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By 2025..


AsimButtHitsASix

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Not sure I agree with that entirely. Behind yes, still miles behind, perhaps...definitely in the case of the few 'elite' boys clubs up in Edinburgh. The near term goal should be to stem the flow of the best Borders talent leaving to play with these Edinburgh teams. Accept that barring the odd golden year, a Borders boys club will not be able to compete. Instead, look to have proper, functional Borders Development Squads playing in the Edinburgh leagues. Gala makes sense with its location and facilities to host this set up and surely as the players develop and progress playing in the Borders they will have a connection and desire to play with the senior side. There can't be that many more kids play rugby over football nowadays if at all so the demographic will change over the years. As always, it won't happen this year or next or maybe not even in 3 or 5 but need to start somewhere. Rose tinted maybe, but not impossible with the right people behind it

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I'd bet that no current LL side will make Championship Level by 2025 and would be extremely confident in that. Look how tough Elgin have found it to get to even League 1. They've had 15 years to do it and haven't yet.

You'd have to suspect that Edinburgh City and Spartans wouldn't need a massive leap to get established at L2 level and look at getting into L1. And EK have potential of town size is nothing else but as has been mentioned, new towns don't usually prove fertile ground for new teams.

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Not sure I agree with that entirely. Behind yes, still miles behind, perhaps...definitely in the case of the few 'elite' boys clubs up in Edinburgh. The near term goal should be to stem the flow of the best Borders talent leaving to play with these Edinburgh teams. Accept that barring the odd golden year, a Borders boys club will not be able to compete. Instead, look to have proper, functional Borders Development Squads playing in the Edinburgh leagues. Gala makes sense with its location and facilities to host this set up and surely as the players develop and progress playing in the Borders they will have a connection and desire to play with the senior side. There can't be that many more kids play rugby over football nowadays if at all so the demographic will change over the years. As always, it won't happen this year or next or maybe not even in 3 or 5 but need to start somewhere. Rose tinted maybe, but not impossible with the right people behind it

The point I am making is that because of the culture in Borders schools with regards fooball there are not the same percentage of boys with an interest in football to add to local club supply lines as there is in an Edinburgh school as there is basically no school football in the Borders whereas it is promoted heavily in Lothian schools with kids being given time out just to play footy!

When I was involved in youth coaching several years back I went along to a local SFA sports development meeting where there was a lady teacher from Hawick High school who was not involved in teaching sport but had come along to ask for help as she had a bunch of kids who were desperate to play football and maybe even put a team together but the School PE department refused to have anything to do with it because it wasn't Rugby and she was refused any help by the SFA on the grounds that schools play for cups and medals and this did not meet with SFA approval !

My own kids went to Gala schools and football was stopped at primary level, again the reason being that the schools were playing for cups and medals so the SFA who either provided or sanctioned the insurance required to play these games withdrew cover, obviously taking the line that they would prefer kids did not play whatsoever rather than play for medals. Then moving on to secondary it was pretty much the same as Hawick with a couple of non sports related teachers trying unsuccessfully to put the odd game together without any help or approval from the PE department!

Moving on to my point on local industry there are certain large employers locally who would at one time and maybe still do only recruit from the Rugby fraternity. A lot of these businesses are are now gone but it still goes on !

The local media is 95% rugby biased and if you turn Radio Borders on any time on a Saturday you will be luck to hear a tune as it is full rugby commentary along with rugby scores and little to nothing to do with football of any kind. You will have to trawl through pages of rugby news to find anything about football in local tabloids and even school rugby gets masses of full page coverage compared to the odd little football articles which are more often than not written by clueless individuals, the best ones are the ones written by the clubs themselves but the get chopped down in size to fit the wee corner of the pages they are allocated!

Football in the Borders needs to be given the same promotion, exposure, encouragement and publicity as Rugby or we will never get the players or crowds!

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Without being a monger off doom I'd hope it went the other way with the bottom 2 leagues in Scotland being reformed along with juniors and seniors and new regional lower leagues being formed...another 30 years off Elgin v Berwick and Montrose v Stranraer brings very little to professional football in Scotland....just my thoughts but I won't hold my breath on any worthwhile changes within Scottish football

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If you look at the teams which joined SFL (as was) since Inverness CT and Ross County did, none of them have made it to tier 2 except Gretna, and it was only with Mileson's ££. However, Peterhead have come very close (penalties in a playoff final IIRC?).

Meadowbank almost made it to tier 1 back in the day, but there were far fewer full-time teams then.

So my expectations would be that, under current arrangements, we'll see perhaps 3 LL clubs promoted over the next 10yrs - and some could establish themselves in SPFL1.

Gretna and Rangers

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I'd bet that no current LL side will make Championship Level by 2025 and would be extremely confident in that. Look how tough Elgin have found it to get to even League 1. They've had 15 years to do it and haven't yet.

You'd have to suspect that Edinburgh City and Spartans wouldn't need a massive leap to get established at L2 level and look at getting into L1. And EK have potential of town size is nothing else but as has been mentioned, new towns don't usually prove fertile ground for new teams.

Why use Elgin as an example and not mention Inverness and Ross County? Both in the top 6 of the top league in Scotland. Peterhead are also in 3rd place I think so are looking decent for the playoffs to the championship for the second time.

It's a tough ask but 9 years is a long time away, it wasn't that long ago clyde were 1 point away from promotion to the premiership. Now they are in the 3rd division.

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A lot can happen to a club in a 9 year period taking my own club for example we were in the 3rd Division this time 10 years ago. Have gone onto win a 3rd division title, the 2nd division and the 1st division play off final as well as spending four seasons in the 2nd tier. We even managed a season back in the bottom tier in 2008 before bouncing back.

Someone can easily come out of the HL or LL and be further up the chain in 9 years. As mentioned both ICT and Ross County have made it to the top flight and Peterhead will make the play off for the championship this season as well as reaching the Petrofac Training Cup final. Only Elgin have failed to make an impact after leaving the HL and have a good chance of getting out of L1 this season as do former EOSL side Annan.

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A lot can happen to a club in a 9 year period taking my own club for example we were in the 3rd Division this time 10 years ago. Have gone onto win a 3rd division title, the 2nd division and the 1st division play off final as well as spending four seasons in the 2nd tier. We even managed a season back in the bottom tier in 2008 before bouncing back.

Someone can easily come out of the HL or LL and be further up the chain in 9 years. As mentioned both ICT and Ross County have made it to the top flight and Peterhead will make the play off for the championship this season as well as reaching the Petrofac Training Cup final. Only Elgin have failed to make an impact after leaving the HL and have a good chance of getting out of L1 this season as do former EOSL side Annan.

Nah, no chance this happened. This doesn't fit in with the 'Lowland League teams can't have an impact on SPFL' narrative.

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Why use Elgin as an example and not mention Inverness and Ross County? Both in the top 6 of the top league in Scotland. Peterhead are also in 3rd place I think so are looking decent for the playoffs to the championship for the second time.

It's a tough ask but 9 years is a long time away, it wasn't that long ago clyde were 1 point away from promotion to the premiership. Now they are in the 3rd division.

Hindsight's a great thing but, in hindsight, Inverness and Ross County are both clubs who've got potential way beyond the bottom 2 leagues. I don't see anyone in the LL with that kind of potential. Peterhead, Elgin (Annan too but they haven't had as long) are clearly better examples to look at for current teams in the LL.

Peterhead have come close but still haven't reached the 2nd tier yet. Elgin are not really a small club in L2 terms when you look at crowds etc. I'm just pointing out that just getting into the leagues doesn't mean the better non-league sides will rocket up the leagues. There seems to be a view among some that the lower end of Scottish football is really stagnant and that any decent non-league side will progress up in good time if only they get the chance. Elgin are probably a bigger club than any LL side and haven't even got to L1 yet (they're looking a decent bet this year right enough).

Once we get away from the 'anything can happen' '10 years is a long time in football' stuff, I just wouldn't bet on any current LL side making the Championship within 10 years.

Though, like i said, I can't see why Edinburgh City and Spartans couldn't establish themselves in the league and become a decent L1/L2 club like the group of 12-15 part-time clubs who sit in that kind of group at the moment.

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A lot can happen to a club in a 9 year period taking my own club for example we were in the 3rd Division this time 10 years ago. Have gone onto win a 3rd division title, the 2nd division and the 1st division play off final as well as spending four seasons in the 2nd tier. We even managed a season back in the bottom tier in 2008 before bouncing back.

Someone can easily come out of the HL or LL and be further up the chain in 9 years. As mentioned both ICT and Ross County have made it to the top flight and Peterhead will make the play off for the championship this season as well as reaching the Petrofac Training Cup final. Only Elgin have failed to make an impact after leaving the HL and have a good chance of getting out of L1 this season as do former EOSL side Annan.

Slight flaw in your argument, there! :)

But 9/10 years can transform a club's league position (and fans' expectations) - I suppose that's the benefit of small divisions + play-offs.

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