Two-tier Highland League plan rejected
PROPOSALS to split the Scottish Highland Football League (SHFL) have been rejected as football chiefs voted instead to increase the number of midweek games to incorporate the new SPFL League Two playoff next season.
Representatives from all 18 SHFL clubs met in Lossiemouth on Thursday night to discuss plans to create two divisions of 10 teams, which would have seen two new clubs invited to join the setup.
Keith FC chairman Sandy Stables came up with the idea to creates the two-tier setup as a result of the SPFL League Two playoff, which will see the club which finishes bottom of the national fourth tier play the winner of a playoff between the champions of the SHFL and Scottish Lowland Football League (SLFL).
A condition of the playoff is that both champions of the SHFL and SLFL must be known by mid-April and it was argued that the current 34-game season would make that impossible given winter postponements.
The SHFL decided, in an attempt to meet the mid-April target date, to increase the amount of midweek games earlier in the season.
The news will come as a blow to North Caledonian League champions Halkirk United who announced they would have seriously considered bidding for one of the two places available had the proposals been given the go-ahead.
