Celtic, Rangers and the 'shadow board' alternative in wake of Bernard Higgins plus Sydney Cup resentment

Scottish fans might be forgiven for casting an envious glance down south this week after a major change in how the English game is run.

Heralded as the biggest change in the game since the 1992 Premier League transformation, the UK Government are setting up a new organisation known as the Independent Regulator for English Football (IREF).

This new organisation will screen new potential owners and keep existing ones in check.

Bureaucracy moves slower than the frenetic pace of a British footballing season however and so there's no fixed timeframe for IREF to be set up, with PM Boris Johnson insisting "we're moving as fast as we possibly can".

But it's a big step in the right direction for the Premier League and in particular reining in the owners of the so-called 'big six' that threatened a mutiny in last year's Super League fiasco.

It was in the aftermath of that attempted breakaway that the UK Government moved to conduct a fan-led view, spearheaded by MP Tracey Crouch.

Get all the latest Sports news sent straight to your Inbox every day by signing up to our newsletter.

We cover every morsel of information regarding your favourite club in the form of articles, videos and podcasts.

The newsletter will arrive every day at 12pm, giving you a round up of the best stories we've covered that in the last 24 hours.

To sign up, simply enter your email address into the link here.

And if you aren't already, make sure you join the conversation over on our Facebook groups and Record Sport Instagram.

Published in November, it was a 162-page skewering of the way clubs in England are run, insisting fans do not get enough of a say in the operations of the clubs they pay hundreds if not thousands of pounds per season to follow and