A league reconstruction debate in Scottish football is never far away. In 1992, the most radical proposals to change the face of the game were presented by its biggest clubs.

The Scottish Super League was the brainchild of the so-called ‘big five’ of the time. Aberdeen, Celtic, Dundee United, Hearts and Rangers led the charge to break away from the Scottish Football League to create a modern top flight.

They believed change was needed to save top clubs from fading into insignificance on the European stage. The English Premier League had just been formed, the new Champions League was also in its maiden season. The football landscape was changing.

As it was, the Super League petered out. Six years later, the breakaway Scottish Premier League did happen, but it didn’t have the same radical principles of its predecessor.

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After three months of initial discussion and noises in the media, a press conference was held at the Royal Scot hotel in Edinburgh in August 1992.

Seven representatives of the eight clubs signed up by that point were there for the start of the event, organised to show a united front. By this stage, Hibernian, Motherwell and St Johnstone had also joined the party.

Celtic’s spokesman, vice-chairman David Smith, arrived late after being stuck in traffic, but said his delay shouldn’t be read as reluctance.

His club had also been accused in the press of not being fully on board with the proposals, an insinuation not helped by comments from Celtic chairman Kevin Kelly a month previous, where he stated he “fervently hopes it never comes to pass.”

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Wallace Mercer was the appointed spokesman for the breakaway group. He boldly proclaimed that an initial 10-team league would be “free to commence playing at the end of the 1993/94 season.”

The existing 12-team top flight, which saw clubs play 44 games across the league season, was viewed by some chairmen as exhausting both for the players and supporters.

Speaking that day, Rangers chairman David Murray struck a defiant tone against claims from the Scottish Football League that the clubs’ resignations from the organisation in June were invalid, and they were going nowhere.

“I think we have confirmed today we are going somewhere,” he said. “We are not going to be bluffed into a situation. We are going forward, we have taken legal opinion, we believe we are in the right.

“We’ve been forced into this situation. I know supporters of the smaller clubs will say ‘rules for one, rules for others, and it could be to the detriment of the game.’ I am sorry. My job is to look after Rangers Football Club, as it is the chairmen to look after their clubs.

“We see this as the way forward for a better standard of football and that’s it.”

Matters continued apace. Branding and a name for the new league were already on show at the Edinburgh press briefing. Further consideration was being given at that stage to commercial deals, broadcast contracts and even merchandising of the Super League logo.

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Partick Thistle and Dunfermline Athletic also signed up later in the summer, taking the number of “rebel” clubs to 10.

The plans for the Super League had radical elements, and some practical ones. Clubs wishing to join would have to pay a fee, reportedly around £100,000. And they would have to keep their standards high, both on and off the pitch, or face ejection.

The Taylor Report, commissioned after the Hillsborough tragedy, played a part in those standards. Stadiums had to be of sufficient quality to host top-class football. For the ambitious clubs who couldn’t afford to make immediate improvements, a credit facility was open to them to get money up front.

On the pitch, there were also some bold plans floated. One was awarding three points for a win, but only two points if the home team won.

The 10-team structure would see teams play each other four times a season, with the 36-match campaign a significant reduction on the 44 games played in the existing 12-club structure.

A play-off would be held between the bottom club and the top side in the SFL structure, but only if the lower league team provisionally met the criteria to be a Super League franchise holder.

There was also an “all-star game” proposed for the end of each season featuring the league’s players, with fans voting who made it into the squads. And there would be a two-week January winter break – but only after the traditional New Year’s Day fixtures were played.

If clubs wanted to buy from their fellow Super League sides, a maximum transfer fee would be imposed. And player moves between Super League clubs would not be allowed once the season had started.

There were also promises of a British Cup, where five teams from the Scottish Super League would go in the pot with 11 teams from England.

Scottish FA chief executive Jim Farry wasn’t a fan. SNS Group

Scottish football’s ultimate governing body, the Scottish FA, weren’t completely opposed to the prospect of a new league.

But the chief executive, Jim Farry, had opposition to how the gang of eight were conducting their business.

In a fiery interview with STV’s Gerry McNee precisely three weeks later, he went for the jugular over the motivations of those involved.

“I think there are many problems [in Scottish football], mainly economic ones. Those individuals at club level who describe themselves in some stage as entrepreneurs, unfortunately find that their entrepreneurial flair, like others, falters when we are under the grip of a recession.

“The economic pressures on football are immense. Some are coping better than others. The reality is those at the top level are possibly spending more than they are receiving in terms of income.

“That’s a very dangerous position for any company director. I think each one of them, at this stage, is looking to their own position.”

There was opposition from some clubs. The Evening Times reported in August that Falkirk and Kilmarnock were withdrawing their interest, with the latter saying they wished to find compromise.

“No-one we have spoken with wishes to see the demise of the Scottish League,” they said. “Kilmarnock FC believe that a proposal can now be put forward that will satisfy not only the seven clubs announced as members of the Super League, but also other ambitious clubs in Scotland.

“This, we are certain, can be achieved within the existing Scottish League and we will do all we can to help ensure this change comes about.”

STV’s John Mackay, then a sports correspondent with the BBC, offered his take on events in August 1992 which are recorded in his book Notes of a Newsman.

“Basically a stand-off with rebel clubs which fails to address the problems of the game,” he wrote. “Too many egos involved overriding football itself.”

Brendan O’Hara offered a similarly straightforward analysis of events in the Celtic fanzine Not The View.

“The smaller clubs in Scotland can have little complaint that this situation has arisen,” he wrote. “The shortsightedness of first and second division clubs, aided and abetted by one or two in the Premier League, has proven to be too much for the ‘big five’.

“The days of the tail wagging the dog are over. The bigger and more ambitious clubs could not remain shackled to the old regime as Scottish football drifted lazily towards being a provincial European backwater.”

By November 1992, the tone of the rebel clubs had not changed.

“We are not prepared to stand still and see the continuation of far too many games, tired players and no value for money,” David Murray said in an interview with STV. “The supporters are tired of it, and so are the players.

“Common sense must prevail. If these people in power and authority haven’t got the common sense to understand what is happening to the game,

they should move out and let someone else take over.

“We are prepared to work within the rules of the Scottish Football League if they are prepared to look seriously at our wishes and our rules. If they don’t, we will do our own thing.”

“I wish the people who have held back Scottish football would have a close look at what their input to the game has been in the last five years and let’s have some common sense approaches to moving the game forward.

“We want to do it by compromise and consultation, and not confrontation. But they must let us get on with building a better football league for Scotland and Scottish football supporters.”

So one way or another, come August 1994, there would be a new Scottish top division?

“Without a shadow of a doubt.”

By January 1993, things were starting to unravel. Celtic’s previous reluctance had turned into an effective withdrawal from the Super League plans.

They remained part of the group but weren’t part of the united front the other nine clubs continued to show.

Instead, Celtic favoured a proposal from the Scottish Football League which offered a change to a 14-12-12 league setup.

Some elements of the Super League plan were on the table for clubs to remain in the existing structure. A winter break would be brought in.

The 14-team top league would split into two after that break, with the top six playing each other twice and the other eight clubs left to scrap it out against relegation. That concept was opposed mainly by the top clubs, as the points from the first half of the season would be wiped out going in to the final 10 games.

The nine Super League clubs who remained united issued a defiant statement. A two-thirds majority was required for the structure to be implemented. The plan was defeated.

As the war between the two parties raged on, David McKinney offered analysis in his Independent piece.

“Both factions have their own interests at heart, which is understandable,” he wrote. “But a way must be found not just for change but for change which will last, because the most important people in the game, the players and supporters, are becoming marginal to the power struggles within the game’s administration.

“Constant squabbles and talk of change can only damage the game’s image with the supporters, and no doubt players, becoming weary of the whole thing.

“Their love for the game will survive, but those charged with the running of the game have a duty to provide a stable and lasting foundation for them to play and watch the game.”

Rangers and Motherwell finished first and second respectively in the 1994/95 season. SNS Group

On February 3, four representatives from the Super League met with officials from the Scottish Football League to try and broker peace.

By March, the plans for change under the banner of the existing SFL were thrashed out. The Super League was dead in the water, although some compromise was reached.

The 1994/95 season would start under the auspices of the Scottish Football League. A 12-team Premier Division was reduced to 10 from that season onwards, as had been proposed under the Scottish Super League.

It had also been hoped that teams from the Highland League might find their way into the Super League. Instead, with the league structure changed to four leagues of 10, meaning two new clubs were needed.

Caledonian Thistle and Ross County were admitted to the new Third Division, the new bottom tier of Scottish football.

Top division teams would control their commercial revenues. Clubs in the Premier Division would have to bring their stadiums up to a more-modern standard over a period of five years. It was also agreed there would be a ban on any other league reconstruction talk, also for five years.

But, of course, radical change wasn’t far away.

On May 13, 1997, the Scottish Premier League Limited was formed. Three months later, 10 clubs formally broke away from the Scottish Football League to create their own top division, which commenced play in the 1998/99 season.

It lasted until 2013, when the two organisations got back together to form the Scottish Professional Football League.