HibeeJibee

10am - Musselburgh v Coldstream - "precautionary"

Inspections at: St Andrews v Linlithgow - 9am Jeanfield v Heriot-Watt - 9:30am Newtongrange v Hill of Beath (in South Challenge Cup) - 9:30am

Depends. I've seen Aberdeen fans saying they thought starting a round earlier - getting a win under their belts and earning some ranking points - was better than exiting immediately later. QR3 is as far as you've got - Sociedad, Almaty, Maribor and Limassol.

University of Stirling 5-0 Dunbar United as the students comfortably secured their place in the yet-to-be-drawn QF stage.

Dunipace v Tynecastle in Conference B has also come forward to Saturday 22nd December. Easthouses are appealing for a friendly that day.

There are as many football teams as there are young men wanting to play of a Saturday. How many should be pro, semi-pro, amateur or playing nationwide, regionally, locally etc. is a different matter... but a pyramid allows some clubs to grow, others to contract, and each to find their level. Merging clubs would not deliver bigger crowds. Fewer people would watch "Fife Utd" than used to watch Dunfermline, Raith and East Fife if you merged them. Especially as nowadays fans have the understanding, communication tools and means to set up phoenix clubs lower down.

Very interesting thread. Obviously the big issue is fewer young men wanting to play; but points over U21s, pro-youth, regulations, expense and competition in Strathclyde also valid. Here are some stats: Saturday ’13 ’14 ’15 ’16 ’17 ‘18 leagues -14 -15 -16 -17 -18 -19 Aberdeenshire 85 83 81 82 77 71 Ayrshire 57 55 53 49 45 44 Border 31 31 30 30 33 33 Caledonian 26 30 33 33 34 32 Central 33 33 33 29 32 36 Dumfries 7 X Fife 29 30 27 30 37 35 Greater Glas. 49 40 38 35 34 34 Kingdom Cale. 14 12 12 11 X Lothian 73 68 60 57 56 58 Midlands 53 53 43 41 25 25 Lanarkshire 20 22 19 14 X Paisley 28 28 22 17 12 X Perthshire 29 27 27 29 26 26 Scottish 52 54 42 38 37 34 Stirling 45 49 43 39 35 26 West 20 16 12 7 X (Morn) Dundee 34 37 30 34 34 34 (Morn) Glasg. 31 32 27 23 19 19 (Morn) G.Col. 32 32 32 30 29 29 (Morn) Strat. 42 38 38 41 55 47 (Church) East 8 10 19 10 X (Church) Str. 40 40 36 34 32 30 838 820 757 713 652 613 down 225 (27%) Sunday ’13 ’14 ’15 ’16 ’17 leagues -14 -15 -16 -17 -18 Aberdeen 16 17 15 14 15 Airdrie-Coatb. 21 24 20 31 33 Carluke 19 18 14 X Dumfries 18 20 20 18 18 Dundee 18 19 12 7 8 Edinburgh 21 15 19 X Fife 31 32 28 26 26 Forfar 10 11 X Lothian 37 32 30 38 47 North Ayrshire 10 X Perthshire 12 10 X Stranraer 7 7 6 X Sunday Central 48 51 47 54 55 West Lothian 25 32 25 19 22 West Ayrshire 15 17 18 11 14 Forth Valley X 10 308 305 254 218 248 down 60 (20%) after peaking down 90 (30%)

Not all that bad and the weeks before Christmas are normally a flat spell anyway. Despite there being 3 games off + another 2 as yet unreported = 5 the aggregate crowd was little different to several other weeks, and far in excess of Oct 13th which was an international week but 7 games were off. It was HoB's 2nd largest crowd of the season, only 10 off their best; Newtongrange's 2nd largest, only 6 off their best which was a cup-tie; Sauchie's best of the season; Jeanfield's 2nd largest, and best in the league. Coldstream, Linlithgow and Preston were notably below-par. Possibly there would have been hopes for bigger bump at the Conference A head-to-heads than were seen tbf. Does this mean you have crowds for CSS-Gretna and Spartans-Newtongrange EDIT: ah, 122?

There isn't any link between the coefficient this thread is about and the womens equivalent (if that's what you're asking). It's particularly significant for Womens CL as only the top 12 nations get 2 slots. Even so, the Womens CL is a knockout tournament and Hibs Ladies will require to win a 4-team qualifying group (held in a single country over the course of 1 week) to qualify for it.

It's something like £25k now, IIRC. Drastically reduced from £82.5k as of last season.

According to SFF another friendly on Saturday 22nd December is Armadale Thistle v Oakley United. EDIT: However according to Linlithgow's twitter their friendly at Bo'ness the following Saturday is off due to injuries, work shifts and holidays.

Simply looking at costs - this would need the technology rights, perhaps extra cameras at some games, real-time editing equipment and staff at all games (presumably all 6 are not done onsite live currently?), and the extra match officials. Big screens at all stadiums, too, so fans know what's happening? Expense would surely run into millions. EDIT: We've got this Celtic chap on here saying he'd put up £4M to £6M per season as a price and pay for it (or only some of it?) with season tickets. That's from £18,000 to £27,000 per game. So would we be increasing all tickets £2 across the board... coming on for 10% rise, certainly in case of STs... to pay for this? If that's unfair as OF fans would be paying half of it, the impact on smaller clubs would be severe. It would be £4.50 to £6.75 per ticket at somewhere like St Johnstone.

No surprise on the PremierSport picks: as I was saying their business model and their previous Challenge Cup choices (which were almost entirely Celtic B) pointed the way. Even an OF home tie will generate subscriptions+pay-per-views from Celtic/Rangers fans who don't normally attend, or who can't or won't attend due different time or not being on ST book, beyond most ties. Similarly no surprise from BBC picking Hearts v Livingston. I'm glad my final prediction proved wrong, and they chose Auchinleck v Ayr over something rather drab involving top tier sides... It will be interesting to see if this is repeated in future seasons, as it's been reported their "extra" tie is for Friday night on the new BBC Scotland digital channel, which starts later this February.

Not many of those about, but all clubs mentioned have floodlights except Camelon. No reason it couldn't be done with a mixture of pre-season, free weekend, Christmas break and midweeks.

I suppose at root the motivation will be the same as it's always been for kids (or as we're supposed to call them "young adults" as they may well fall into the bracket) to commit vandalism... the thrill of doing something 'wrong' and 'risky' without there being much risk of actually being caught; the sense of rebelliousness; the chance to show off in front of your mates about how tough and bold you are. In some cases, no doubt, also a relish and sense of power in damaging something others enjoy with impunity. Difference nowadays is a reduced chance of being caught or even the fear of the possibility of being caught (fewer police about); the reduced consequences of being caught (little punishment from the courts, if even charged and convicted - and less ostracising in society); and a reduced sense of community meaning fewer and fewer places these vandals would balk at the thought of attacking out of a sense of "right 'n wrong". You also wonder if the parents have a clue where their children are and what they're doing. In the past the tailend of the summer holidays would see vandalism and arson committed on abandoned buildings and suchlike but it seems nowadays anything is 'fair game' all year. It's often put down to kids being bored and "not having anything to do". In reality the facilities they attack are often providing exactly such outlets.