West League - SFA Pyramid

[FairWeatherFan]

9 hours ago, santheman said:

Only if they're in the position to become licensed

EoSFL & SoSFL are part of the pyramid and there's no requirement on becoming licensed to join up. As for promotions through the pyramid, most leagues the higher up you go enforce certain standards. I remember Bournemouth had to do work on their infrastructure for promotion to the English Premier League.

And at the very least from a Scottish football perspective, club licensing isn't as daft or prohibitive as when the SPL had their 10,000 all seater stadium requirement. Even when they changed it to 6,000 it was still ridiculous.

[glensmad]

The English pyramid system has the option for clubs to opt out of promotion if they think it is not financially viable for them.

Shildon won the Northern League but turned down the opportunity for promotion as they felt their set-up wouldn't sustain playing in the league above. I'm not sure whether that meant the team below them got the opportunity of promotion, or a reprieve for the team who would have been relegated from the league above.

[ShahktarYerMaw]

Talbot played BSC in the big Scottish when they played at Maryhill, lots of people bring this up as BSC got a 2-2 draw, the vast majority of the crowd was away supporters. The return game, which was a 5-0 trouncing not brought up very often, was played at Beechwood . BSC officials were in the stand and I can tell you they were most impressed by the set up and the crowd. I doubt any opposition outside the top four tiers would have bettered that. I wonder what a Scottish tie between BSC and Cumbernauld Colts would be like? Think I can guess. I therefore consider that they will only be too glad to have top Junior sides involved.

Top Junior sides would bring a lot to any West League party. Of that there is no doubt. They just need to be brave enough to leave Juniors and join a new set up, and recognise they are leaving Juniors behind.

As for whether the West Premier could become the West SFA League, I have my doubts. Any move by the West Premier into the pyramid would need to be matched by the East Premier. Why would the current East of Scotland League encourage that? Two parallel leagues in the East in the same pyramid? Ain’t going to happen.

The stage is set for clubs to set up a West League independently from the Juniors. He who dares wins.

[Jason King]

8 minutes ago, ShahktarYerMaw said:

The stage is set for clubs to set up a West League independently from the Juniors. He who dares wins.

 

 

 

Too many who are too scared to take the plunge.

[theshed]

Too many who are too scared to take the plunge.

You can't really say that though on the basis of that nobody has took the plunge yet as there is no proper west pyramid league in place , if there were half a dozen or so top west junior teams opted to go then you might find that the rest of the cream would be scared to actually not take the plunge , thus being left behind in the juniors , who wants to be the best of the rest if the pollok , Talbot's , ladesides , clydebanks etc etc leave the juniors ?

[sctv]

Tuppence worth.
The lowland league in my mind is a poor imitation of the juniors never mind anything else, set up hastily to tick a box.
The juniors shunned the idea at the time otherwise things may have been different.
Things change things evolve and this may be the catalyst for an overhaul.
What’s the pros and cons of a west league? Finances?
Should the whole structure of the game evolve where the juniors as an association are level with the highland league and lowland league? Giving clubs with the ambition to rise .
That won’t be for everyone
It seems to me the bigger clubs are chasing the monies generated from the Sfa Scottish but you need a licence to participate. How some of the lowland teams got licences I’ll never know

Maybe the Sfa need to relax the license criteria to all us to move forward with the aim of ticking the license box in years to come.
Let’s also not forget that the more teams in the main Scottish cup will obviously dilute the fund pot distributed.

Only my thoughts

[AlanCamelonfan]

13 hours ago, ShahktarYerMaw said:

 

Perhaps. But BSC as it stands will be in the “big” League Cup next year as will the rest of the top 4 in the Lowland. That will attract big(ger) crowds with a potential plum tie. The attraction of that every season could tempt some Junior clubs to want to aim for Lowland League?

I think your mixing up the league cup with the Irn bru CUp. Its the IRn bru cup the top 4 from Lowland League play in. Its only the winners of the Lowland League and Highland League that play in the betfred cup

[Blackie Gold]

It's good to talk about this league but the silence from the SFA has been deafening. Why should Junior clubs commit to a project that has not got the backing of the governing body who will be in charge of the newly proposed scheme.

[theshed]

It's good to talk about this league but the silence from the SFA has been deafening. Why should Junior clubs commit to a project that has not got the backing of the governing body who will be in charge of the newly proposed scheme.

In all fairness the SFA aren't going to come on pie and Bovril discussing it.

[glensmad]

2 minutes ago, theshed said:

15 minutes ago, Blackie Gold said:

It's good to talk about this league but the silence from the SFA has been deafening. Why should Junior clubs commit to a project that has not got the backing of the governing body who will be in charge of the newly proposed scheme.

In all fairness the SFA aren't going to come on pie and Bovril discussing it.

No, but you can be sure that what is being said will be monitored.

[Burnie_man]

5 hours ago, ShahktarYerMaw said:

As for whether the West Premier could become the West SFA League, I have my doubts. Any move by the West Premier into the pyramid would need to be matched by the East Premier. Why would the current East of Scotland League encourage that? Two parallel leagues in the East in the same pyramid? Ain’t going to happen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You need to remember that the East Premierleague is the second tier, the Superleague is the top tier.

The move of clubs from East Region to EoSFL has already begun and will continue, there’s been plenty of chat about it.  The word is the EoSFL can expand to 18 clubs before an additional division is required, I don’t think we’ll need to wait too long for that to happen, two seasons max. The EoSFL wont be turning anyone away.

Will any clubs in the West Region take steps to mirror this? that remains to be seen.

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, Burnie_man said:

You need to remember that the East Premierleague is the second tier, the Superleague is the top tier.

The move of clubs from East Region to EoSFL has already begun and will continue, there’s been plenty of chat about it.  The word is the EoSFL can expand to 18 clubs before an additional division is required, I don’t think we’ll need to wait too long for that to happen, two seasons max. The EoSFL wont be turning anyone away.

Will any clubs in the West Region take steps to mirror this? that remains to be seen.

But Burnie, as we keep saying, the west region and the east don't replicate, it is not like for like. There are many different reasons why this is the case, one of them is, despite all the criticism, the top west junior league is seen by many as the best and most attractive league below tier 4. So there was, perhaps is, no real incentive to move or change.

[clash city rocker]

37 minutes ago, Burnie_man said:

You need to remember that the East Premierleague is the second tier, the Superleague is the top tier.

The move of clubs from East Region to EoSFL has already begun and will continue, there’s been plenty of chat about it.  The word is the EoSFL can expand to 18 clubs before an additional division is required, I don’t think we’ll need to wait too long for that to happen, two seasons max. The EoSFL wont be turning anyone away.

Will any clubs in the West Region take steps to mirror this? that remains to be seen.

The East clubs can join the EoSL , the West clubs can't join a WoSL. The West clubs don't see any need for a WoSL as the current Super League is already there and in excellent working order. The West pyramid already exists , tag the SoFL onto the bottom and bob's yer uncle.

[Burnie_man]

38 minutes ago, Isabel Goudie said:

But Burnie, as we keep saying, the west region and the east don't replicate, it is not like for like. There are many different reasons why this is the case, one of them is, despite all the criticism, the top west junior league is seen by many as the best and most attractive league below tier 4. So there was, perhaps is, no real incentive to move or change.

Oh I get it, you have some misty eyed notion that everyone loves the West Region when in fact the reality is nobody out with Glasgow and Ayrshire really cares.

More clubs in the East are talking about the Pyramid and EoSFL, they look at the SJFA and what they have to offer and come up with very little compared it to what’s on offer from the EoSFL/LL and Scottish Cup participation.  My prediction is that in 5 seasons time there will be very few clubs in the Lothians still SJFA members. Ask yourself where does that leave the West and the SJFA?

The good thing is that clubs in the West have the power to bring about change.  You bang on about the SoSFL not being fit for purpose for West clubs, and I agree with that, so go ahead and do something about it.  The word is there are already clubs talking about change, are Talbot one of them?  I rather suspect they are although given the dim view taken by TJ & Co towards clubs “plotting” I suspect this won’t be discussed openly and certainly not on this forum.

Isa the genie is out of the bottle, the “whaes like us” attitude amongst many Junior followers is changing and as I keep saying, we support football clubs, we don’t support a grade of football.

[Burnie_man]

10 minutes ago, clash city rocker said:

The East clubs can join the EoSL , the West clubs can't join a WoSL. The West clubs don't see any need for a WoSL as the current Super League is already there and in excellent working order. The West pyramid already exists , tag the SoFL onto the bottom and bob's yer uncle.

So you're suggesting that the West Region should move en-masse into the Pyramid? excellent, on you go.

[Che Dail]

47 minutes ago, clash city rocker said:

The East clubs can join the EoSL , the West clubs can't join a WoSL. The West clubs don't see any need for a WoSL as the current Super League is already there and in excellent working order. The West pyramid already exists , tag the SoFL onto the bottom and bob's yer uncle.

The problem is that there is no promotion to the Lowland League or relegation from it - some clubs don't want it and the Junior Assoc apparently wants to retain its independence from the pyramid structure (beyond its current level).

So for other clubs in the West who want a licence and also see the value in being in the Scottish Cup, a WoS league is necessary.

You might be right about the quality of the SL just now, but the majority of the other clubs in the region would be better of with a Club Licence. 

I think a new league should be formed now and if any junior clubs want to stay put, that's fine.

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, Burnie_man said:

Oh I get it, you have some misty eyed notion that everyone loves the West Region when in fact the reality is nobody out with Glasgow and Ayrshire really cares.

More clubs in the East are talking about the Pyramid and EoSFL, they look at the SJFA and what they have to offer and come up with very little compared it to what’s on offer from the EoSFL/LL and Scottish Cup participation.  My prediction is that in 5 seasons time there will be very few clubs in the Lothians still SJFA members. Ask yourself where does that leave the West and the SJFA?

The good thing is that clubs in the West have the power to bring about change.  You bang on about the SoSFL not being fit for purpose for West clubs, and I agree with that, so go ahead and do something about it.  The word is there are already clubs talking about change, are Talbot one of them?  I rather suspect they are although given the dim view taken by TJ & Co towards clubs “plotting” I suspect this won’t be discussed openly and certainly not on this forum.

Isa the genie is out of the bottle, the “whaes like us” attitude amongst many Junior followers is changing and as I keep saying, we support football clubs, we don’t support a grade of football.

Not that this will be popular but none the less true, the West region has been consistently the strongest in the grade. Yes I get that those outside don't care but that only illustrates why some can't grasp why there is reluctance to move.

[Burnie_man]

Just now, Isabel Goudie said:

Not that this will be popular but none the less true, the West region has been consistently the strongest in the grade. Yes I get that those outside don't care but that only illustrates why some can't grasp why there is reluctance to move.

On-field strength is absolutely immaterial, it's a tallest dwarf standard of debate in this context.

 

[Kilbowie Benches]

Would Talbot be able to keep all the stars around their badge if they weren't in the Juniors any more though,,,,,,,,

[clash city rocker]

57 minutes ago, Burnie_man said:

So you're suggesting that the West Region should move en-masse into the Pyramid? excellent, on you go.

Aye.

It's the way to do it.

West juniors join en - masse , juniors is dead.