Today’s unofficial vote on league reconstruction must be the final throw of the dice by the SPFL.
The days all blend into one due to the coronavirus pandemic lockdown, but as far as Scottish football is concerned, it seems as if talk of changing the league set-up has been ongoing for years.
It has felt as if every day we have woken to another tweak with the original 14-10-10-10 proposal cast aside for a new proposal of 14-14-14.
That has also been changed to a 14-14-16 and most recently 14-14-18, after Rangers put forward a proposal which would have resulted in the Light Blues and Celtic fielding colts teams in the lower league.
Yet, after all that here we are, back where we started, with the league asking clubs to let them know by 10am today whether they would support the original idea of 14-10-10-10 being put in place on a permanent basis.
I understand if you have become jaded by all this and lost all interest, but basically all you need to know is this. If clubs back this move today it will then be put to a formal vote.
If successful Hearts will stay in the Premiership with Caley Thistle joining the top flight from the Championship.
Partick Thistle will not be relegated from the Championship with Falkirk joining League 1 winners Raith Rovers in winning promotion.
In League 1, Stranraer survive while Cove Rangers and Edinburgh City will be promoted from League 2. Taking their place in the bottom tier will be Highland League champions Brora Rangers and Lowland League winners Kelty Hearts. The colts team idea will be dead in the water.
The problem is it needs 11 of the 12 Premiership clubs to support it and Aberdeen chairman Dave Cormack is not in favour of a permanent restructuring.
He will have had other club chairmen trying to change his mind all weekend, but if he sticks to his guns today all it needs is one other club in the top flight to say no and this revamp is not going to happen.
If that happens we have to draw a line under this mess and move on. Life for clubs is hard enough as it is during these uncertain times and if we cannot find common ground after months of wrangling then it’s highly unlikely another solution can be found at this late stage.
Scottish football needs to move on and begin planning for the new season. Forget the talk of when the new campaign will start, clubs cannot even begin to plan for a new season if they don’t know what league they are playing in.
We are not the Premier League in England and we are not returning to action this week.
Scottish football has been stuck in the mud for weeks and that is why the dithering has to be stopped once and for all.
Forget that roll of the dice I mentioned, it’s pontoon we’re playing now and it’s time for every club to decide whether they want to stick or twist.