SFA chief executive Ian Maxwell reckons that fans saw his revamped B team masterplan as a way for Rangers and Celtic to "get stronger" - leading to the collapse of a new tier five.
The Old Firm rivals have had their top academy sides competing in the Lowland League for the last two campaigns and were joined by Hearts in tier five last season. The Hampden chief has had hoped that involvement would continue in a new fifth tier next season, that was proposed to feature the four B-teams as well as representatives from the current Highland and Lowland League set-up.
However, it was overwhelmingly rejected by lower league clubs and the SPFL eventually pulled the vote off the table after a mass of dissenting voices. Since then, Rangers have announced they won't enter a team into next season's Lowland League with Maxwell sent back to the drawing board as he looks to come up with a masterplan to overhaul the SPFL.
Asked if he realised how unpopular the pitch was with supporters, Maxwell told BBC Sportsound: "Yes. It was was very apparent to everyone how unpopular it was with supporters, which is an interesting one. It felt like another one of those things, to be brutally honest, that supporters just see as Rangers and Celtic trying to get stronger and across Scottish football that divides everybody.
"I kept trying to make the point just because Rangers, Celtic, Hearts or Aberdeen can afford to do it and other teams can't they should be stopped from doing it. We need to find an option for them and everyone else because it's not the same resources across the spectrum of Scottish football, and you need to find the right one for each size of club, for want of a better question."
The response came after former Celtic hero John Collins pitched that lower league clubs should have their voting power PULLED as they were not willing to vote in the interest of the Scottish game. Maxwell said: "The player development problem we have between that 17 and 21-year-old age group still continues and we need to find a way to ensure this current crop of international players doesn't fall off a cliff because they are not coming through. How we do that is up for debate. It's different for different clubs. "
Collins then interjected: "Here is the question - should it go to a vote? Should the teams that are part-time clubs have a vote on the elite development of our best young players?"
Maxwell shut that down stating: 'When you are making a fundamental change to the structure of Scottish football it is only right that we give the membership the opportunity to approve that. That was the right thing to do, and it still feels like the right thing to do."
READ NEXT
