Scottish football minnows set to bloody noses of Old Firm over fifth tier

It has been worth contemplating Luton Town’s rise from oblivion to the promised land of the Premier League in the context of Scottish football.

The introduction of a pyramid system in 2013 was the Scottish Professional Football League’s way of making out they were doing aspirational clubs a favour. To follow Luton’s lead, the winners of the Highland or Lowland League would need to beat the other half of that duo before also winning over two legs against the team who finished bottom of League Two.

Scotland’s three tiers underneath the Premiership offer just one automatic promotion spot plus more playoffs, with the nature of them weighted so heavily in favour of the 11th-placed side in the top flight that Championship clubs rarely prevail. The SPFL fiercely protects its own; doing a Luton is the Scottish game’s equivalent of scaling an ice wall in slippers.

The dust will barely have settled on Scotland’s season when the kind of legislative rammy that is all-too common plays out at the Scottish Football Association’s annual general meeting. There, a plan to introduce a new division – a 10-team Conference League – beneath League Two will reach a 105-member vote. The scheme has proven wildly controversial, primarily but not exclusively among clubs lower down the pyramid who feel they would essentially be relegated by one league.

Brora Rangers, of the Highland League, revealed they will vote “No” after impassioned pleas by supporters. Raith Rovers, a Championship club for whom the Conference League would make no material difference, will do likewise. “It presents a potential for unfairness towards a significant number of clubs competing below tier four,” read a Rovers statement.

The core motivation for the proposal is