Neil Doncaster admits Fifa and Uefa will have to loosen their grip on the football calendar before Scotland can seriously examine switching its season to the summer.

A survey last month claimed 10 of the Ladbrokes Premiership's 12 clubs would consider the move in a bid to entice fans back through the turnstiles.

But SPFL chief executive Doncaster has warned change will be hard to push through while the world and European governing bodies insist upon exclusive dates for international and Champions League fixtures.

Scotland's top flight currently operates a 38-game season, and Doncaster admits that leaves league chiefs little room for manoeuvre.

The Hampden boss said: "We need a worldwide solution. We can't play within certain dates that are restricted by Fifa and Uefa, and that makes it very hard to plan your domestic season.

"We are not alone in that, but we do have many more fixtures than a lot of European leagues.

"Summer football is absolutely something that should be discussed and debated, but I think it is really important that people understand the limitations that we have to work within, particularly the Uefa and Fifa dates that are simply not available to us.

"The fact we have 38 games to fit in, plus all the cup games, means there is not a huge amount of flexibility for us. But I think it is absolutely right that we have the debate.

"Of course, we all want to play as much football during the sunshine months as we can rather than in January – but that isn't as easy as it might sound."

However, the SPFL chief does believe a winter break during January is achievable.

Reports last month suggested the SFA had set up a working party to examine the feasibility of a shutdown, with early plans to slot it into next season's schedule.

But Doncaster warned that would mean the end of one campaign and the beginning of the next could be just days apart.

"A winter shutdown is certainly something we would like to see re-introduced, but the problem is simply the sheer amount of fixtures we have to play," he said.

"We played seven rounds of fixtures in January last season, not because we like playing in January, but because there was simply not the other spots to fit them into.

"So, while a winter break is absolutely an aspiration, we need to see how we can fit it in with the other fixtures.

"The natural consequence [of a winter break is a very short close season] because you can't take fixtures out of one month without putting them somewhere else.

"At the moment we are not able to use the midweeks between August and November because of European dates at that time, so our scope to be flexible is very limited."

Meanwhile, Doncaster revealed the SPFL's member clubs have yet to propose a rule change to the ticket arrangements for the end-of-season play-offs.

Both Hibs and Motherwell slashed the allocation given to Rangers after the Ibrox club rejected their plea for extra tickets.

That left the unwanted sight of thousands of empty seats during the thrilling promotion deciders.

The current rules state home teams should welcome a "reasonable number of visiting supporters" but do not outline firm numbers.

It will be up to member clubs, Doncaster confirmed, to propose new guidelines ahead of this month's league AGM.

But the Englishman did reveal the SPFL are planning a change to the League Cup rulebook that would see the Championship winners given a first-round bye instead of the team relegated from the Premiership.

Under the current regulations, second-tier winners Hearts will be forced to kick off the tournament with a home tie against Arbroath while demoted St Mirren have been spared action until the second round.

Doncaster – who "remains in discussion with several" potential sponsors for the competition – said: "That is something we inherited from the Scottish Football League, but there are plans to look at that and bring it more into line with the other competitions so that we look at how clubs start this season rather than end last season."