REBUILD IT AND THEY W* COME

SAYS FALKIRK CEO JAMIE SWINNEY

- BY ALAN ROBERTSON

IT darted on to the agenda as quickly as it disappeared off of it.

Reconstruction ... it generates enough heat that a little light should surely follow.

Jamie Swinney saw all of this unfold from inside the room on the SPFL competitions working group where he sits with representatives of mostly other topflight clubs.

The Falkirk CEO's takeaway? If an appetite for change - however it may look - is to be met, leaving it for clubs to lead is venturing on a fool's errand.

It was from outside his ground in February that fan Kieran Hennigan, founder of the Improving Scottish Football podcast, championed a 14-team top flight in a video clocking more than a million views online.

Seeing the social media reaction, and having been on his podcast, Swinney started conversations with three Premiership clubs that suggested merit in at least discussing reconstruction, which he floated to the SPFL and was on the agenda come April.

“What happened from there caught me a bit by surprise” he said.

“My proposals were all about: ‘Can we have an open discussion about bigger leagues and looking at maybe reducing four games a season and finding ways to play young players?”

“What it turned into was, all of a sudden, a 10-team Premiership .... it appeared out of nowhere.

“The SPFL put it on the table, which is fair enough - if you're going to consider alternatives, you should consider all alternatives.

“But it was obvious from minute one there was no interest from anybody in a 10-team league so we then got to the point of having the discussion at the competitions working group.

“What I'd always advocated was a proper holistic look at the overall game — not one thing in isolation.

“The approach we should have taken was: ‘What are all the things wed like to try to improve?’

“Let's put them all on the table and see how many we can potentially fix. It's not just looking at the Premiership and its size.