Rangers in crisis: SFL vote may be postponed unless ambiguous wording of resolution is changed The SFA, SPL and SFL on Wednesday night issued a joint statement confirming that the offer of an expanded SPL and play-offs is on the table, possibly by next year. "A working party will be formed, including three representatives from both the SPL and SFL, to devise a new structure for the senior professional game in Scotland," it said. They will be tasked with delivering by 30th November, 2012, a recommendation for structural change effective 2013/14, primarily; 1) The introduction of an enlarged top tier for Scottish Senior Professional Football. 2) A new detailed model for senior professional football in Scotland including number of divisions; number of clubs per division; number of matches per season per division; number of promotion and relegation places per division and the introduction and operation of play-offs. 3) An all-through distribution model providing certainty for all clubs as to the percentage of distributable income which will be received. 4) The introduction of a pyramid for Scottish football to provide a route for licensed clubs to enter the new structure effective 2014/2015. Yet one dissenting chairman said: "They're offering us a 16-team SPL but the SPL clubs haven't even been asked whether they would agree to it. Yet we're supposed to vote Rangers into the First Division on the strength of this and then trust them to keep their promise. The revelation that SFA chief executive Stewart Regan will impose a new league structure on his member clubs if the as-yet unnamed committee fails to provide a suitable alternative in the next four months is unlikely to persuade undecided SFL members to vote for his preference of Sevco in the First Division ahead of Friday's meeting. It was tucked away, almost as an afterthought, at the end of the joint statement released yesterday: "In the event that a final decision is not reached by 30th November 2012, the Scottish FA will seek to implement a new structure in time for the 2013/2014 season." Even the opportunity to restructure the Scottish game and merge the two leagues isn't enough to sway Livingston chairman Gordon McDougall. The SFL board member left a meeting at the national stadium on Wednesday stressing that he will continue to lobby for Sevco to be admitted only into the bottom tier. "[SFL chief executive] David Longmuir is sending a document out and we will go from there and assemble on Friday morning and make a decision," he said. His document will detail what the benefits are to the clubs, although there is still no clarity regarding Dundee and Dunfermline's position, which is disappointing because that should have been dealt with some time ago. It's all down to the absence of a rule. There is no rule to cover this situation so now it's down to personal opinions. For me, it should be decided by a play-off but I don't know whether that can be fitted in. There will be comments on the 16-team SPL in the paper which Mr Longmuir will put out. Whether or not that will be enough to persuade people to allow Rangers into the First Division is up to the individual clubs. For me, nothing much has changed. I still favour the newco joining in the Third Division. That's what their manager has said he wants and it's quite clearly what their fans have said that they want and I would support their wishes. How would I see Friday's vote going? It's very close - and that's not me sitting on the fence, it genuinely will be very close. It could go either way. It's important to say that I'm not at all against certain aspects of league reconstruction. What I am against is Rangers being railroaded into the First Division, with one issue piggy-backing on the other. This has gone on for far too long as it is. Given the time limits, Friday is very crucial, isn't it? If we go much longer than that then you start to think about having to put the start of the season back. We need an answer because we're all tired of it. We've spending all our days working on this when we're just two weeks away from the start of the new campaign and we all have work to do at our clubs for that. This has been too time-consuming and we just need to see how the vote goes on Friday. Dundee and Dunfermline were informed on Wednesday that they would discover which of them would be playing in the elite division following a meeting of SPL clubs on Monday. However, should the SFL vote on Sevco's future be postponed for a week then the SPL is unlikely to name Club 12 before July 23.