COLT FROM THE BLUE

Rangers recon idea may not get past the lower-league clubs but they deserve credit for trying to come up with a solution

KEITH JACKSON

THEIR grand plan may be doomed to fail.

Even in the best of times, getting consensus in Scottish football is like trying to nail custard to the wall and, it goes without saying, these are far from the best of times.

So tomorrow it’s almost inevitable a freshly floated Rangers proposal for league reconstruction will end up dripping on the skirting board, like all the others before it.

But the fact the Ibrox club have attempted to plot a course for Scottish football out of this coronavirus nightmare should be welcomed and recognised nonetheless.

This is the Rangers our games needs, progressive and forward-thinking, capable of reaching out to the rest of Scotland’s clubs and offering solutions and leadership rather than acting in anger and causing further division.

That their vision for a new-look SPFL is unlikely to get off the ground is unfortunate. There’s much to like about the 14-14-18 blueprint.

Not only would it correct all the wrongs which Covid-19 has dumped on our doorstep but it would also see the Old Firm launch B teams into the lowest tier.

This is precisely the sort of radical and imaginative initiative the game in this country is crying out for.

So it is indeed a great pity it will almost certainly be suffocated by the self-interest of the perennial hangers-on who clog up the pyramid without ever contributing anything of substance to it.

The Rangers plan would also allow Kelty Hearts and Brora Rangers to invigorate the lowest tier.