BS7

Bonnyrigg are due to play Bo’ness on Monday, that might get canned too.

I was bit surprised with EK today, picked up cards for fun and it was no surprise they played half the game with 10 men. Hard earned and great win for the Rose. Any of the top 6 could win this league.

Just a bad day at the office, but maybe some fall out coming.

Soft as opposed to cheating. I suppose it was going to take something like that for you to finally beat us.

The pyramid can't really exist in next seasons format for long, it is so lopsided and unbalanced. The irony to me is whether the top league in Scotland is 12 or 14 teams is about as irrelevant as it gets. What is really relevant now is the 190 odd teams in tier 3 down.

Looking at a map, this could effectively be shifting the demarcation line from south of dundee to south of Stonehaven? With the wosfl due to start it becomes a very lopsided pyramid.

The bit I don’t understand: the only team in league 2 that benefits from the “shift the highland league lowland league boundary” is Brechin. So what did Brechin do for the spfl to take that on, and threaten the lowland league to get it through.

Thanks - I suspected pressure would be applied, and I couldn't figure out why the play off might be cancelled but that puts all the pieces in the jigsaw together. No other club in league 2 benefits from the spfl shifting the pyramid line. There's 13 clubs south of Brechin that have been prevented from going to the Lowland League pyramid because of location. The Lowland League has been threatened with removal of cup competitions unless it acquiesces. My club have been disadvantaged, but the Lowland league made a decision, that was probably arguably a reasonable decision in the circumstances. I think there's huge question marks that need to be resolved over how the SPFL has acted.

I wasn't aware of it until last night - a tweet hastily deleted - brought it up. I believe it is what was referenced in the Brora and kelty joint statement, and it would appear it's been common knowledge for weeks.

I think you're wrong. I think Kelty and Brora will win. They have the rules on their side. I think the bullying and threats from the spfl regarding this suggest the spfl know they will win too.

Not knowing which division Kelty or Brora will be in wont be a huge matter to them, because their playing squads will be largely the same regardless. Maybe Brora and Kelty would prefer not to have a play off, because of the uncertainty, and would prefer to stay in their respective leagues. But, if they thought that, then they wouldn't have come out with the joint statement would they? The only real problem is for Brechin, who depend on the spfl handouts. They've also got a hand on the spfl driving wheel. The way I see it, Brechin, hiding behind the spfl don't want to come to a solution. Kelty and Brora would take the impractical, and try to work on the best fair solution for all three clubs. Brechin wont. They are hiding behind the spfl. I don't think you really understand the political dynamite that the lowland league have been forced to accept a rule change to allow Brechin in. The only club that rule change benefits is Brechin, so the position of the Brechin Chairman is frankly untenable within the spfl and the clubs should fire him. Every club works in self interest, but bypassing the highland/lowland league line is corrupt, and has massive implications.

Ahem. The rangers.

Season starts on 1st August, play offs on 1st and 4th August, league starts on 8th August. not ideal, but certainly workable given the circumstances. playing Scottish cup ties following season has a number of issues - not least in relation to player registrations and suspensions, but again not ideal but certainly workable. what I’m not seeing here are practical arguments as to why Brechin should avoid a play off - and reasons why the tier 5 champions should be deprived of a play off. the revelation that the spfl forced the lowland league to accept a rule change to accept Brechin is dynamite though.

why not? you could play two one off games at neutral venues. It would take 4 days.

The difference is the play offs further up the league are entirely within the remit of the spfl. the tier 4/5 play off is within the remit of spfl/hl/ll/sfa - all effectively hold a veto. Ive a fair idea that the spfl will apply pressure to get the outcome they want. It really depends on the type of clubs kelty and Brora are if they stand up to them. Personally I hope they do stand up to them as I think they have a rock solid case.

If the matches haven’t started, they haven’t been abandoned.

If he thinks the league is a bottleneck, wait until he finds out about the SFA licensing committee.

The one thing I did wonder was were Bonnyrigg aware of the decision prior to it being made public. It seems they were not. That's not great on the league, and disappoints me - but - the league haven't explained why that was the case.

Colts would need to start at the bottom.

If the lowland league can expand to 18, they can get around the unfairness of relegation with games unplayed while allowing teams in. i think it would unfair on the league as a whole if no team got a crack at league 2.

I suspect it's to protect the position of the Lowland League winners in the tier 4/5 play off scenario. If that is the case, then I think the league have to be applauded.

Let me know when and we can get a blether and a drink.

Congratulations Kelty, a team worthy of winning this wonderful league. I'm sure you would rather have won it on the pitch, but its clearly not your fault that this wont happen this year. I hope you get that crack at League 2 one way or another.

Well. We now know that the play off teams are Kelty v Brora with the winner playing Brechin. We also know that any change to the play off arrangements has to be agreed by all of the following: SPFL SFA LL HL There's no rule as far as I know that says when the play off has to take place, and as we are only talking about 4 games, it could take place Saturday/Wednesday/Saturday/Wednesday over 10 days at the start of next season. I hope it does. I'm disappointed with the ruling, but also, I think it's hard to find fault with it and it's good people running the lowland league. They would have agonized over this. I'm also sure that Kelty would have much rather had have won this on the pitch. It's not their fault that opportunity was denied to them.

Gutted, but, football seems secondary just now and the Lowland League had a hard decision to make.