The Conference League proposal has been withdrawn prior to it being voted on at Scottish FA’s annual general meeting.
SFA member clubs were set to vote on the idea for a new fifth tier between the SPFL and the Breedon Highland League and Lowland League at the governing body’s AGM at Hampden on Tuesday.
The proposal has proved to be high controversial with lots of clubs expressing their opposition to it in recent weeks.
And sources have indicated to the Press and Journal that the proposal, which was sent out to clubs last month, has now been dropped.
The withdrawal of the proposal the day before it was due to be voted on surely signals the end of the road for the Conference League idea.
What was the Conference League proposal?
The Conference League idea had been proposed by the SFA and would have featured Premiership B teams, Highland League clubs and Lowland League sides.
One of the reasons it was been suggested by the game’s governing body was to try to develop better players for the national team by allowing some of the country’s brightest talents in academies at Premiership clubs to be exposed to first-team football against experienced players at an early age.
In the proposal it was suggested that it would be a 10-team division consisting of four Premiership B teams – of which Celtic, Rangers and Hearts would likely have been three of the participants – four Lowland League sides and two Highland League clubs.
The Premiership B teams could not have been promoted or relegated and the league would have been funded by a six-figure entry free from top flight clubs which would have resulted in the non B teams receiving a fee of around £40,000 per season.
Had the Conference League come into being, the highest-placed non-B team would have taken on League Two’s bottom side at the end of each season for a place in the SPFL.
The lowest-placed non-B team would have been automatically relegated and replaced by the winner of a play-off between the Highland League champions and Lowland League winners.
The second lowest-placed non-B team would then have faced the loser of the play-off between the Highland and Lowland League champions.
It had been suggested B teams would have had to field a minimum of seven players that are eligible for Scotland in their starting 11, and included at least 11 Scotland-eligible players in their matchday squad.
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