SFA hopes women's switch to summer football will be copied by men's game

Gordon Smith, the Scottish FA chief executive, hopes the moving of the women's football season can pave the way for the men's game to do the same.

Scottish women's leagues will now be played from March to November, with a mid-season break in July, a move welcomed by the country's top players.

Smith says an extended winter break would be ideal across the board.

"I would like to see us move towards the better months throughout our football," he told BBC Scotland..

He hopes the change in the women's game can be the beginning of a shift in mindset among football traditionalists.

"The main aspect of it is to try to get football played in better conditions, especially for the development of players," said Smith.

"I think if we have better conditions under-foot, players will try to play the game in the right manner and concentrate on aspects like technique, which has been lost a bit to the Scottish game.

"We're trying to do the same thing with the youth game - boys and girls - although there's a bit of resistance there."

And Smith believes that the move by the women's game could see the men's game follow suit.

He said: "We'll need to see how people view it. A lot of the problem in this country is traditionalism - people don't see it changing because it's always been this way.

"Maybe eventually the men's amateur game could change - it'll be a bit more difficult for the senior game because of schedules. But my suggestion's always been shutting down January and February in Scotland and play through to June.

"Two things might help with that. People would see it as a way of getting more fans into the game to maybe see more technical football getting played.

"And because of our coefficient in Europe now being affected and Scottish teams having to come into European competition a bit earlier than in previous years, we maybe should be playing a bit more through the summer, rather than having teams coming back from holiday playing against teams from other leagues who are playing through the summer.

"We're disadvantaged because of that."