Should There Be A 16 Team Scottish Premier?

Should There Be A 16 Team Scottish Premier?

I would support a 16 team Scottish Premier. With the proviso that it would be about freeing up weeks in the schedule for extra cross border trophies with teams from other nations. 

The organisation of a 16 team league would see each team playing each other twice a season. One at home and one away from home. 

I think the advantage of a 16 team league is that it would allow four more teams to join the league, so giving more teams, tier one football. 

It would cut the number of games in the league down from 38 to 30. 

Some people would say that 30 games is not a large enough  amount of games for a season. But back to  the first season of Scottish football, there was just an 18 game season in a 10 team league. 

And back in the 1899-1900 season there was still only an 18 game league season in the top tier. 

In season 1905-06 there was a 30 game season in a 16 team league. 

So there have been 30 games a season, or less, in many Scottish seasons historically.

My main motivation for this is to open up Scottish football to having more free weeks in the schedule to play cross border teams from other countries. That would allow more top quality opposition to come to Scotland for games.  

We could have cross border trophies with small to medium sized football nations in Europe. Or we could have competitions with the clubs from North America, or Africa. 

Nations like Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Portugal, or Belgium could enter club sides. But I would happy with virtually any nations. 

The trophy with other nations could be a group stage trophy, for all Scottish Premier sides, or selected Scottish Premier sides. I would prefer all Scottish Premier sides. To give all Scottish Premier sides experience of European football each year.  It would be fun. 

I would love games like Aberdeen v Zurich, Dundee United v AIK Stockholm, Glasgow Celtic v Ajax, Glasgow Rangers v Legia Warsaw, or Hibernian v Anderlecht. 

It would open up Scottish sides to different styles of play and interesting teams and styles of football. 

It would give different teams for the Scottish sides to play each year. Managers would learn about other styles of soccer. Players would learn about other styles of soccer. 

The extra European trophy to be created would be on top of domestic football and on top of the UEFA Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference League. So it would be an extra competition to play in. 

UEFA have indicated they are against cross border leagues. But so far I have not seen much indication they are against cross border cups. 

I would love more cross border cups.