St Mirren Football Club has carefully considered proposals made for a newly created Conference League that would sit in the Fifth Tier of the Scottish Football pyramid.
All 42 SPFL clubs were invited to express an interest in enrolling a B Team into a newly created league, due to start in season 2024/25. However, we have decided that the club does not feel it can support these proposals and will not accept the invitation to be involved.
The club has spent a considerable amount of time assessing the advantages and practicalities of being involved in such a league as well as engaging with a number of stakeholders including a fans survey via SMiSA and its members. In the survey, 83% of respondents told SMiSA they would not be in favour of the Conference League proposal. As a fan-owned club, we feel it’s vital that we listen to the views of our supporters. Given the significant resource that would be required, including a mandatory financial contribution and staffing a B Team, we do not feel this current proposal works for us as a club.
While we would always look to support proposals that we feel aim to improve the development of young Scottish players, we are unconvinced at this time that a Fifth Tier Conference League system is the best way to achieve this.
The club would support calls for a review of the current loan system to allow for more strategic partnerships within SPFL clubs and give more of our younger players the opportunity to play across various levels within Scotland.
Meantime, we aim to re-establish a development side to bridge the gap between our U18s and first-team and continue to utilise the loan market to optimise the player pathway into our first team.
