, Motherwell, Celtic, Rangers and Aberdeen - set up by the organisation concluded their eight-month schedule of meetings last Sunday.
All top-flight clubs have been involved in the 10 or so meetings at some stage, discussing how to overhaul the Scottish game.
The radical plans would mean a 36-match league season and the removal of the split, which has caused numerous controversies due to the anomalies in fixtures.
One automatic promotion place would be supplemented by play-offs between the ninth-placed team in the top tier and three teams in the second tier.
Those changes are unlikely to come into force straight away but a July start date, coupled with a winter break, could be introduced next season ahead of reconstruction.
Although persuading 12 clubs to vote for a 10-team league could prove difficult, the ethos of the plans is understood to focus on reducing the gap in revenues that exists between clubs in the SPL and Irn-Bru First Division.
Several clubs have suffered financially for years after failing to secure an instant return to the top flight.
Source: PA
