TALKS have broken down over the proposed merger between the South West Peninsula League and Western League pyramids.

Officials from the two leagues have fallen out over the sharing of responsibilities, leading to a war of words and statements on social media.

With further restructuring of the National League System planned ahead of the 2023/24 season, the two leagues have been engaged in discussions to join forces.

Plans are in place for an extra Step 5 tier to be added when the new league is formed, resulting in five divisions of up to 18 clubs each.

READ MORE: South West Peninsula League and Western League in proposed merger for 2023/24

Currently, the Western League Premier is the only Step 5 division across the two leagues, with Western League Division One plus the West and East Peninsula leagues pitched at Step 6 level.

Dorset clubs Bridport (SWPL), Sherborne Town and Gillingham Town (both WL) are associated with the two leagues.

South West Peninsula League (SWPL) chiefs allege that their Western League (WL) colleagues are set to take six of the nine key roles in the new league, effectively creating what they call a “takeover”.

Western League officials hit back, insisting a devolution of roles is fundamental to their ethos.

Taking to Twitter, SWPL secretary Phil Hiscox said amongst a lengthy statement: “…the only compromise afforded by the Western League would be for George McCaffery to do the Step 5 admin and offer myself a role doing Step 6.

"This is not something I could ever agree to as it's both insulting to my experience, would create a two-tier system that is unfair on the clubs and a flagrant breach of the promise John (Pool, WL chairman) made at the very start of this journey, where he clearly stated: 'You have earned the right to choose what you want to do, Phil.'"

It continued: “If the league does go ahead with this situation (and the need behind the restructure itself to reduce travel is accepted by us) the proposed new league will start on a negative footing which will only add to the problems of trying to marry up two competitions and that would not be in the best interests of any of the member clubs of either existing leagues.”

The WL then issued its own hefty statement, saying: “The merger between the two leagues was always intended to bring together the best of both leagues and whilst a huge amount of progress has been made, talks broke down over the roles and responsibilities that will sit at the heart of the new league’s administration.

“Despite the intervention of the Football Association, which we welcomed, it has not been possible to resurrect the merger.”

The WL added that a meeting scheduled to discuss the role of secretary was shelved following the SWPL’s statement.

It then continued: “The Western League board strongly believe in devolving roles for fixture management, player registration and the administration of league business across a number of individuals working collectively as a team.

“In this way, we have been able to support each other in times of difficulty and enable succession planning as volunteers leave their roles. Combining these critical functions within one role is not what we believe to be good practice.

“As a compromise, we agreed that the football secretary would handle registrations and transfers. We further offered that fixture scheduling could be managed between the football secretary and the fixtures secretary. At which point the talks broke down.”

Both sides remain open to finding a solution to the proposed restructure in the South West and have urged the FA to rectify the situation.

Newquay AFC manager Craig Ainslie has gained traction for his suggestions, calling to scrap the merger and for the SWPL to mirror the WL pyramid.

Under Ainslie’s ideas, the two leagues would re-jig the two planned Step 5 divisions geographically and “top up” using the best Step 6 sides from the SWPL.

Ainslie then suggests promoting aspiring Step 7 clubs from the St Piran League into the new pyramid.

With room for manoeuvre, this solution pitches 20 clubs each in a new SWPL Premier and Division One, plus 18 in the WL Premier and 19 in WL Division One.