Nixon wary of league regionalisation but welcomes Scottish football revamp

Dec 16 2010 by Eric MacKinnon, West Lothian Courier

GED NIXON has urged Scotland’s football chiefs to think again as he gave their plans for a radical league regionalisation shake-up the cold shoulder.

The Livingston chief executive admits that an overhaul of the Scottish game is long overdue but isn’t sold on the proposed two 10-team SPLs or their plans to regionalise the lower leagues.

The new proposals would see the SPL and the SFL merge under one umbrella organisation but Nixon believes the same problems currently affecting the national game would continue under this latest blueprint.

He said: “I think it is an open secret that the SPL want two leagues of 10. On a personal level, that’s not what I would prefer but it is obvious that something has to change because the football is dire to watch at the moment.

“My biggest problem is the repetition of games, with each team playing one another four times.

“I’d prefer to see larger leagues with the sides playing twice but I appreciate that has a knock-on effect income-wise and the powerbrokers don’t want that.

“But I think it’d be good and, if results go our way, I would hope we can put ourselves in the position to be in SPL if that comes to pass.”

Regionalising the lower leagues is something which Nixon believes is a non-starter and an unnecessary move.

He continued: “Having spoken to a number of these clubs, I don’t think it is something they would want.

“Things might be dire but when you are the stage where you are running the whole game to save bus fare, then it doesn’t make any sense.

“Scotland isn’t a big country and if you look at Elgin and Stranraer, for example, many of their players are central-based and they train either there or half-way inbetween.

“They are playing in the Scottish Football League and not the Northern or the Southern League, so I’m not sure if that’s the right way to go and I’d very surprised if these clubs would be keen on the idea.”

Other proposals put forward include the return of relegation play-offs, where the side who finish second bottom would meet the team who came second, third and fourth in the division below.

And this is one idea which Nixon is fully behind, admitting the present situation where only one team winning promotion to the top-flight is unhealthy.

He said: “The SPL is almost a closed shop at the moment and that’s not healthy in anybody’s language.

“Look at the Dundee situation.They gambled big-style on going up but it didn’t work out.

“I’m not suggesting anyone should have any sympathy for them but one team going up and one going down isn’t healthy.

“Looking at the top of the First Division, there are large clubs who are well-run but only one of them can go up.”

The Livi chief also revealed the current sub-zero temperatures are putting a serious financial strain on football clubs.

Livingston do not have another home match until January 2, with the Braidwood Motor Company Stadium last hosting a game on November 6, which means the Lions could be almost eight weeks without a home fixture.

Nixon explained: “It’s hard but we are very frugal and the nature of the directors here at the club means we are very thrifty when it comes to cash.

“We’ve been very careful how we’ve spent money and, in the summer, we asked the manager to work on a tighter budget, which we were also able to do.

“Although you don’t plan for an eventuality like this, you can sail through close to the wind if you take a punt, which we’ve been able to do.

“I won’t pretend it is easy as it is very difficult but we keep going and we’re paying all our bills.

“We are fortunate that we have other revenue streams here like functions, although we lost a couple of them because of the snow.”

Livingston’s scheduled league match against Ayr United was called off due to the freezing temperatures and heavy snow last weekend and the match is now likely to be played on a week night, which Nixon reveals will cost the club.

He said: “A midweek fixture makes a huge difference. For the Ayr match, our restaurant was fully booked and we were expecting a good travelling support.

“We obviously won’t get that now, regardless of when we play the fixture as it certainly won’t make up for the loss on Saturday.

“We last played at home on November 6 and we were only going to have the Ayr game as our only home fixture between until January 2, so it’s not been good.

“Looking further back the fixtures weren’t terribly kind to us the month before that but that’ll come round and we have three home fixtures in January.”