SCOTTISH football has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to change for the better as our three governing bodies consider a radical overhaul of the national game.

That was the message from Partick Thistle chairman David Beattie today as the prospect of an SPL1 and SPL2 grows – despite the domestic season being due to start in a matter of weeks.

The long-running issue of reconstruction has been put back in the spotlight in recent days due to Rangers' plight, with a move to a two-tier top flight seemingly on the agenda.

That switch would see the Ibrox club punished for their misdemeanours while not being banished to the Irn-Bru Third Division. And Firhill chairman Beattie reckons the time has come for action to be taken after several years of inactivity.

"My view is that SPL1 and SPL2 is the correct way forward," he told SportTimes.

"Scottish football needs to change. With the demise of Rangers just now and, hopefully, the newco Rangers coming back, we now have the chance to change Scottish football.

"Out of adversity should come opportunity and now is the time to do it as far as I'm concerned. League reconstruction is well overdue and this seems to be the opportunity to do that.

"I can see how it would work. Rangers are punished because they get demoted a division but it would keep the commercial partners happy.

"There are two opposing forces here. There is sporting integrity and there is commercialisation.

"The two things are so far apart but Scottish football needs to find a way of bringing them together.

"Hopefully change happens because, the more I think about it, the more it makes sense."

Clubs across the First Division are likely to be buoyed by the prospect of hosting Rangers on league duty, and Hamilton Accies chairman Les Gray has welcomed the prospect of playing Gers in SPL2 next season.

But the New Douglas Park supremo has expressed scepticism that reconstruction will happen after so many false dawns.

Gray said: "Playing Rangers would bring more fans into the ground, generate more interest and increase our revenue.

"But we have been involved in talks about league reconstruction in the past at Hamilton and it has never come to anything.

"This has been put forward in the last few days. The only possibility that has been mentioned before that was the club going into the SPL or the Third Division.

"Of course, there is a moral issue here. The SPL clubs have to decide whether they want to let Rangers back in or not.

"The reality is that the Sky television deal makes up 75% of the SPL's total revenue. Being in the top flight was worth £1million to us the season we got relegated.

"Last season, we finished fourth in the First Division and got £50,000. Ross County, who, of course, won the title, got £65,000. The SPL chairmen have got a big decision to make.

"If Rangers came down to the First Division, or an SPL 2, our television revenue would increase as a result."