Neil Doncaster says summer football may soon become a reality but only for the League Cup.
The SPFL Chief Executive broke the news of a planned shake up for the League’s knock-out competition in response to concerns raised by The Sunday Post’s survey.
Talks aimed at instituting an early July kick-off are already under way with clubs and broadcasters.
However, at the same time, Doncaster has admitted fears any significant shake-up for the League calendar simply wouldn’t be workable for the Scottish game.
“We very much welcome the debate on this important issue and would like to thank The Sunday Post and all fans who contributed to the poll for their contributions to the discussion,” said Doncaster.
“The current August-to-May calendar provides us with a 10-month season which is already crammed full of matches.
“A March-to-December schedule would have a number of implications, such as starting and finishing the season when the weather is likely to be poor, meaning fixture disruption at the worst possible time.
“Also the possibility of going head-to-head with the
World Cup or European Championships every other year simply wouldn’t work, particularly in years when Scotland qualify.
“Other countries that have shifted their calendars to encourage more ‘summer football’ have experienced very mixed results.
“Russia recently abandoned the experiment.”
Yet at the same time, the League’s Chief Executive was keen to stress that efforts are being made to tweak the status quo for the benefit of supporters.
“One possibility is to start the Scottish League Cup in early July each season,” said Doncaster.
“This is something we are currently exploring with clubs and our broadcast partners.
“It has the potential to provide fans and families with more competitive football to enjoy over the summer holiday season.”
The early start would open up a number of possible options for the organisers.
It would allow the return to the days when the League Cup Final used to be an early-season showpiece, contested as early as October.
Another possibility would be the return to the sections in the early rounds.
The early ties would offer fans at least the possibility to see some competitive summer football.
Teams involved in European competition would potentially be exempt from the early stages, but for others they would offer a build-up to the League campaign removed from the traditional round of pre-season friendlies.
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