THE Lowland League that will form part of the base of Scottish football's new pyramid system will be up and running for next season following talks chaired by SFA chief executive Stewart Regan yesterday.
Regan and Scottish Football Association officials held discussions with the three clubs – Preston Athletic, Spartans and Threave Rovers – whose national club licensing status guarantees them a spot in the new set-up.
The meeting considered 16 applications from clubs eager to join the league, which was given the go-ahead in principle by the SFA's annual general meeting on Tuesday.
Although junior clubs were able to seek involvement and some noted their interest, none had yet pursued that possibility by submitting a formal application before Wednesday's deadline.
Meanwhile, Annan Athletic chairman Henry McClelland is forecasting big budget cutbacks at Galabank and warns that many other Division Two and Three clubs might have to do the same after Wednesday's vote for a new Scottish Professional Football League.
"Many of the clubs feel that we have been shafted. The 10 First Division clubs could not do anything else but vote for it because they got more play-offs and a much wider division of the cash for them," he said.
"But the other 20 clubs in the SFL were in a situation where they were either going to be left in the SFL or had to go with other 22 who were forming the SPL and SPL2 and made the decision to go with the SPL.
"The realities appeared in the last 36 hours before the vote that it was impossible not to be worse off."
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