FairWeatherFan

The new Tayside Super and Premier can just be tucked under the Highland League. Just move the boundary a touch south for Scone & Tayport. Get the South Super & South Premier into the EoS. Gives Highland and Lowland 3 feeders for now. Work on something more coherent once clubs are licensed.

The SPFL helped draw the line and didn't care about sending their own members north. Why should they now? I'd say at the minute you only have to move the boundary a little lower to encompass Scone and Tayport officially into the highland area. The boundary has done its job in creating a Tayside set up to feed into the Highland League.

I don't have a TJ only with no region representation theory. I'm the one that's pointed out that Iain McQueen has been there so TJ isn't alone. I'm also asking who represented the SJFA at the Highland PWG because the answer has the potential to contradict the way the SJFA has handled things by not inviting WRJFA & ERJFA to the Lowland PWG.

Mentioning McQueen was to remind people that this hasn't been TJ alone. There has been other representatives. Was it only SJFA employees that represented the NRJFA when the PWG was split into Highland and Lowland sections?

Iain McQueen has represented the SJFA at PWG meetings as well as TJ. I doubt anyone would of objected if the West or East Region secretaries had been in the SJFA party.

I've said all along it's wrapped up in a 4 way agreement so the LL can't unilaterally decide on extra relegation because it alone can't provide the mechanism for changing extra promotion. And Maxwell caused a fuss by trying to change it to get his own way.

It might have been attributed to him, but every quote I saw and the EoS guidance only ever guaranteed a 16 team EoS Premier and a First Division set up to be decided on based on number of clubs left plus unknown of applicants.

Going by the LL pyramid playoff rules the SFA has equal standing with the SOS, EoS and LL in all parties have to agree. They can't dictate but it's the same sort of "veto" that people said the EoS had as they need to agree to any changes. The sfa are going into the new season overseeing this sjfa trial of disciplinary rules and involving the SJFA in the on going PWG meetings that will start up again. Why would they agree to a change that would only be seen as temporary.

Because the SFA have a say in the LL pyramid playoff and they basically said they'd step in if they're isn't agreement coming out of the PWG. The whole fuss about Maxwell trying to say he'd pick who's in it.

This is buck passing. The Lowland League are perfectly capable of increasing the number of relegation spots without the involvement of the PWG. Then who gets promoted? Just go to applications until the pwg formalise a process between tiers 5&6 in the Lowland.

Blame the PWG goings on, or lack of goings on. Its all tied up in the LL-EOS-SOS-SFA agreement.

They can apply to join the Highland League.

At what point did the SJFA say they did not collectively want to enter the pyramid? Far as I remember they've always said yes, just on their own terms. How is this any different?

Winning a league championship and rounds of playoffs is hardly going to be an accident.

There isn't going to be a change to the LL playoff (EoS v. SoS) until there is some agreement around the PWG proceedings.

I think it's a fair point. The reason why the whole "join a pyramid league" requirement kicked in was because Junior clubs were getting licensed outside the pyramid. The SFA are operating under the idea that the PWG impasse can be solved. Withholding any license until an entry into the pyramid seems like a good idea to break that impasse as the likes of Cumnock, Petershill and potentially others will raise concerns over their status the deeper into the season we go.

Can't really call them "cannon fodder" when its strengthening the quality of the early rounds. 2018-19 Clubs in the Preliminary Rounds 2019-20 Clubs in the Preminary Rounds

The Lowland League have updated their rules and regulations ahead of the 2019-20 season. Following last year's experience they've put some thought into the relegation scenarios that could come up going forward. The changes lead to certain situations where there maybe no relegation in a given year. Clubs will be hoping the Lowland League champion wins promotion and Elgin/Cove/Brechin are relegated from the SPFL.

I just noticed that the Lowland League have updated their Rules and Regulations. It doesn't appear to have been updated in the usual place but http://slfl.co.uk/rules/lowland-league-rules/ Haven't properly looked it over for specific changes but it looks like they've put some thought into all the variations that could take place following the Selkirk example.

The Lowland League has a specific rule for their membership that does not allow for more than one team in a league represented by the SFA's Professional Game Board (SPFL, Lowland and Highland). It's the only league that has something as specific as that. Most just say Full Membership of the SFA and other caveats. So it's murky if you class a 2nd XI as being a Full Member as far as i'm concerned.

I'll admit this is more of a Junior question, but there's enough knowledge around here that can answer it i'm sure. On the question of weighting things in favour of the Lowland League. How did the West Region handle the Central/Ayrshire divide? Looking at the last time promotion and relegation worked before going region wide in 2016-17 into 2017-18. The 3rd Tier Ayrshire League had 12 teams with 2 promoted. 3rd Tier Central First Division had 14 teams and 2 promoted. While the Central also had a 4th tier Second Division with another 12 teams.

They signed up to the pyramid knowing full well what the boundary was going to be and didn't shrink at the idea of "Wick to Montrose on a wet Wednesday night". They've put a plan in place to split into divisions if they exceed 20 members. So they are willing to create a 2nd tier, but until there's interest there isn't much they can do. You can understand why they don't want to split into two 10x divisions willingly. They engaged with the NRJFA and were told the juniors weren't interested. They've sent representatives to the last NCL AGM, so they are engaged with pyramid building. They invited Banks O'dee this year. Can you think of many leagues that do that? They listened to the ICT colts interest and the can of worms that would open. In seriously considering the ICT colts, I think it also shows the idea that you have to already have your SFA license before you apply isn't true. Any club in the catchment area can apply, then presumably use a provisional acceptance by the HFL to meet the pyramid league licensing requirement set by the SFA.

I think they will probably add the individual Conference tables at some point, but the overall table makes sense now that I think on it. The Conference approach they've used the last two years has had league position as the first tie breaker. League position between two conferences just means the same two conferences all over again. So they're going to have to go with points totals if they want to redraw the Conferences next year. Having the overall table just makes it easy for everyone to know what the current situation is.

Everything i've seen is that it's 2x Conferences of twelve teams. Play your own Conference twice, the opposite Conference once for a 34 game league season. Conference A winner vs. Conference B winner for the overall First Division Championship. Two legged play-off Conference A runner up vs. Conference B runner up for promotion spot in a two legged play-off. Both teams potentially promoted depending on the EoS Premier being at a net loss. Not entirely sure why they have an overall table if individual Conference standings play into promotion. EDIT: Guess it's possible they will use the overall standings to decide First Division - Second Division split??? That's why they want to keep track of it