stanley

Give it a few more years and that will happen eventually. What with the 0 guaranteed relegation places, however, it won't happen very quickly.

Could well be Caley Braves that voted no as they had fans vote on it and they voted no last year after consulting fans. A bit shocked if Cowdenbeath voted yes considering all the other ex-SPFL and ex-juniors have come out against it.

They were never going to vote no anyway. Cowdenbeath, Civil Service and Caley Braves have all voted no in the past (and rumoured that Edinburgh Uni did last time).

No shock based on how things have gone so far. Same old clubs continuing to vote yes for the (limited) money it brings in. Give it another year or so and the vote would almost certainly be no hence they've gone for a two year proposal this time.

Safe to say that Bo'ness and Tranent will be against it as well so at least 6 no votes with another 3 needed. Presumably, the proposal is for two years as they realise the yes vote is gradually getting relegated out of the league and being replaced by no votes. I feel like a vote next year would likely be no but not confident about today.

Same thing happened last year with them putting it fans and they voted no so hopefully the same this year.

Hopefully the clubs that vote in favour will release statements and explain their reasons. Could be a long wait.

2021 confirmation:

I think Caledonian Braves voted against it last time as well. Confirmation here from last time: https://www.caledonianbraves.com/news/club-statement-b-teams-in-slfl

I'd love for you to be right but I still think a yes vote is probably the favourite at this stage. Hopefully the ex-junior and ex-SPFL clubs all vote against it and only another two no votes would be needed.

Any reason given for this?

Not sure on the exact details but it was 10-5 last for B teams to enter in 2023/24 with some clubs using the excuse of the Conference League threat to vote yes. Edit: 2022/23 was an 8-8 split "The secret ballot produced an 8-8 split, but the motion was carried thanks to Lowland League chairman Thomas Brown’s casting vote." https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/sport/football/tranent-reveal-how-they-voted-after-lowland-league-accepts-celtic-hearts-and-rangers-b-teams-3723404

At least this has helped with youth development at Hearts as many youngsters have been given a chance after performing well for the B team. Oh, actually, basically none of them ever play.

Tommy Coyne didn't play for Hearts. Jim Hamilton must be up there. Dundee, Hearts, Aberdeen, Dundee United, Dunfermline, Livingston, Motherwell and St. Mirren. Not sure if he actually played for Dundee in the Premier (possibly just the first) but definitely Premier with the rest.

Have licensing applications opened up again? Haven't heard any news for months. Any West teams possibly going for one?

Ah, yes perhaps they've simply moved leagues and are back to 0 games. Hell of a lot of games to catch up on in that case.

Notre Dame the eighth. The league is still going strong with 68 clubs so not facing challenges quite as big as the Saturday afternoon leagues.

Sorry to hear that. Was very hard to tell from the Twitter feed as no other details were given than the tweet above.

Whitburn v Dunipace abandoned in injury time.

Blackhall become the seventh club of the season gone from the Saturday Morning AFL this season.

Leaving aside the usual debate on here about relegation from the SPFL and more automatic relegation places in the Lowland League, I think there should at least be a system in place for automatic relegation for the bottom placed Lowland League side. If Elgin/Forfar were to go down and the LL champion was to go up then they could simply still relegate the bottom LL side but allow two sides up from tier 6 instead. I think that would be a pretty sensible option and wouldn't involve any increase to two automatic relegation spots. It just seems crazy that you have two sides consistently struggling at the bottom of the table each season yet they could be saved by what happens with promotion/relegation between the SPFL and League Two rather than on merit.

Both teams are continuing according to Twitter. Edit: unless I'm misreading this tweet:

That's a bad one considering their success. It shows that the Saturday Morning leagues aren't immune either. The Saturday Morning League has already lost several clubs since the season started (I think at least 5 so far have gone although their league has far higher numbers and is obviously doing very well compared to the afternoon leagues in the west).

They should really do a highlights programme on the BBC for the early rounds but I suppose that would involve them knowing anything about lower/non-league football. I'm sure they used to do one?

Well, they are certainly going to be forced to do something about the leagues in the west whether they like it or not. From 228 clubs across seven leagues in 2013-14 (Caley, Central Scottish, Scottish Amateur, Greater Glasgow, Paisley, North & South Lanarkshire, Paisley, West of Scotland) to just 79 clubs across three leagues in 2023-24 (Caley, Scottish Premier, Greater Glasgow). There won't be many clubs left between the leagues in a few years time. On top of that, the Stirling & District league has just 12 clubs left and is struggling to survive (even taking in clubs from Fife and West Lothian in summer 2023). The bigger leagues like Caley and Scottish Premier can barely even take in new clubs from struggling local leagues now as almost all of them have folded. Equally worrying is the LEAFA plumeting in numbers from 73 in 2013-14 to 44 in 2022-23 and now down another 10 to just 34 in 2023-24. At the current rate of decline, some of the Saturday afternoon leagues will be struggling to even survive at all in another ten years time.