tamba_trio

For one week every season, there should be a round of games where teams wear their old 1960sish strips. No sponsors, no badges. Long sleeved, plain shirts. Numbers 1-11, no names on the back or anything. Black boots. For one throwback week (give it a snazzy marketing name). I reckon it'd be hugely popular (with me, at least, and I don't really care about anyone else).

You know, I'd always thought Italia 90 was a watershed moment in Scottish football. Enthusiasm for the team had been high - we'd had 50,000 at the qualifier v Cyprus and, to 9 year old me, it seemed like Scotland games were always packed. After the failure in Italy, we managed a mighty 12,000 for our next home game against Romania. No-one seemed to care anymore. Despite an excellent qualifying campaign for Euro 92, crowds remained garbage. Even in our final group match against San Marino, we only got 35,000. Basically, our home crowds halved in size between the two tournaments. And yeah, I'd always thought it was because of our performances in Italy. The defeat against Costa Rica. Jim Leighton and his hands of butter. Mo Johnson sending the last kick of the Brazil game into orbit, when an ounce of composure would have saw Scotland qualify. But I was wrong. It was because of this song.

Also, provided Holland beat Ireland then Scotland would go through. Ireland's equaliser in that game would make you weep

I was there too. Gough, McLeish, McPherson and Aitken all starting seems crazy to me. Particularly Aitken, as he'd left Celtic by this point and I don't really understand why he was still a regular in the Scotland midfield. Having said that, Mo Johnston missed a sitter in this game. And, he continued his SMASH THE BALL STRAIGHT AT THE KEEPER technique in the last minute against Brazil, which was equally costly. And there were about 3 results in other games which went against us too. We really should have got out the group stages that year.

Back in 98/99 - the first season of weekly live games - there was a half hearted attempt at being impartial. Not all Old Firm games were live, for example (the November game was a Saturday 3pm kickoff). And I'm sure one of the first games was a horror Dundee-St Johnstone 0-0 draw. I'm pretty sure the BBC were the first to do the Old Firm away game trick, when they got the rights in 2002.

If they ever played each other in Europe, their shorts would clash so someone would have to change. Which would be stupid.

1992 European Championships. Whilst we're in the subject of Scotland being shit, here's the rare case where they were actually pretty damn good. Firstly, to qualify was one of our best achievements - only 8 teams made the finals back then and, despite the apathy after our Italia 90 failure, we were one of them. Obviously, we got drawn in the group of death. Germany (world champions), Holland (European champions) and the CIS who, whilst still the Soviet Union, had lost the previous Euro final to Holland. So we had no chance, only to produce three excellent performances (which is pretty damn unusual for a Scotland side). We were unlucky in losing 1-0 to Holland in our first game to a late Berkamp goal. Then we proceeded to play even better against Germany. We could've taken the lead about three times before the Germans scored a scrappy opener. In particular, one pass from Paul McStay deserves to be remembered as one of the most fantastic bits of genius ever produced by Scotland - he left 5 Germans standing still whilst he put Gary McAllister through on goal. Sadly, the bald twat sclaffed it straight at the keeper, and everyone forgot about it. A freak deflected cross gave them a 2-0 win. We were robbed. The CIS only needed to beat us in the last game to qualify but Scotland thumped them 3-0 (Brian McClair even scored) to finish third in the group. The CIS promptly crumbled as an international force and were last seen sponsoring the Scottish league cup about 15 years ago.

They won't show 4 Edinburgh derbies. Both teams will have used their 4 home games quota against Celtic and Rangers. 19 Celtic away games 19 Rangers away games 4 random Celtic/Rangers home games (League opener, title clincher, trophy presentation) 6 random games, a couple of them being relegation deciders late in the season but - if they're sticking to 4 games per ground - only the bottom six will be able to host any other live matches.

Probably the most important thing Scottish football needs is a salary cap. I love this quote from the A-League website: The Salary Cap facilitates competitive balance and parity between Clubs by ensuring that the playing talent is distributed amongst the Hyundai A-League Clubs. In doing so, this increases the attraction of the competition to fans, sponsors and broadcast partners. The Salary Cap also safeguards the economic viability of the Hyundai A-League by ensuring that Clubs are not put in a position where they are forced to spend beyond their financial capabilities in order to stay competitive on the field. https://www.a-league.com.au/salary-cap-system I mean, it's like they were pointing at Scotland as they wrote it. The A-League, despite soccer being about the fifth biggest sport in Australia (average crowds of 13,000) and despite only having 27 games a season, still has a better TV deal than us. Give Scottish football a salary cap and an 18 game season (with playoffs) and it wouldn't be long till other countries are copying us.

It is to Scottish footballs credit that they've created the most predictable sports league imaginable. That takes skill. And they've not noticed that 35 years of the title being won by the same city dilutes interest. How's about 16 teams... Play each other once. And you play the teams closest to you in the league an extra time. So top 4 get two games against each other, and so on. Poorer teams get slightly easier fixtures. And we can share revenue a bit too. It doesn't even need to be a hard salary cap. But it'd be nice to maybe only be the second or third least competitive league in the Universe.

So... Hibs dramatically won the title courtesy of a dramatic injury time equaliser in a 5-5 draw. Rangers went from champions to fourth because of that goal. The top five teams finished within 2 points of each other. Na.... that'd never work. 18 teams. Play each other twice. Yawn.

It won't change. It's just nice to imagine it sometimes. Let's face it, none of us are going to live to see the title won outside of Glasgow again. I heard the Sportsound crew celebrating earlier on that we don't talk about reconstruction any more - things are great now apparently. And - by God - do Willie Miller and company hate talking about reconstruction. Which is a damn shame, because this thread and these discussions are interesting and worthy of debate. The same people who belittle American style gimmicks are those who boast about having to get a calculator out when goal difference decides something. They're idiots. They haven't yet realised that Scottish football is no longer the biggest sport in Scotland. If we want it to ever return to that status we will need to change and to innovate and maybe even learn from other sports and other parts of the world.

I love the idea of shorter seasons Ed, it makes so much sense. Other teams with a chance to win the league.... it's incredible that such a thought is considered radical. Two 16 game seasons, then playoffs for the title. Money distributed evenly. A salary cap (a soft one, it doesn't need to be as strict as the NFL). More teams with a chance to win the title. Jeez, we might even get a decent TV deal if such a thing happened.

Jeez that Mexican system is good. Imagine a league in which more than 2 teams think they might win it... (Who'd have guessed that such a concept could increase crowds). In my head - to end the utter tedium of the current catastrophic setup of Scottish football - I've split the leagues into East and West. It's actually a decent wee competition at the moment. East Aberdeen 52 pts Hibs 51 pts Hearts 39 pts St Johnstone 30 pts Dundee 28 pts Ross C 21 pts West Celtic 64 pts Rangers 58 pts Kilmarnock 40 pts Motherwell 35 pts Hamilton 26 pts Partick Th 24 pts After 33 games, the last 5 matches are within your own division. At the end of the season the two league winners play off for the title at Hampden. The 2nd and 3rd place teams in both leagues all play off for the remaining European place. And the bottom sides in each division have a relegation match against the winners of the East/West lower divisions. I'd actually rather that the top 6 just play off for the title, but I don't want to be too radical. I mean, I'd also share revenue and introduce salary caps but these are obviously unfair as the Old Firm deserve more money for having more gloryhunters, sorry, fans. More fans. Anyway it'll be an exciting end of the season when the playoffs do arrive, I'm excited for it.

In completely unrelated news, I wonder why our younger players always fail to reach their potential.

Hahaha, I love the idea of switching it to a Sunday now just to hear the squeals. It'd be hillarious. It just pisses me off that we can't even have a settled weekly schedule. Some weeks we have a Friday night game. Sometimes it's Saturday lunchtime. Sometimes there's games on a Sunday. And lunchtime kick-offs can be 12:00, 12:15, 12:30 or 12:45 depending on what way the wind is blowing. Also we occasionally throw a Championship match at 5:15 on a Saturday night, but only sometimes. BTW, with regard to restructuring the league like American Sports: WEST - Celtic, Rangers, Partick Th, St Mirren, Morton EAST - Hearts, Hibs, Dunfermline, Falkirk, Raith R SOUTH - Motherwell, Hamilton, Kilmarnock, Ayr NORTH - Aberdeen, St Johnstone, Dundee, Dundee Utd, Inverness CT, Ross C It'd be fantastic...

As a thought (and here me out on this): What if Premier Division games got played on a Sunday, rather than a Saturday. So on a Saturday at 3pm you'd have the lower league stuff. At 5:30pm there's a live free-to-air game from the Premiership. (If Celtic are playing in the Champions League on a Tuesday, it's automatically them to avoid too much disruption) On a Sunday 4 games kick off at 3pm with BT Sports or Sky or whoever able to show any of them live. At 5:30pm the final match is shown live on Sky or BT. The idea is that, by showing a free to air game on a Saturday night, you'd get some media coverage of the league prior to the main card of games. There could also be highlights from the Championship after full time. Then, on a Sunday night, you'd be able to show highlights on the BBC of the days action and not worry about denting the exposure of Match of the Day. Games wouldn't need re-arranged for the Europa league so we'd all be pretty sure of what was happening each week. Anyway it was just a thought. The lack of routine to Scottish football is another thing that drives me nuts. Some weeks we've a Friday night game. Sometimes a Saturday lunchtime (and by lunchtime it could be 12:00, 12:15, 12:30, 12:45 or 1pm) and sometimes Sunday lunchtime. Occasionally it's Sunday at 3pm. How can you expect fans to build a matchday routine whilst screwing them over so badly?

I do wonder why the rest of the league haven't withdrawn. Yes, money would go down but wouldn't it be worth it to play in a league with a remotely level playing field??

Mumble mumble Celtic are better so deserve more money mumble mumble... Basically, Scottish football is the sporting equivalent of the Tory party (except more extreme).

In terms of TV interest - having a competitive league has to be more interesting that "let's all watch Celtic beat some outfit with a tenth of their budget for the 25th time this season." Sport is crap when it's predictable. At the moment the Scottish Premiership is pretty much the least competitive sporting league on the planet. For all we can compare our league to other countries, where else can boast the same city winning the league for 30+ years?? How many other countries can be certain that they will never see a parade for a championship winning team? We have Celtic and Rangers. Whether they are contending for the title or playing for third, those fixtures will always be sell out, hate filled monstrosities that both they and TV love so much. Here's a quote from the Australian League webpage: "The Salary Cap facilitates competitive balance and parity between Clubs by ensuring that the playing talent is distributed amongst the Hyundai A-League Clubs. In doing so, this increases the attraction of the competition to fans, sponsors and broadcast partners. The Salary Cap also safeguards the economic viability of the Hyundai A-League by ensuring that Clubs are not put in a position where they are forced to spend beyond their financial capabilities in order to stay competitive on the field." Doesn't this address the main problems we have with our league?? It's also worth noting that the A-League is - at best - the 3rd sport in Australia and yet still commands a vastly superior TV deal despite a 27 game season. And it's not like it even needs to be a hard cap - just SOMETHING to stop us being the most unequal league in the entire world would be a welcome start.

Why not have a salary cap? I mean, if we're wanting more competition isn't that the simplest way? Split TV money, prize money and gate money equally and have a salary cap. It's not rocket science to think that if teams are playing in a league together then it'd be best if they have similar resources. Maybe if teams outside Glasgow had a chance at winning the league before we all die, it might increase their crowds. And maybe TV would pay more to show a league that wasn't a foregone conclusion every year.

Celtic were playing home games at Hampden in 94, so the league cup final was at Ibrox (a neutral venue). For the Scottish Cup final in 95, Celtic''s lease had ended so it was considered neutral again, despite them playing there the whole season.

You'd have to go back to 1988 to find a bigger crowd at a Dundee Utd v Hibs game: it was being in a different league which made it such an appealing match. Whilst in the Premiership/Premierleague/Premier League/Premier Division the matchup has very rarely broke 10,000 people for basically 35 years. It's actually a pretty convincing argument that being in a different league can be good for clubs and that winning games and doing well in a lesser league is more fun for supporters than trudging along 50 points behind a Glasgow side which has a budget 20 times bigger.

You could have. It's only 4 years since Rangers were exterminated and the majority of Scottish football decided that we needed this fixture. Rangers were dead, gone. The Diddy Clubs (and Celtic) gave them life because they wanted this. It's sickening.

I know. Truth is I'm fed up. I'm a Celtic fan: I get to watch us play teams with a tenth of our budget 34 times a year. Yay. Imagine the excitement in winning against such odds... When Rangers went bust in 2012, it was immediately obvious the SPL had no idea how to market the league beyond the old firm. They had 4 years to fix it, instead they've doubled down on the old firm again. If Rangers were to go bust again (which isn't unthinkable, they're hardly paragons of frugality) they'd repeat the same steps as 2012, but probably ignore the fan backlash when Rangers 3.0 get placed straight into the Premiership. Celtic are only as strong as the league they play in. If the league is strong, they will benefit too. If the league is the most financially unequal in professional sports, you get a TV deal like ours and loads of kids in English teams strips. The NFL figured this out in the 60s when they convinced the New York Giants that collective bargaining would benefit them in the long term. The result was a sport which was a distant second to baseball now gets half the country watching it on TV. It dominates the US. At the moment Scottish football is a distant second to English football here in Scotland, and I'd like to think that could change one day. I know, it's not going to happen. I just like pretending that one day Aberdeen or Hibs or someone will realise they've tens of thousands of fans and they can stop letting the old firm bully them.