Mince and Tatties 04

In the absence of anything original from yours truly, here's what the other Scottish blogs have been speaking about these past days.

The topic of SPL reconstruction has been dug up, dusted off and dressed up in a nice suit for our pleasure once again. We have our own ideas here at to what to do about it, most of which will be largely unpopular and not even desperately original, but, like Gavin Saxton over at twohundredpercent points out, a league of 16, 18 or even 42 teams will not improve things, because the problem with Scottish football is not its league setup, rather the wide gulf between the haves and have-nots , and the fact there's too many teams for Scottish football to support, but that's another discussion altogether.The only teams that would see any sort of benefit from an expanded league structure would be the teams who finish in the lower half of the league (the Falkirks, St Mirrens and Hamiltons of this world) because their relegation battles suddenly become midtable fodder and safety, thus taking away their only source of any kind of excitement in a regular SPL season. The rest of us, at least those of us finishing in the top six would see the league split disappearing (good) at the cost of one extra fixture against the Old Firm (bad, considering the amount of money at stake).

We Love Fitba also writes on the topic, asking some serious questions about those pretenders to the crown.

As the Away End also points out, an expanded league would mean two fewer Old Firm derbies every season which, if we're honest, is the only reason the likes of Sky got involved in the first place. Take away those fixtures and would they still be as interested? Would any other broadcaster be interested? Would they be happy showing Rangers or Celtic taking on Partick Thistle in another Glasgow derby live from Firhill? Probably not.

Apropos of which, the Scottish Football blog has an interesting piece on the role of broadcasters in Scottish football, in particular with regard to our national team. In a nutshell, the Department for Cultcha wants to make certain sporting events free-to-air, therefore making them more accessible to us, the unwashed masses. No more fannying about with Sky boxes or other assorted Capitalist crappery: just lots of free footie. However, Gordon Smith is not too keen on the idea, mainly because it will scupper the €55m BSyB deal that's about to come into operation. He's got a point - we need the money. Anyway, go read the article, it'll explain better than I can. Or even want to right now.

So yes, back to league restructuring.

For the record, I'd be in favour of an 18-team SPL, backed with a 12-team Division One and Division Two. The Third would be scrapped, along with the League Cup (aka "The Diddy Cup") and promotion and relegation from the Second would open up possibilities for teams in the East, West and Highland Leagues. I'd introduce a play-off type system, like the ones used in a country we constantly refer to as a model of football administration and technical skill, The Netherlands, despite the fact that most clubs there are constantly on the verge of going under.

Will league restructuring solve the problems in Scottish football? No. Will it make the league more interesting? For a while, probably, then we'll be back to where we where started, with Old Firm dominance and the same teams finishing in the same positions.

And then the calls for league restructuring will begin all over again.