DiamondOwl

As someone who has drifted away from spfl football in recent years mainly due to cost and entertainment value, you guys will find plenty of life in the so-called non-league sector. Gate prices are less, you only play teams twice in the league (as previously mentioned), and there's less sterile grounds. So commiserations, but actually you might find your footy experience more enjoyable. I certainly have and have no desire to go back, although I do still follow the Airdrie scores. Incidentally, I remember Cowden spanking Airdrie 5-1 a number of years ago, I think it was at the Excelsior. In fact at that time the Blue Brazil always gave us a tough game. All the best, and who knows.... you might not want to come back! (Although the problem of the junior ugly sisters at the lowland level is bound to be depressing).

WoSFL Division 3. Oh Right. So It's going to be WoSFL: Premier Division, Division 1, Division 2, Division 3 (and if necessary Division 4). Could you please provide a link for the decision not to call the second league "championship" in the new system, and how the leagues will be made up next season in terms of conference finishing places, etc?

Yes, I think it’s either the 1st of June or 1st July, Pie and Bovril makes changes re which forum supporters of clubs relegated/promoted in the spfl should post in. Probably it will be at that point (if not before) that a new WOSFL forum is introduced. This thread, although presently full of life, is, to all intents and purposes, dead. The question has been answered: “Junior football, what is the future?” Answer (sadly, IMO): “There is none”. Congratulations to all you pro-pyramid people. The political parties should get Burnieman to lead their campaigns. Almost single-handedly in less than three years he has destroyed junior football and massively expanded the senior non-league sector, convincing (almost) everyone that now they are all so much better off..... He seems to have disappeared recently - must be helping the government with advice about their COVID-19 press conferences!

I'm not on a committee of any Junior Club and am not high ranking in the business field, so I doubt I'd manage it. To answer your second question.... Well, some of the clubs are so short of people to do these things, that it's easier to go with the flow.... Or. perhaps some are trying to do it. I don't know if conversations are going on behind the scenes club to club or with the ERSJFA.

You've obviously not been reading this thread. In reality there's a lot more than 10, probably double that, but they've been convinced by the propaganda that there's no choice. They're scared of being left without a league to play in, so rather than take a stand, they're all signing up for something they don't really want. Somebody would have to take the lead and start phoning round potentially like-minded clubs to see what their thoughts are. As has been mentioned previously, at least 17 clubs didn't initially express an interest in the LL-WoSFL. Yes, That's what some of us are waiting for..... some leadership

The issue is that there may not be as many as 10 and they may not have the people with the experience of running a league, or time to organise it.

I'm hoping that the article providing the views of the Wishaw Juniors secretary is only partially true. That is: Things are going to be very financially challenging in the short to medium term. Sadly, I think we all know that is true, particularly for the smaller clubs. But the bit about having to join the new league is, I hope, a red herring and that talks are ongoing with some other teams and the ERSJFA about expanding the East region and perhaps renaming it. It's too depressing to believe that ALL the junior clubs are going to kill off junior football in the West of Scotland.

Absolutely. I do think this would be the best option all round. But are they willing to do this? Perhaps they don't want to say anything until a club or two asks them.

You're at it again... "you lot". We're not all clones on here, you know. We have differing views!

I've only been posting here for a few days..... I've always been open to the idea of a WOSL, but as I have no desire to watch it, wanted the junior leagues to survive.

Absolute nonsense. glensmad is spot-on. There will be at least 10, probably nearer to 20 clubs who believe they are trapped into doing this because they've been told there's nowhere else to go. They would far rather stay junior teams in a junior league, but have been scared into believing no one else feels the same and they'll be left behind if they don't go.

You're right. But I think that was before the deal keeping the clubs in the junior cup. I very much doubt they'll be enough left for a league. Without the ERSJFA stepping in to offer some clubs a home, the announcements will keep coming and the choice for the individual clubs will become non-existent.

Why not? I’m for all clubs to be free to play at the level they wish to play it, in the league of their choice. Obviously, so long as they are within the general area (or the area is undefined) and that they qualify in terms of their infrastructure (including governance, ground and finance) to play in that league. The problem, as I see it,at the moment, is that the West region juniors have been left without any real choice.

If the Thorniewood committee want to stay in the junior set up, they should approach the ERSJFA and see whether in the case of one, two or more clubs, where there was no junior league left for them to play in, they would accept them. Looking at the ERSJFA constitution, no boundaries to the region are mentioned, so it would seem to be a question of whether the existing clubs would be willing to accept the travel. Surely relatively near clubs like Thorniewood, Wishaw, Carluke and Lanark would be accepted. Despite what has been said about wanting to provide a choice, at the moment these clubs seem to be faced with no real option of playing in a junior league. It’s either join the new WOS pyramid league(s) or go amateur.

To reply to both.... I stated "It's all football". I didn't say there was any major difference between senior non-league football and junior football, did I? The bottom line is that some clubs see no reason to throw away their junior history and are happy to continue to be defined by that grade/level. Surely it's up to them if they want to continue to stay loyal to what they see as their identity?