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The meeting that changed the future of Scottish football took place in May 1992. Rangers had just won their fourth succesive Scottish League title and were looking unassailable in terms of both finance and the playing staff at their disposal.

At the behest of the Hearts chairman, Wallace Mercer, a breakaway Scottish league was agreed upon. Furthermore, it was agreed that the new League, the Scottish Premier League would be established in time for season 1993/94.

As a measure to help the changeover, a portion of the funding going towards the new league would be given the the Scottish Football League as compensation. It was also agreed that the makeup of the league would change.

The set up at the time of twelve teams playing each other four times was felt to be too much, but at the same time it was felt that to increase the league would only mean there would be more meaningless games.

As a result, a compromise was agreed upon. The league would stay at twelve teams who after playing each other twice would split into two groups of six. The top six and bottom six would then play each other twice, meaning the season would be 32 games long.

The bottom team would be relagated and the team finishing 11th would enter a relagation play-off with the team finishing 2nd in the First Division.

In a further change, it was agreed that the squads could have five substitutes including a substitute goalkeeper in their squads, with the proviso that three of them would have to be under the age of 21.

In addition to all this, the Scottish Premier Reserve League would have a maximum of three players over the age of 21 in each team for each game.

The SPL through 5% of the projected television revenue would also fund a new Scottish Youth Academy, which would be based in Glasgow and based on the Australian Sports Academy.

As such the stage was set for season 1993/94. During 92/93, Rangers won the Scottish Treble and came within one win of the European Cup Final. Confidence was high, and the first SPL TV deal, signed in Febuary with Sky and the BBC for £25 million.
 
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