A Scottish FA Professional Game Board-commissioned report has suggested the implementation of a 'co-operation system' in Scottish football. 

The 'Report on the transition phase' theorised opportunities for young Scottish talents could be boosted by adopting a model already in use in Austria, Croatia and Hungary.

The system would see clubs partner with other sides further down the football pyramid and allow for free movement of youth players in order to allow them to gain first-team experience while also being readily available should they be needed by their parent club.

Unlike a traditional loan agreement, though, the players could in theory play for a co-operative club at the weekend and then feature in a matchday squad for Celtic, for instance, in European competition.

That would mean players could achieve vital minutes in their development outwith their parent club while also being able to return should they be required for a European matchday or in the event of a possible injury crisis.

For Celtic, the system being adopted in Scotland could make it easier for youth players to play for lower league sides without the constraints of fixed-term loan deals or the inability to use the player in their own matchday sqauds.

However, Celtic already field a B team in the Lowland League meaning a number of prospects achieve regular minutes in the fifth-tier of Scottish football.

The new system could be beneficial should there be players capable of playing at a higher level or for starlets like Tobi Oluwayemi - linked with a loan move to Dunfermline - who could in future join a co-operative club and still be able to rejoin Celtic outwith the transfer window if necessary. 

Equally, Celtic could choose to keep their players within their own system and utilise the B team model with no immediate suggestions that would be impacted by the co-operative system.

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Scottish FA head of men's elite strategy Chris Docherty said: “It's a system which has already been established, it's been used for a number of years in some other countries.

“Austria, for example, has been a country which has got one of the longest running histories of doing so. So, let's say for example Red Bull Salzburg, they don't have a B team which plays in the pyramid like in some other countries, but they've got Liefering, who's a co-operation club with them, a partnership club.

“And in Croatia they now have the co-operation system model, in Hungary we had a co-operation model. I worked in Hungary, and we had a co-operation team in the second division.

“So, basically within that model it allows players, similar to a loan, but it allows them to move back and forward between two clubs who don't play in the same division concurrently, to move back and forward outside the transfer window.

“With the co-operation system, you could hypothetically go and play a senior game at the weekend, and then you could come back and be part of the matchday squad for European competition as well.

“Typically, within your 23-player squad, you might have four or five of those, or players come through from the academy. So, you're then hesitant to put them out on loan, because again, if you get four or five injuries, you need those players to be playing in your team.

“However, when you don't get those injuries, those players don't play in your team, so again we see an issue where sometimes the players that go out on loan are not the ones that the head coach or the club actually identify as the highest potential player, but they then overtake that player because they've got minutes playing senior football."