Roker Rover

If 4,000 Rangers fans were to turn up twice a season, Kilmarnock would need to charge them £112.50 each. If tickets are actually £40 then Rangers would need to take 11,250 fans to Kilmarnock twice. If Tickets are actually £25 then Rangers would need to take 18,000 fans to Kilmarnock twice. In addition, 20% of the ticket price to any football match is VAT, so for Kilmarnock to lose £900,000 they would actually need to sell £1,125,000 worth of tickets, making all the above examples even more extreme. I do not know how much Kilmarnock charge at the gate for an Old Firm game. Over to you guys?

To be honest mate, I am not sure either now. I follow Gateshead a fair bit and when they got promoted into the conference a few years back they were one of 8 clubs I think who were part time. They went full time at the start of last season. I suspect with the new additions from the North and South, the mix may still be about 16 full time and 8 part time. Its a constantly changing picture, but what I will say is, that league must now be one of the most competitive in the British Isles. Loads of ex league clubs and some clubs with sugar daddy's (including Gateshead), all desperately chasing entry to the 92 through 2 slots. Its cut-throat. At least with Crawley and Fleetwood making the step up in the last two seasons it might settle down a bit.

Sorry Jim, what I meant was 5 National divisions, with the top 4 being fully professional and the 5th (Conference), being approximately 50% professional. The conference is a mixture of Full and Part time teams. In effect that means there are over 100 full time professional football clubs in England, ranging from Man Utd with their 70,000 gates to Gateshead with 800 gates and there are 116 clubs competing in a fully national division.

I think you are right. The Uruguayans stand out as a successful small nation but they have the huge advantage of qualifying from a continent with only 9 other sides and which includes some minnows. Its far easier for them to reach a World Cup Finals than Scotland and they don't even need to qualify for their continental tournament. They also hosted the first world cup and effectively got one in the bag early before the rest of the world woke up. Denmark won one Euro, but they have not done a lot before or since. Scotland had a very good side in the 70's but fell short, but I don't see a huge difference between the two countries, its just a case of having a crop of good players in the same era and Scotland have not had this for a while now.

It looks like he used one of those home hair cut gadgets and ran out of battery power before he could do the fringe.

Correct. England has more fully national and professional leagues than pretty much every other country. I think the Spanish, German and Italian leagues go regional at the 3rd tier, whereas England has the conference at the 5th level as a national league with half the clubs in it being full time. To be honest, there is a serious case for re-organisation of the leagues down here. Far to many clubs at the lower end chasing the dream and travelling the length and breadth of the country to do so. I would support a return to the 3rd tier North and South and the regionalisation of the conference at the top of the pyramid.

Sorry mate, but you are wrong there. I love my football, to the point that today I drove well over 500 miles to watch a Welsh pre-season friendly (I did have another reason to be in the area and the match was a fill in), I have attended over 100 live matches in each of the last 2 seasons, and to be fair the English Premier League is a very high standard. Most teams are packed full of players with international experience and its highly competitive as shown by the fact Wigan actually beat Newcastle 4-0 last season, using your example. Other than footy geeks like me, pretty much nobody this side of the border would open their curtains if Dundee United v St Johnstone was being played in their garden and they would not recognise any of the players if they did.. This is not an attack on Scottish Football, but both the English and Scottish leagues have put their TV deals up for competitive tender and the results show their market value. SKY do not pump multi millions into the EPL as a charity. Believe it or not, they actually make money out of it (shock horror and don't tell the media and the Jonny come lately's who thank SKY for their 'investment'). The only way you can redress some of the imbalance is to make your league stronger and more competitive and as far as I can see, most of the fans on here realise that and have actually done something about it this summer. You don't get stronger by bending the rules to retain one half of a duopoly that has strangled the life out of Scottish football for years. I have been genuinely impressed by the banter of the fans on this thread and even more so by the success some fans have had in influencing their clubs and it shows that football in Scotland is very much alive and kicking and it will take more than a few administrations of leading clubs to kill that, unless of course you let it.

Much as I would love to comment on the technical contents of those two links and the points made therein for Scottish Football going forward, I am left with just one thought having watched them. What the f**k is Going on with Doncaster's hair cut????

This is the reply I love; Obviously a Celtic fan. I'd report it to JBB I very much doubt JJB sports have a sectarian employment policy that bars Celtic fans from working there to be honest. I know your average ExRangers fan will struggle to understand this concept given the employment policy of the team he used to support.

And fair play to you mate for sticking with it. Can you do me one favour though? In true Reggie Perrin style, can you please get all your mates to leave ALL their baggage on the beach before re-emerging. Thanks and goodnight.

The Northern League is full mate. Had to take Durham City and Darlington this close season (the latter's appeal on demotion of 4 divisions being refused by the FA at Wembley today!!), and will operate with a massive 24 clubs in the top flight next season when their stated maximum is actually only 22. ps - I know you meant the Scottish Northern League, but there is only one real Northern League and they are the people

Has anybody updated the wiki page yet? 'Rangers was a Scottish Football Club..........'

I agree. But there would be no banging about 54 titles etc either.

See this is where you are going wrong. What you had before was 'poor'. In fact it was downright vile and rancid. This is you and your fellow fans chance to purge yourself of all that, do the right thing for once, admit the wrongs show some remorse and come back as a genuine decent football club which respects the fellow teams it competes alongside. Having read a few of your forums however, I don't hold out much hope. Sadly the new Rangers is highly likely to be every bit as rancid and putrid as the old one as it will reflect the 'people' behind it.