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14 team "Premiership" next season


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According to The Scotsman Neil Doncaster has a plan for a 14 team top flight starting next season (copied from a plan being implemented by the Danish Superliga), with a 6-4-4 split after 28 games:

http://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/competitions/premiership/14-team-premiership-could-be-brought-in-for-2016-17-1-3970519

Interesting concept but not sure we have enough European places to make the playoff needed to make the middle section worthwhile a viable option.

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It's not really fair on season ticket holders who don't know how many games they're paying for. But it guarantees rangers in the top flight, which is obviously the priority -_-

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The perceived problem previously with a 14-team league was that, in order to avoid free weekends created by a 7-7 split after two rounds of matches, there would need to be a 6-8 split, which would mean the bottom section playing 40 league games.

However, the Danes have tackled this by splitting off the eight into two groups of four...

Seems like moulding a shit to fit the bowl rather than creating a bowl that takes the shit as is.

On the other hand, if we want to go out there then I'd like to see all teams randomly drawn into seven groups of 6 at the start of each season, then do US style fixtures - in-league and cross league. Then move onto playoffs and such. f**k it.

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Being in that middle group of 4 would be mind numbingly boring. Every game would effectively be a dead rubber, horrible idea. If they insist on a split why not make it 16 teams, play each other twice then go to a 8-8?

Because that's not what Denmark have done. Doncaster's idea of 'innovation' really does just seem to amount to copying other people.

Agree though, what's the point of that middle group other than to simply fulfil fixtures?

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I don't think we can use this plan as a stick to beat the 'blazers' as it were with. Rangers look much more capable under Warburton (St J game aside) and I'd be absolutely stunned if they didn't make it up this season regardless of reconstruction.

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I think in this plan both the bottom groups of 4 can be relegated, it's just a way of ensuring the bottom half plays 32 games compared to the top half's 36 so there are more room for play offs.

Although if the league below is also operating a 6-4-4 split then the top half clubs in that league will play 36 games so there is .. eh.. less room for play offs.

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Would make more sense to implement this in 2017-18 rather than shift the goalposts mid-season. I like the proposed set up but would prefer a straight 18 team top and 2nd tier with regions underneath that. I know this may upset some but it does reduce costs for those at the bottom end.

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Who is running the show - Neil Doncaster or the member clubs? Why do clubs want less games - surely they play more in England? I'm all for a 14 team league but a 6-4-4 split is nonsensical.

When combined with the new league cup group format the number of games issue is probably more or less sorted out. What interests me more is how they plan to do the lower divisions. The 18 teams promoting themselves bit strongly suggests a move to three tiers, but not sure whether that hints at 14-14-14 or a 14-10-18.

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Probably too late for any reconstruction next season, I would though happily go for a 14 team Premiership but not with 2 splits like the Danish system that's far too restrictive isolating teams in their own small group and preventing them from climbing the league especially if the league places are tight and teams that miss the cut suddenly find form. I don't think a split of 7-7 is workable either since this would mean 2 clubs every week without a game. 6-8 appears more sensible. More than one split in a small league could be boring for the fans with a number of teams having nothing to play for.

Why copy the Danes anyway, are we not capable of creating a system that suits us and will make almost everyone happy?.

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A quiet Friday a few months back on one of the occasions reconstruction came up I looked at every league in UEFA to see what they did, I think Belgium were clearly the most mental, but there were a few oddities.

I think Poland do 16 team leagues with a split then half the points then play one more round of games for 37- guarantees you'll end up with an uneven home / away split. Presumably halfing the points is to make the last round of games effectively worth double.

I can't see us going full rugby or Australian sports where one team finishes top of the table after 8 months of playing then gets knocked out in a post-season play off.

Europa league playoffs are more interesting, especially if you give some kind of reward to the team finishing highest up the table. These exist in Holland and Greece at least. Would mean you'd have to play the cup final before the play offs though as you couldn't have a team involved that had already qualified for Europe through the cup.

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I'm all for doing something different in the leagues - I quite like the split from a competition perspective, and the playoffs have definitely put more excitement into the latter stage of the season (once we're safe of course). But a 6-4-4 split is ridiculous, and surely won't happen. However, hearing that Doncaster has seen it in Denmark, sounds oddly true. Can just see them getting round a table and saying "it works there, it'll obviously work here!"

If we're still going to have a split, make it down the middle. Although if we are increasing teams, I'd drop it entirely. The split only "works" right now because there's a small number of teams in each group, and the past two seasons the bottom half has been pretty tight. I imagine in a 14+ team league, the clubs at the bottom of the top split, and the top of the bottom half would just be drifting with little chance of a European place or relegation respectively.

We may as well just go the whole hog and go American. Merge the top two leagues, split us into conferences, then have a complicated series of fixtures that mean you're not quite sure where you're going and when. Then throw that all away in March/April time when the top 16 sides get thrown into the playoffs. Then the side in 16th wins the title. Easy.

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This Danish newspaper article explains what the new format is all about, if you enter the text into Google translate:

http://www.b.dk/sport/superligaen-udvides-til-14-hold

The most interesting bit is how the two bottom sections work.

Den model, der vil blive vedtaget, er den såkaldte Venus B, der også betyder, at der vil blive spillet playoff-kamp mellem vinderen af nedrykningsslutspillet og medaljeslutspillets 4. Eller 5. plads om en af de europæiske billetter.

The model will be adopted, the so-called Venus B, which also means that there will be game playoff match between the winner of the relegation playoff and medal playoffs 4th or 5th place on one of the European ticket.

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