Yet another plan has been drawn up for Celtic Colts which could see them play in a freshly created 10 team Conference independent of the SPFL, Highland League and Lowland League.
Featuring three other Colts sides plus the top three Lowland League and Highland League sides the move is a compromise that creates an additional tier or buffer for the ambitious clubs looking to follow Cove Rangers, Bonnyrigg Rose and FC Edinburgh who have replaced deadwood like Berwick Rangers, Cowdenbeath and East Stirling.
Darvel put out Montrose and Aberdeen to reach the last 16 of the Scottish Cup but find themselves in the West of Scotland League with the winners involved in a Play Off with the East of Scotland League winners for one place in the Lowland League where currently the winners face the Highland League winners followed by a play-off against the bottom side in SPFL League Two.
Regular league football is obviously beneficial to Celtic’s youngest professionals but another stage is clearly needed to make the transition from the fifth tier of the Scottish game into Ange Postecoglou’s first team plans.
After two seasons playing in the Lowland League Joey Dawson and Bosun Lawal don’t appear to be any closer to knocking on the first team door at Celtic.
In the Daily Mail, Stephen McGowan reveals:
PLANS for a new ten-team Scottish Conference would see four Premiership B teams join six clubs from the Highland and Lowland Leagues from season 2024-25.
Established as a separate company, distinct from the SPFL, the league would become Scottish football’s new fifth tier.
It would be funded by four Premiership entrants — expected to be Aberdeen, Celtic, Hearts and Rangers — and could even be brought in for the start of next season.
At the moment, Celtic, Hearts and Rangers currently field colts teams in the Lowland League, the existing fifth tier of the Scottish football pyramid.
With Lowland League sides divided over extending the invitations for another season, however, the Premiership trio asked the SFA and SPFL to come up with viable alternatives for the campaign after next.
A meeting on Tuesday of Scottish football’s Pyramid Working Group came up with three options, to which clubs are to respond by the end of next week. With the primary aim being to offer players between the ages of 17 and 21 a competitive pathway to first-team football, the first option is an SPFL League Three of ten teams, with  top-flight B teams eligible for promotion up to — but not beyond — League One.
The second is an expansion of League Two from ten teams to 16 — incorporating B teams, plus teams from the Lowland and Highland Leagues. Once again, the Premiership colts would only be permitted to go as far as League One. With both options unlikely to reach the necessary threshold of 75-per-cent support amongst the 42 senior clubs, the third option of a new Scottish Conference with no promotion for the B teams has emerged as the only show in town.
Armed with its own prize-money distribution model, the Conference would seek to exploit commercial rights and have no financial impact on the 38 other teams who currently make up the SPFL.
Crucially, it would also bypass the need for 75-per-cent support across all four divisions by maintaining independence from the current league set-up.
Sportsmail understands the Conference idea will command significant support amongst clubs in Leagues One and Two by offering a ‘soft landing’ to any outfit relegated from the senior leagues.
In recent seasons, Brechin City and Cowdenbeath have suffered a significant loss of revenue after dropping through the trap door of the SPFL.Â
A Conference league funded by the  six-figure entry fees of Premiership B teams would preserve their income stream and offer prize money to ambitious sides from the Lowland and Highland Leagues not available in the existing set-up.
While the Conference would require no formal vote of support by clubs, Sportsmail understands the idea will only proceed if it carries ‘overwhelming support’ from clubs.
Earmarked for the season after next, the plan could be fast-tracked for next season if Celtic, Hearts and Rangers Colts teams have nowhere else to play. Lowland League clubs will discuss their stance on the proposals at a meeting on Monday night.
Currently the Conference would feature The Spartans, Stirling University and Tranent Juniors from the Lowland League with Buckie Thistle, Brechin City and Brora Rangers from the Highland League.
Jesus Christ can you not just bring back the bloody reserve league? Is it not true that over the course of a season the second level of pro players at prem teams are still going to be 10 times better than Lowland League duffers? And thus more of a challenge for the young ‘uns? Playing against diddies every week just means that you will be woefully ill-prepared when you actually come up against a decent opponent, as our clubs find every season when they go into Europe and get pumped from clubs they once would have been very capable of beating…