The SPFL board is planning changes to its rule book which could see clubs who enter administration being relegated instead of suffering points deductions.
Any such move could spell bad news for some of football’s biggest names.
Rangers have just announced losses of £14.4 million and former director Dave King warned in August that the club could be in administration by Christmas.
Ally McCoist’s side are eight points clear at the top of League One after eight games but some financial analysts have claimed they may need another cash injection to see out the season.
Hearts have no idea when they may be able to exit administration, while Kilmarnock are £9.8m in debt and suffering plummeting attendances as fans protest about the running of their club by chairman Michael Johnston.
In the last 12 years Motherwell, Hearts, Livingston (twice), Morton, Dundee (twice) and Dunfermline have slid into administration while Gretna, Clydebank, Airdrie and Rangers then were liquidated.
Prior to the SPL and Scottish League merging this summer, the two bodies had their own rules when it came to punishing clubs who failed to live within their means.
In the wake of Rangers’ demise, the SPL belatedly introduced a set penalty, which saw the offenders deducted a third of the points they had won the previous season as well as being hit by a signing embargo.
Hearts were the first club to be affected by that ruling, starting this season with -15 points after going into administration in June.
In November 2010, Dundee were handed a 25-point penalty by the SFL board, who had no limit to the sanctions they could dish out because they had failed to live within their means for the second time in a decade.
Now the league bodies have merged, the SPFL board chief executive Neil Doncaster, Duncan Fraser (Aberdeen), Stephen Thompson (Dundee United), Eric Riley (Celtic), Les Gray (Hamilton Academical), Mike Mulraney (Alloa Athletic) and Bill Darroch (Stenhousemuir) are updating the rules for the new organisation.
“That’s where the prospect of relegation comes in,” said a well-placed Hampden source.
“In the past, the SPL’s hands were tied when it came to punishing clubs which had suffered an insolvency event because they had authority over just the 12 members.
“Consequently, they couldn’t impose a relegated club on the SFL. Now, though, there is the opportunity to provide a 42-club solution and relegation is a punishment which has been discussed.”