Anxious Scottish First Division football clubs will meet next week to hatch a “phoenix plan” in a bid "to salvage the reconstruction of Scottish football from the embers of meltdown Monday," according to Keith Jackson of the Scotland DAILY RECORD. Scottish Football League CEO David Longmuir insisted that the discussions -- to which Scottish Premier League relegation club Dundee will be invited -- on Monday "will not lead to a hostile breakaway and the creation of an SPL 2." The clubs, led by Hamilton, "are determined to revive the concept of creating a united league body and of a fairer distribution of TV cash, despite seeing the blueprint for change being obliterated at an explosive SPL summit earlier this week." It is "likely to result in a new package of proposals being put forward to top-flight clubs" -- but one which "ditches the almost universally disliked 12-12-18 plan," which failed to pass Monday (DAILY RECORD, 4/17).
CALL FOR HELP: In another piece in the DAILY RECORD, Anthony Haggerty reported SPL Heart of Midlothian legend John Robertson said that it is "time to call in the cavalry from down south to help sove the problems" in Scottish football. Robertson believes only "a radical solution can break the impasse blocking change in Scottish football." He is "convinced calling in the power brokers" from the EPL could transform the game. Robertson: "Henry McLeish has said the SPL and the SFL seem incapable of coming to a compromise and pershaps we now need mediation. Maybe we should go to the EPL and ask them to come up and help sort it out" (DAILY RECORD, 4/17).
