Scotland's leading 10 clubs will announce this afternoon that they are to secede from the Scottish Football League and form an autonomous Premier League under the umbrella of the Scottish Football Association. After months of talks among the current members of the Premier Division, there is unanimity over the decision to follow the trail blazed by the English Premiership.

At the core of the breakway is the conviction, especially at Rangers and Celtic, that the right to negotiate their own television and sponsorship deals will bring increased prosperity.

The chairman of Hibernian, Lex Gold, the spokesman for the group who will reveal details of their plan at a press conference in Glasgow, said yesterday that "our proposals will benefit the whole of Scottish football and not just the top 10". If the transition is to be made smoothly, however - without recourse to legal procedures - the leading clubs will have to woo the middle and lower orders. The biggest obstacle to any secession is Rule 51 of the Scottish Football League, which states that the players of any club resigning their membership will automatically become the property of the League, to be sold at a price set by the authorities.

That rule, however, can be amended or even abolished by a two-thirds majority vote at any general meeting. There are 78 votes at the League and the Premier Division already holds 40 of them. They would need another 12 from the lower divisions.

The top clubs will present a package that ensures that the lower clubs will be better off than they are now. Those minor clubs receive so little money from the present television and sponsorship deals - in many cases, as little as pounds £50,000 to £60,000 a year - that the Premier League clubs would have little difficulty in improving their lot.

Rick Parry who helped fashion the English Premiership with the breakaway from the Football League by the then English first division prior to the 1992-93 season doesn't believe a British League is on the cards.

He said: "The reasons put forward in the past against a British League are that it would affect the separate identify of the home nations, the number of international teams we have in Great Britain and the number of clubs that can take part in European competitions.

"FIFA would say if you have one league you would immediately lose a number of clubs taking part in European competitions."

Guardian Service