SPFL chief executive Neil Doncaster expects more cross-border leagues in the future.
Clubs from England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland already compete in the Scottish Challenge Cup.
The Dutch and Belgian FAs have been working on an 18-team proposal that would see 10 clubs from the Netherlands and eight from Belgium compete in a cross-border competition. Doncaster believes this may be an attractive option for Scottish football in the coming years.
He said: “I am of the view that we are more likely to get more cross-border leagues in the future.
“Uefa, having been in a position where they were perhaps very anti the idea of leagues merging together, perhaps now see merged leagues as a way of trying to bridge the financial gap between the haves and have nots. What has happened is you have had a huge polarisation of money.
“The haves – the big five leagues – have accelerated away from the rest and the second tier leagues have been left behind.
“For Uefa to try to bridge that gap by taking money away from the big five is perhaps unrealistic, as much as some would like that.
“But I think Uefa would welcome the idea of leagues banding together to create bigger economic units and perhaps that would be a way try to bridge the gap.”
Doncaster was speaking on The Price of Football podcast which was aired yesterday with the interview recorded before Scottish football was suspended indefinitely due to the coronavirus crisis.
He added: “We have seen speculation about the Belgian and Dutch leagues and they are understood to be carrying out a piece of work to explore whether a merged league would work. You could certainly see something across Scandinavia working well and perhaps in Portugal and Spain.
“Cross border leagues are coming down the track.
“Ultimately any party you need an invitation to and it may be that there is some economic shock or political shock or technology shock that unsettles the environment.
“Who knows where that may take us.”
