Lee Bullen calls for expanded Scottish Premiership to aid clubs like Ayr
- Published
Ayr United and Partick Thistle meet again at Firhill on Friday
Scottish Premiership play-offs: Partick Thistle v Ayr Utd |
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Venue: Firhill Stadium, Glasgow Date: Friday, 19 May Kick-off: 19:45 BST |
Coverage: Watch on BBC Scotland, BBC iPlayer, BBC Sport website & app |
Ayr Utd manager Lee Bullen wants to see an extended top flight to make it fairer on clubs like his own.
Bullen is preparing to lead the Honest Men in the Premiership play-off semi-final against Partick Thistle over the next two Fridays.
The Jags have already negotiated a quarter-final tie against Queen's Park and would have to prevail in three ties to achieve promotion.
"They need to extend the leagues," Bullen told BBC Scotland.
"I know a lot of people will say you'll miss the money, but Rangers were out of the league for four or five years and Scottish football seemed to survive OK.
"If you had bigger leagues then there's a little bit more scope for some of the managers within Scotland to bleed in younger Scottish players because there's less of the jeopardy.
"Ultimately, one game, whether the Premiership or the Championship, you lose a game and you're looking over your shoulder. If you win a game you're shooting straight up."
While Ayr's second-placed Championship finish gave them a bye to the semis and one tie fewer, Bullen does not believe the current set-up is a level playing field with the 11th placed top-flight side dropping straight into the two-legged final.
"It would maybe be automatically two teams down and the third bottom team going into a play-off with the boys in the Championship," he explained.
"It gives clubs, like ourselves, even the ones in the league below like Falkirk, Dunfermline and Queen of the South who have been up and around it opportunities.
"That's all supporters want, a clear opportunity. At the moment it is very, very tough to get out of this league via the play-offs and it seems very, very tough to drop out of the Premiership if you're already in there."
Thistle have been absent from the Premiership for five years while it is almost half a century since Ayr were a top-flight team - in 1978.
"It's very, very difficult to comprehend how important it would be," added Bullen. "We're probably still in a bit of a dream state in relation to where we are.
"But the fact that we're in this position, there's no way we're just going to go out there and just be happy with finishing second in the league and making a semi-final in the play-offs. We're going out there to win the game."