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SCOTLAND’S senior leagues need to be increased in size to allow more talented young footballers who are capable of excelling for the national team on the global stage to emerge in the years to come, it has been claimed. Celtic and Rangers , who each played eight games in the league phase of the revamped Champions League and Europa League respectively this season, are driving discussions about cutting the number teams in the Premiership from 12 to 10 and reducing the number of fixtures they have by two. The proposed move has disappointed and concerned those who have long felt that kids aren’t getting their chance in the first teams of our leading clubs because the top four divisions are too small and managers are fearful of the repercussions of playing them.
Gerry Strain - the sporting director at Hamilton, a Championship outfit with an impressive track record of turning promising youngsters into accomplished professionals - believes that expanding the leagues is the only way for Scotland to start producing more top class footballers who can shine on the international stage. SPFL plot return to 10-team Scottish Premiership with no top-six split SPFL 10-team reconstruction verdict: Self-interest set to rule again Carlos Alba: Why is Scotland so terrible at sport and what can we do about it? Strain explained how the New Douglas Park club had gone back to the future in an attempt to get more academy kids into their first team – by farming teenagers out to “junior” clubs just like legendary Celtic and Rangers managers Jock Stein and Jock Wallace did in their glorious heydays in the 1960s and 1970s. But he believes that larger not smaller divisions – the Premiership has 12 teams at the moment while the Championship, League 1 and League 2 all have 10 - are desperately required if more youths are to make a successful transition into the paid ranks going forward.
“I don't like the current system,” he said. “Currently only 0.1 per cent of kids make it out of the academy.
That's not good at all. “Hamilton probably break that mould a wee bit. When we played our final League 1 game against Kelty Hearts last season we had 11 players on the pitch who were either in the academy or had come through the academy.
That was amazing, a unique event. “We're looking at strategic loans for the kids. We want to try and test them to see if they can make it.
They're going to Spartans, East Stirlingshire, Thorniewood United. “We are trying to go back to the old Jock Wallace or Jock Stein model by putting the kids into the juniors. We've got a 17-year-old goalie at Thorniewood who's doing really well.
That'll bring him on. “Where do you put a kid to play? Do you put them into our age-group teams? Do you put them into a lower league team? You have to find the right loan environment for them. It's not just about getting games, it's about getting games that will develop them.
” (Image: SNS) Strain added, “But if the leagues are designed correctly, they will certainly do that. The new SPFL Challenge Cup format (a league phase will involve Premiership B teams from next season) is a step towards that. “If we have two big leagues you will undoubtedly have a safe space for clubs to play youth footballers in competitive first team environments.
In my opinion, we need an overhaul. “In comparison with other similar sized nations, we've got too many clubs playing in too many leagues. If you have two larger leagues you'll have teams in both which are safe.
Their managers can afford to play kids.” Read more: Greg Taylor's critics should 'shut their holes' - Celtic will miss an unsung hero Ageing Scotland side is no joke - this Dad's Army will struggle to reach World Cup The SFA announced the Cooperation System which was proposed in their Transition Phase paper last year had been accepted by SPFL clubs when they revealed the Challenge Cup was to be overhauled back in February. Strain is sceptical that allowing Scotland-qualified footballers at Premiership clubs in the 16 to 21 age group to move to and from lower league outfits on loan during the course of the season so that homegrown player quotas in European competition can be satisfied will make a huge difference to Hamilton.
“I was probably the odd one out on this in the Championship, when we held our collective discussions,” he said. “My take on that is that we're already in the Club Academy Scotland system and we're already competing with Celtic, Rangers, Aberdeen and the like. “We want to be better than them.
If our kids are better than them and we can't get our kids on our team, is it going to improve us bringing their kids into Hamilton? I don’t see it working for us entirely. (Image: SNS) “You'll probably find there's a partnership between certain clubs who have a synergy and work well together. I don't see that working for us entirely.
What it does maybe help us do is get our kids game time with, say, Kelty Hearts or Spartans. But I don't think it's a fix to the challenges that we have as a nation.” Hamilton spent seven seasons in the Premiership before they were relegated back in 2021 – but Strain is convinced the gap between the top tier and the second tier has grown since then.
And he believes it is only going to widen further in future due to the growing disparity in the clubs’ respective financial wherewithal. Read more: Premiership at closed shop risk if top clubs refuse to share UEFA cash Canada talisman Alistair Johnston on how Jesse Marsch power play can aid Celtic cause UEFA have stipulated that top flight clubs in their member nations can now distribute as much of the coefficient ranking payment as they want to second tier clubs if the total amount exceeds €3.5m - and Scotland will receive €6.
018m from that pot. However, there are fears the Premiership clubs will, despite the SFA and SPFL both being in favour of the Championship clubs which meet the eligibility criteria receiving a portion, decide to keep all the cash for themselves due to the pressure they are under to break even amid a challenging economic climate. “You're getting less back as it is already,” said Strain.
“I thought the Premiership clubs had a chance to do something really good for Scottish football by voting to share the UEFA solidarity monies across the Championship. It hasn’t happened yet, but it doesn’t look as if it will happen. “We could have put that money into our youth set-up and made the academy infrastructure better.
If you can then sell more players as a result of that process, who knows what that extra money does. Do you push on and get a place in the Premier League? Does your academy become better again? But it looks as if the Premiership clubs will choose to basically veto a great opportunity for the second tier of our game. “I believe that the gap between the Premiership and Championship has just got bigger again.
With Livingston coming down and receiving their solidarity money this year of circa £650,000, the gap between them and ourselves is almost one season’s operational money or playing budget. “That’s the difference that the solidarity payment can make. They've got significant additional revenues that no other Championship club has got.
That sum of money is actually not far off our budget for a year. It's inconceivable that you can then go and compete for promotion to the Premiership on that basis.”.
