Oldster

That's really thorough. I can't agree with smaller divisions, though. I'd go for 3 divisions of 14 in the SPFL. It would be a 40 game season, starting the last July weekend and no winter break. Teams would play opponents x3 (fixtures to be reversed for the following season). And every season would begin with an additional round of fixtures, with 1st v 2nd, 3rd v 4th, 5th v 6th, etc from the previous season, as a showpiece opener. No advantage would be gained since everyone would be playing opponents at their own level. And it would give all the Old Firm games without the need for a split. Then maybe do what you said for the LL, HL.

The change I'd most like to see is for two automatic relegation places from the Premiership. I like the idea of more towns having a season or two of the top level circus in town, and it's never good for relegated clubs to have slim chances of immediate promotion again. I also like straight promotion for the HL/LL playoff winners. If there isn't a change in revenue distribution or number of teams in the overall league (SPFL) then it only takes 75% of them to vote for change for it to happen. 8/12 Premier clubs, 8/10 Championship, 15/20 leagues 1 and 2.

Sir! You may just have saved my sanity with your appreciation of the evidence, as I was starting to believe some of the hokey hearsay. I recall that you and I are not in agreement on this or restructuring, but we do seem to concur on the inadequacy of the current colts proposal - i would use this latest bored-child want of theirs as leverage, but you're a bit more earnest I think. Salut!

10-2 would be a step towards that. Trade it off with colts. Park them in a big division where other clubs have to hold their noses, playing against them, less often. Like matches travelling the length of the country on a wet Tuesday evening in winter. They'd probably be the biggest anti-climax, anyway. Underperforming, forgotten about, relegated back to some sort of a development league.

Thanks. I wondered where folk were coming from on that one, when the BBC article states that it was part of the restructuring proposal that St. Mirren and Ross County voted down. Was a 10-2 voting structure ever considered? It wouldn't give the Old Firm an absolute veto, and Stewarts Milne and Gilmour are no longer around to support them, and would maybe better reflect the, eh, balance of power. Oh right. Thank you. Amazing how easy it is to misunderstand something Beep! Stand well back, numpty reversing. Beep! Stand well back, numpty I think maybe they should all do a deal on a 10-2 voting system, with 12-12-20 league structure, including the two Old Firm colt teams no higher than the third level, with an automatic relegation place from the third level to the LL/HL.

Just wanted to correct the record on this. It was Stewart Gilmour of St. Mirren and Roy MacGregor of Ross County who voted down the changes to the voting system alongside voting down the proposed 12-12-18 league structure. Stewart Milne of Aberdeen was very annoyed about it at the time. Seemingly Mr Gilmour was acting as de facto representative of Rangers, who weren't full league members at the time, due to their financial implosion, and so had no say. It does seem to be that a change in voting structure to 9-3 was to be traded off against a change in league structure. If I've misread these articles, where I found this information, I do apologize. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/22151308 Interestingly, the initial plan was to have tier 5 champions automatically promoted to tier 4.

I confess to not having followed all the detail over the years, but I'd thought the SPFL formed due to a darth of money in the SFL - second tier clubs struggling to stay full time, other clubs struggling to play nationwide. So that's where I'm coming from about funding coming down from the bigger clubs.

If memory serves, the working group had agreed a couple of years back that tier 5 was the right level for colts to be entering the pyramid. So maybe they should stick with that and have a colts league in parallel with the HL and LL, the winners of these three tier 5 leagues entering the pyramid playoffs with the bottom SPFL team. I think it unlikely they would win through those playoffs, but at least that way the colts would have earned their place in the SPFL, would have a division to be relegated back to, would have a real goal during the season to focus their performances, and the top clubs who keep the rest of the SPFL commercially financially afloat would see some value for their input.

I do remember the nineties you cheeky tart. I also remember the long, long time it took to discover the pyramid. Never heard of this "challenge cup" that you speak of. Now get lost for a bit while I have my napnap.

Yeah, my fault too etc etc. I think it's pretty funny that at the top of page 61 you're suggesting a 14 team top division that has TWO splits, and now you're suggesting a 16 team bottom division where teams can also earn points by beating non-pyramid colt teams! You do realise Scottish football is a Conservative place, right? Kevin only knows what you want for the middle tier...

^ Oops! Mask slipped there Mr Maxcaster! I think his idea was for senior teams to earn points towards their own league (League 2, or whatever we're calling it) tally if they won or drew any games against any of the youth teams, and the youths would do likewise earning points towards their Development League tally if they had a result against the seniors. But I may be wrong. I like your idea as a way not to upset folk with no c***s involved in the pyramid... ...I prefer my idea because it delivers on the Competition Working Group's approved proposal of a couple of years ago of c***s being entered at tier 5, which seems also to be their approximate level if the Challenge Cup is anything to go by. I also think my idea would hush the Old Farm as they would have their way, but with the indemnity of the pyramid playoffs to prevent their actual progression into the SPFL. ***colts Edit - I like your suggestions regarding expanding the pyramid's third side, down the development divisions. (And just teasing about your identity!)

8 midweek games per club, yep, but 16 midweek matchdays to get through it all since the 8 development teams can only take on one opponent at a time. Or instead just add a Development League as the third side of the pyramid in parallel with the HL and LL. With pyramid play off semi finalists being the bottom SPFL team, HL winners, LL winners, and Development League winners. Queen's Park and Airdrie may also be full time.

Good knowledge. Enjoyed reading that!

Ofcourse. If I was a supporter of a League 2 club, I wonder if I could just ignore the colt teams in the league, dodge the games against them, but continue to support my team as usual. Might manage that if the money on offer helped my club long-term.

But if there was an offer of say a million into the pot from each of the old firm, per season in perpetuity, to accept their reserves in the league, as a chairman you might be tempted. Particularly if it was part of a beneficial general restructure, with the likelihood of their colts being the first thing cut whenever a lean year, financially, came along? Or no?