Rangers manager Walter Smith has warned there will be no easy solution when it comes to improving Scottish football.
But he believes adopting a two-tier Scottish Premier League of 10 teams in each division, and scrapping the current format of 12 teams, is a good start.
"I don't think there is an easy solution," said Smith. "Football has become, basically, a finance-based game over the last number of years. That's the problem small countries have."
All top-flight clubs met earlier this week to discuss radical reform of the game north of the border, with league reconstruction one of the topics on the agenda.
An SPL working party has proposed two leagues of 10, as well as other changes, including an earlier start date to the season and the introduction of a winter break in a bid to dramatically overhaul the game.
"They don't have the influence to get in the levels of money that are required to keep the league at a high standard," he added. "We have to find a solution and we are trying to do that. It won't be an easy decision for any of them to come round to."
The proposal for two divisions of 10 teams has already been met with opposition from Dundee United, Kilmarnock and Inverness. But Smith believes a return to a smaller league would improve competition within the SPL.
He said: "You are asking football managers questions but we are hardly involved in that kind of thing.
"We are obviously involved in discussions with our own chief executives and, in my discussions with Martin Bain, he was at pains to point out to me how difficult a decision it is to make.
"I can only say, in my experience of a 10-team league before, it helped clubs be competitive against the Old Firm at that stage in Scottish football. I don't think we should be that afraid of it at the present moment."
Source: PA
