Dundee are set to be handed a start date for the Championship season.
Courier Sport understands the SPFL will tomorrow confirm plans for a truncated, 27-game second tier season, starting on October 17.
The proposal, first reported last week, required the approval of eight out of 10 Championship clubs – and is understood to have passed the threshold.
Championship sides – including Dundee, Arbroath, Dunfermline and Raith Rovers – can now ramp up their preparations for the new campaign, during which they will face each other three times, rather than the standard four.
However, wider league reconstruction plans are hanging in the balance.
After proposals from Hearts and Rangers failed to garner enough support to be put to a formal vote, the League asked clubs for their opinion on a new, 14-10-10-10 proposal, which would save Hearts, Partick Thistle and Stranraer from relegation, see Inverness Caley Thistle, Falkirk and Edinburgh City promoted and welcome Kelty Hearts and Brora Rangers into League Two.
Clubs were given a deadline of 10am today to offer an “indicative vote” on the plan.
However, Courier Sport understands the proposal does not presently have enough support in the Premiership – where 11 out of 12 votes are needed – to pass should it be put to a formal vote.
The situation is also on a knife-edge in the Championship, where ill-feeling lingers over the vote to terminate the 2019/20 season, and its subsequent fallout.
Should today’s indicative vote prove in any way close, the SPFL may still push towards a formal vote in the hope that enough club chiefs can be convinced to change their position over the coming week.
However, should it show clearly insufficient support for the 14-10-10-10 set-up, the 2020/21 season will progress using the current league structure, with the Premiership aiming for an August 1 kick-off, and the Championship to follow in the autumn.
