Scottish football is broken

...and everyone knows it.

Scotland, unlike England, doesn't have an "open" league structure. This meaning that the team finishing at the very bottom of the league system, in this case the Scottish Football League Third Division, is not relegated to face the doldrums of non-league football this season. Recently this has been somewhat amended to state that if a club finishes bottom for three consecutive years they could be voted out of the league. Could, but not likely. Until this season this created a culture of mediocrity in at least one league club, that club being East Stirlingshire.

Between 2002 and 2007 East Stirlingshire were the strongest club in all of Scotland, and by strongest I mean they managed to prop up a league featuring 41 other clubs without budging an inch. In 2008 this changed, the mighty Shire managed to finish second-bottom due more in part to a dreadful season from Forfar than any spectacular revival from themselves. East Stirling finished one point above Athletic who had posted their worst season in recent memory, well over a decade. This Houdini act spared East Sitrlingshire the potential ax.

With that said it would be criminal of me to not mention that the club is currently second in the third division, indeed they sit only four points off the summit though Cowdenbeath have a match in hand.

Indeed, it seems the threat of relegation has breathed new life into what was basically a dead club.

Yet, worryingly, the executives in Scottish football do not seem to have noticed this minor miracle right under their noses. Yes, changes have been mentioned in Scottish football, but not the correct changes. What now seems like many moons ago, the SFL made a proposal to the SFA for a new division, the SPL 2. This would do nothing to stop the bleeding in Scottish football, in reality it's almost like putting bubble gum on an earthquake-damaged dam. Yet, it seems the SPL2 will be given the green light, and could play as early as August though August 2010 seems much more likely.

As an American I may seem out of my depth to talk about my ideas to fix Scottish football, and I will concede that I know little of the idiosyncrasies that Scottish clubs face, but I'm going to list my ideas anyway.

• 1. Adopt summer football: For reason 1A see Fir Park's pitch. The Scottish winter is hell on natural surfaces, and the summer sun on the pitches would improve the game in more ways than one.

• 2. Relegate SPL clubs in administration. Embarrassingly a few seasons back tiny Partick Thistle were relegated after having a fire sale of players in order to make ends meet. Patrick managed to avoid administration but not the drop, for Motherwell and Livingston it was the other way around (though Livingston would later see themselves relegated on merit).

• 3. Open the league, somewhat. Allow the Champions of the three senior non-leagues a change to meet in a playoff with the winner gaining promotion to the SFL at the expense of the Third Division's wooden spoon winners. Though make sure the promoted club meets league requirements before entry.

I realize that changes are extreme and will never happen, but I do think they could improve the standard of football in Scotland, and with Scotland being one of the homes of football, improvement is very much needed.