Former Scotland and Hearts manager Craig Levein has backed proposals for Rangers and Celtic to enter colts teams in a new 14-14-18 league up – insisting it’s a ‘great idea’.
Rangers have tabled the plan in a move that could save Hearts from relegation to the Championship.
The Old Firm clubs would be admitted to the bottom tier and immediately pay a £125,000 joining fee to teams in that division. That amount would reduce by £25,000 each season across a four-year deal.
He said: “I’ve got a great interest in developing young players and I think that a lot of the best young players are at Old Firm clubs, but unfortunately they don’t get to play first team football, sometimes until it’s too late.
“So the actual idea of allowing them to play against men at an early age is a great idea.
“I don’t see how it is harming anybody else.
“I’ve not read it from start to finish but it looks like it’s going to cost both of those clubs money but I think they’re doing the right thing.
“I’m talking about developing young players, that’s the part of it that I like.
“What it does is allow more young players to play first team football, how can that be wrong?”
Levein, however, has branded the lack of leadership from the SPFL hierarchy as ‘embarrassing’ over the fiasco in how the season was brought to a premature end due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Hearts, Partick Thistle and Stranraer have all been relegated despite the leagues not being played to a finish.
Hearts owner Ann Budge’s own league reconstruction proposals looks set to fail.
He added: “It’s been embarrassing, really – that’s the word I would select.
“People talk about self-interest but all you’re really going to get from clubs is self-interest.
“At the centre of the organisation, they need to lead, they need to come up with innovative ideas.
“It shouldn’t be left to Rangers or Ann Budge or anybody to come up with ideas about how we’re going to move forward.
“That responsibility belongs with the board and also the execs and I don’t think they’ve done a very good job.”
