A breakaway meeting of eight clubs at Edinburgh's Tynecastle Stadium yesterday indicates that a propsed ten-team Scottish Premier League is highly unlikely to occur.
The SPL are trying to reconfigure the competition so they can have ten clubs competing but a group of eight clubs met as they are unhappy with a lack of alternatives being provided.
A mooted 14-club first division has been completely dismissed by the powers that be forcing the eight clubs to gather at the home of Heart of Midlothian to show their opposition for a ten-man league.
Officials from Celtic, Rangers, Hibernian and Aberdeen were not in attendance but promoted Dunfermline Athletic was and chairman John Yorkston told the Scotsman that notions of having a ten-man league looked to be dead.
"I think it's safe to say that, after today's discussions, a league of ten is now dead," he said.
"There was a unanimous decision in favour of reinvestigating a league of 14.
"A 14 reflects the wishes of the fans and would allow the development of players without the fear factor. The SPL have been notified of this and we'll see how things move forward.
"We know in a top 10 you would make more money than you would if it was a 14. But a 14 is better for the good of the game and we'd also like to look after the league below as well.
"Financially, it's such a drop for anybody going down. But we really had general discussions over a wide range of things, like the reserve league. Folk just wanted to air their views. We should have more meetings."
