Initially it was open only to the clubs which had been in the intermediates (the historic Glasgow League, now replaced by the Central League, and the Western League in northern Ayrshire which had existed both before and after the dispute) but by 1949 this had been extended to other clubs which had joined those leagues – notably a group in southern Ayrshire – and those in the Lanarkshire League which had continued during the dispute, with a total of 82 clubs entering the 1949–50 edition.