Brentford owner Ron Noades has called on David Sheepshanks to take over the chairmanship of the Football League for a year. Noades, who has some pretty radical ideas on how the League should re-organise, was speaking in the wake of the resignations of David Burns and Keith Harris.

Noades, a friend of Town defender Hermann Hreidarsson, said: "We should get David Sheepshanks, chairman of Ipswich, as chairman for a year. At the moment we are without a head."

The former Palace chairman sees the Football League's refusal to jointly negotiate a TV deal along with the Premiership in 1995 as the start of all their troubles: "The decision was a disgrace, an absolute disaster. We knew the value of the Premier League product was going to increase and the Football League product was going to diminish.

"Sky was using the Premier League to sell dishes but, in the process, enhancing it. The Football League contract was paper filler."

Although accepting that it is likely that his ideas will fall on deaf ears, Noades has suggestions for a shake-up of the Football League: "The First Division should became 12 clubs, playing each other four times, as the Scottish Premier League do.

"The Second Division would remain at 24 clubs and we would have two regional Third Divisions, of 24 clubs each.

"And we should try and link up with the Premier League or the FA over television deals. Keith Harris was working to do that but it was too difficult in the current climate."

In May Sheepshanks turned down an offer from the Football League to rejoin the board saying he wanted to concentrate on Town: "My priority in football lies with Ipswich Town and after the massive blow of relegation my sole focus in the next 12 months is ensuring a swift return to the Premiership."

The Town chairman had previously been a member of the Football League board until Town's promotion in May 2000.

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