Why 16 team Scottish Premiership WON'T work as Neil Doncaster warns 'be careful what you wish for'

Neil Doncaster admits the loss of TV revenue is the main barrier to Premiership clubs voting for a 16 team league.

An SFA report released last week highlighted the lack of 16-21-year-old players being produced in Scotland and the lack of minutes they are getting at top team level. One recommendation was moving to the bigger league, taking away some of the risk of relegation and encouraging bosses to throw the kids in more often, in theory with less pressure on to get results.

But league boss Doncaster insisted that SPFL clubs wold never go for it as it would mean hitting themselves in the pocket, with less big derbies and fewer home matches against Celtic and Rangers, who bring with them large away supports and bumper ticket revenue. He also revealed that a move to a 14 team league was blocked by two of the top fligh's smaller clubs, and the main reason his Danish counterpart shared for moving back to 12 teams after having a go with 14.

"The only truism is that the perfect league structure is not one than you've got at the moment," he told BBC Sportsound. "There's always something better and you've got to be careful what you wish for.

"If you look at the Danes as an example of another medium sized league, they went to a 14 team league and it didn't work. They've gone back to a 12 team league I spoke to their chief executive this week and he spoke of the problems of a 14 team league.

"Quality of games was a big one. It created real issues with the quality coming in and it diluted the quality of the top tier so they went back to a 12 team league. There's no perfect system, but I'd say that the system we've got has stood the test of time. The split is far better understood than it was 20 years ago and it does add to