Caledonian Braves boss and former Rangers youth coach Ricky Waddell has called for more honesty over what the proposed Conference League within Scottish football will represent.
The new Conference containing Premiership B teams and some Lowland and Highland League teams would slot in between League Two and the Highland/Lowland setup, creating a new fifth tier for the start of the 2024/25 season.
Rangers, Celtic and Hearts B teams currently play in the Lowland setup with Braves and cannot be promoted or relegated.
The Conference plans have been met with opposition as it is seen to be relegating the majority of teams from the Lowland and Highland Leagues and puts another barrier in place for ambitious clubs in the tiers below to reach the SPFL.
A vote on the plans, which are understood to be backed by the majority of clubs, is to be held next month.
And Waddell said: “I’m for the Colt teams being in our league, but I believe that teams competing in a league need to compete, and what I mean by that is that if they are good enough and earn enough points, they can be promoted.
“If you’ve got that honesty, and I’m going to call it honesty, because I think throughout the leagues there is a lack of honesty going on behind the scenes to actually say truly what that’s about.
“Rangers and Celtic are selling it as a development thing, and it’s not, because one of the reasons why players can develop and why they would be in an adult senior league is because of the competitive environment.
“If it’s not competitive games and you’ve not got an opportunity to win the league, it takes that element of development out of it.
“I feel strongly about that.
“I don’t think Scotland needs another league. We have enough leagues and there’s got to be more ventilation up and down them.”
Waddell added: “I know it’s about League Two teams protecting themselves, not a lot wanting to vote against that, but that says everything.
“I would love the SFA to intervene. They’ve intervened on the side of the ‘B’ teams, claiming that it’s good for development, so I don’t believe that an eight-team league or a 10-team league which they’re talking about for next season coming in, is good enough for actual development of players.
“I would like to think I know all about that – I’ve worked with a lot of really good players when they were younger, I’ve worked at a lot of clubs, boys who are now playing at the top level of the game, and I know what development is about.
“As a manager or a coach you’re always developing players and I don’t believe for one minute that having the Conference League is the right thing for that.”
Waddell says dropping down a tier will also be damaging for players and teams when it comes to rebuilding in the summer.
He said: “I think there is no doubt [that it holds teams back in leagues below]. The reason for that is that quite simply they’re putting in an eight or 10-team league and it’s essentially relegating everybody.
“When you’re talking about recruitment, when you’re trying to sell the league as a business or a football entity, then it becomes a less attractive option.
“In turn, the standard of the tier five or six teams goes down, because you’re not able to attract the best quality of player, the league value in terms of how it’s looked at and perceived across Scotland is more negative, because the players don’t want to drop down a level.
“They definitely don’t want to be involved in a league where there’s four Colt teams, six other teams, and the four Colt teams can’t get promoted or relegated.
“You could finish fifth and still get an opportunity for promotion, or finish sixth if the ‘B’ teams finished in the bottom four and get relegated.
“It’s not credible for me at all. It’s definitely holding everyone back underneath the SPFL.”
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