SecretCEO

An advantage of condensing the SPFL into 3 divisions would be that a national conference league could fit in at the 4th level without pushing everyone else down a notch. It could begin as only the best 8 teams from the Highland and Lowland leagues, playing x4, expanding each season to catch automatically relegated teams from the SPFL. With Highland and Lowland champions promoted to it each year.

The TV deal can usually be renegotiated within the contracted period: it just takes the will / a good reason to do it. A bigger Championship could be stronger if it allows for more full timers and the best part timers. I like a bigger League One too. I'm a fan of the way they do it in the East of Scotland League, with many promotion and relegation places, but I do like a play off (or play out?) for the end of season drama.

Yes, as 44 games would enable clubs could keep the same prices for season tickets as now but lower the prices for individual games, allowing them to attract more supporters and build a fanbase. 9 out of 12. 75%.

I think it's do-able and affordable to expand the SPFL to 48 or 50 clubs, either 14-12-12-12 or 12-12-12-12. The main element is to ask each individual division (Championship, League One, League Two) to divide its collective prize money by 12 clubs rather than 10 clubs, with that reduction in prize money income for each club being offset by the additional gate receipts from the extra home game that they each would gain from moving to a Premiership-style 12-team, 38-game division. The second factor would be to keep all of the current promotion, relegation, and playoff arrangements between divisions exactly as they are. Including maintaining the present pyramid playoff system. There would need to be continuity with that part in order to keep stability for the other changes, and 12-team divisions with the familiar split and playoffs would hardly be less competitive than the three 10-team divisions that they'd be replacing. That leaves the Premiership, which I think has the potential for change agreeable to all, as I described/explained in my previous post. The key thing is to be conservative with the promotion/relegation places, such as just two relegated from a 14-team Premiership, to help the smaller clubs establish themselves, whilst offering more of the Premiership regulars a guaranteed second home match against the bigger clubs. Which leaves the Old Firm to please. And that's an easy one.

I think that would be a step too far at the moment. Right now I would be asking League 2 clubs to expand to a 12-team division to accommodate Brechin, Kelty, and Brora who have been unfortunate victims of circumstance to find themselves in the present situation. I would therefore be asking only League 2 clubs to divide their prize money into 12 rather than 10. They could recoup some of the money from the additional home game of a 12-team division operating as per the Premiership model. They would also gain by having a lower probability of relegation in a 12-team division than in the current 10-team division, if the pyramid playoffs remain unchanged and so only the bottom team participates (Club 44, as it would become). I think asking any other divisions to make changes to their composition or prize money, at this stage, risks a house of cards type scenario. I'm for more relegation and promotion between the SPFL and non league, but I see the first step being to sort out today's issue. Other changes may grow organically from there.

I don't see Premiership regulars voting for a structure that cuts them off from playing at home x2 against every big club. I do see the Old Firm agreeing to a season with 40 league games each, particularly if colts teams are part of the quid pro quo; also, i understand that the new Champions League format will give them 10 games in Europe before Christmas, which must be about what they play now. On that basis, they could look at splitting the league 8/4 after 33 matchday, playing opponents once more to give 40 games each for the top 8 and 36 games each for the bottom 4. Premiership regulars would prefer this as it saves more of them from relegation at 33 games, and guarantees the second home game against bigger clubs. Also true of the below - A 14-team Premiership splitting 8/6 after 26 matchdays, teams playing one another twice more, would give 40-game seasons for the top 8 and 36 game seasons for the bottom section. The colts could be added as a Development League at the fifth tier, accessing the pyramid playoffs alongside the Lowland and Highland leagues. With more promotion from the Championship to an expanded Premiership, or by expanding the Championship to 12 teams and using a split, votes would be garnered from those clubs. Which would leave League One and Two clubs voting for a change that would see them boosted, either into an expanded Championship, or by participating in a larger SPFL that would consequently dilute their prospects of relegation to the non league.

Not too far in, he's talking about how other ex-HL clubs have done, and he says " we can run to our current budget and see where that takes us. If we get relegated so be it but I don’t think we would, I think we’d survive.”

The longer it goes without a decision, the more I think they'll be taking the pragmatic approach: given all the unforseen unfairnesses over the past two seasons, they should be fair to all three clubs by enlarging League Two to 12 teams to accommodate them all. None of them is at fault here. Just to add, since it's mentioned above that it's not known if the playoffs are going ahead tomorrow - they're not. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/sport/football/highland-league/3071707/brora-rangers-kelty-hearts-spfl/amp/ I assumed you lot would have known already. Sorry.

Interesting interview with the Fraserburgh chairman. https://www.google.com/amp/s/ne98.net/2021/02/05/fraserburgh-chairman-finlay-noble-on-potential-promotion-linking-the-northern-juniors-and-lockdown/amp/ He thinks they would stick to the same budget if promoted to the SPFL, and would manage to stay in League Two if they did so.

Going by today's media reports, the British Super League is on. Apparently it's Plan B for English moneybags clubs since the ESL failure. And Celtic previously rejected the Atlantic League proposal in favour of waiting for a British League. I think it will in itself be horrible, but would be good to see Scotland without the OF. They're suggesting a BSL of 18 teams, so I take it the English and Scottish Premier leagues will feed in underneath it - maybe 2 automatically promoted from EPL, with 3rd and 4th of EPL in promotion playoffs with 1st in SPL and 16th in BSL. Something like that. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.scotsman.com/sport/football/rangers/british-league-what-would-it-mean-for-celtic-rangers-and-scottish-football-3210334%3famp

For me, this ESL proposal is a bit half-arsed. I would have more time for it if they'd gone for a World League, with the best from Brazil, Argybargy, etc filling up the remaining places. Much more like a galacticos franchise-type deal, with the very best players, and genuinely exciting to watch for the global masses. And then completely severing ties with domestic leagues, letting the rest of us carry on with our regular football. They could maybe continue to grace the main domestic cups, though, to give everyone else some target practice. I'm still waiting for Celtic to be invited to the ESL, mind you, as I would have thought their appeal to the global Irish diaspora would make them an obvious draw for such a money-driven venture. I wonder what our Neil from Doncaster would make of that. Assuming that no more English, Spanish, and Italian clubs have shown an interest, I think Ajax, Porto, and Celtic would be the ESL's next ports of call.

It would be neat if the new Midlands League has its boundaries as two of the interpretations of 56 45 13 N: the mouth of the River Tay and the mouth of the River North Esk. I'm not sure what the obsession with rivers is mind you: council boundaries, representing human geography, seem like a more logical distinction for our human activities.

My hideous confession is that I'm disappointed that the Premiership clubs have punted the colts/restructuring proposal. I felt sure anything that drained resources from the old firm would have enhanced the possibility of a non old firm league champion. And I like SPFL expansion as a means to support the growth of the pyramid. Whilst I go cry into my cornflakes, here's what the Donc had to say about it: https://www.msn.com/en-gb/sport/news/neil-doncaster-addresses-rangers-and-celtic-colts-question-as-he-urges-scottish-football-to-be-open-minded/ar-BB1frPko

My biggest hope for the pyramid was that the sight of their local club in the SPFL would draw some supporters away from the top Premiership clubs, who they don't necessarily have a strong connection to. I hoped that a more even spread of supporters would do things like opening the possibility of non old firm league champions, and give us more full time clubs. I could see the bigger ex-junior clubs such as Pollok or Bo'ness steadily working their way through the part time national leagues, then establishing themselves in the Championship. If I'm right about some supporters moving towards their local clubs when they have success on a national stage, and given the additional income from larger travelling supports at that Championship level, full time football and the Premiership could be realistic for one or two of the ex-junior clubs in about 10 years. I was wondering why it is that masses of folk choose to support certain clubs that they haven't really any connection to. I decided that for many it was just the associating themselves with quick and regular successes of those teams, as an antidote to an otherwise difficult life. But what do I know.

If we're just throwing ideas around in a blue sky thinking pushing the envelope kind of way, then feeding into the hypothetical National non-league Conference of 16 teams I'd have 4 leagues - Highland (& Islands) League, Great North Eastern League (bounded by Spey and Tay), East of Scotland League, West of Scotland League (East and West separated along council boundaries, as recently agreed). At least the top 2 of each feeder would qualify for a battle royale of knockout playoffs, to replace ? relegated teams from above (the best of whom could qualify for the playoffs too).

Hopefully Brechin landing in their new local Grampian/Midlands league will be enough to persuade the Ken to give us back our pyramid playoffs.

With the South African variant of the virus now stalking London, and the Brazilian variant still to come, I'd be looking to start a deliberate half-season as soon as possible. Keep the current (WoS and) EoS divisions, plus the newbies in their own division, play every opponent just once, then have relegation and promotion and merge from the conferences into new divisions. At the very least it would allow for a bit of catching up this summer. If the virus is not too bad in the autumn, then go again with a new half-season. But, then, I'm in favour of the Lowland League relegating 5, and the WoS and EoS promoting 5 each to form a not-necessarily-licenced Lowland League 2 - so maybe you should ignore what I think.

If the goal is to persuade League One and Two clubs to vote for opening up promotion/relegation from/to tier 5, then the focus would need to be on making the Lowland League more appealing to them. The Lowland League is all-but the national league at tier 5, given the number of SPFL clubs eligible to play in it (75% of them). So it makes sense to firm up the link between the SPFL and the Lowland League. Reducing its size to a more elite 10 teams playing opponents x4, or 12 teams playing opponents x3 might help. It would also be beneficial to have the Lowland League champions promoted automatically, with second place and maybe third entering playoffs with the Highland League champions and second bottom of League Two for a second SPFL place. Since most SPFL clubs would be eligible to be relegated to the Lowland League, they're going to look for how easy it would be to recover their SPFL status from that league. One team going into the pyramid playoffs isn't going to do it. And isn't fair by population share. So, even now, there needs to be at least two Lowland League teams entering into the pyramid playoffs in order to be persuasive to SPFL clubs. Some changes like these will be needed to open things up without being held to ransom by the old firm over their colts teams.

I still think there's potential in having divisions of 12, with scope for doing something different after matchday 33. The obvious one is to revisit Premiership and Championship divisions of 12, dividing into three sections of 8 after 33 games each, but with the teams in each mini-league playing one another just once, for a 40 game season per team. That would eradicate the concern over splitting too early in the season the last time that proposal was voted on, although there would still need to be some way of fairly rewarding teams in the middle section for their season up to the split, rather than starting the mini-league with zero points each. Another possibility, after 33 games each, would be to split into 3 sections of 8 again - but then seed those teams into groups of 4, playing every group opponent x1, then knockout rounds, to determine Premiership winners, European places, promotion/relegation between the top tiers, and who is relegated/in relegation playoffs with tier 3. There's no reason why they couldn't mix the two systems, such as the top 8 if the Premiership carrying on to 40 games, the middle 8 playing in seeded groups of 4 to work out promotion/relegation, the bottom 8 of the Championship stopping at 33 games to prepare for playoffs below. I'm sure there are other possibilities, but I think teams playing every opponent x3 is reasonably fair to start with, and 33 games each/16 guaranteed home games is a good basic minimum from which to do something different. Also - if they're seriously looking at admitting 6 teams to the SPFL, then four divisions of 12 (or even three divisions of 16) appears much more balanced than 12-10-10-16.

Great news on this for Hampden and Scotland supporters. I read up to 33pc capacity, so maybe 16-17k each game. Anyhow, still keen on Murrayfield taking up the slack where the other cities/countries are struggling due to the pandemic. Would be great for more Scots to have the opportunity to see the action first hand. Because it may be a very long time coming around again.

Another possibility would be to give colts teams access to the pyramid playoffs, by having a Development League with its top division at tier 5, alongside the Highland and Lowland leagues. A sort of third side to the pyramid. If the elite colts had something real like this to aim towards, such as promotion to League Two via the pyramid playoffs, it might improve their quality. And being involved in those playoffs would be tremendous experience for them, without actually threatening the integrity of the league, since its very unlikely the colts would beat the best tier 5 seniors over a series of games. Even if they did, at least their SPFL place would be earned and there would have been the same opportunity available to many colts teams rather than just the old firm. I can see why fans of senior clubs would boycott games against colts teams, but I cannot believe any genuine supporter would quit their club altogether over it.

What's really needed is an eccentric solution to this awkward problem, so*: - expand the bottom tier to 16 teams, recruiting 4 from the Lowland League and 2 from the Highland League, with these teams playing one another x2 = 30 games per team; - set up an entirely non-pyramid colts league with a top 'elite' division of 8 teams, playing one another x2 = 14 games per team; - then have every bottom tier SPFL team playing every elite colts team x1 = 8 additional games for the seniors for a total of 38 league games each / 16 additional games for the colts for a total of 30 league games each; - each seniors v colts match would be worth the usual points, which the seniors would earn towards their own league if they won or drew, and which the colts would earn towards their entirely separate league if they won or drew; - it would take 16 midweeks for the cross-league fixtures to be completed, since the 8 colt teams could only play one of the 16 senior opponents at a time; - with old firm colt teams playing one another x2, the TV men could substitute those 2 games for 1 of the televised old firm first team games, meaning that the top SPFL division would only need x3 old firm games and so could expand; - restructure to 16-16-16 becomes possible, with the top 2 divisions splitting in half after 30 games each and each subsequent mini-league of 8 playing every opponent just once more = 37 games per team; - the larger bottom tier would enable an automatic and a play off relegation place to the non league. Because why should old firm colts take precedence over other youngsters, and why should old firm B teams take precedence over proper clubs' first teams. But there might be something in colts v seniors from a player development perspective, so trial this crazy scheme for a bit and see what happens. Or else just let the old firm colts into the SPFL, watch them relegated immediately, and enjoy the new clubs taking their place whilst keeping the current SPFLers safe. (*Insert Ann Budge shaking her head here)

It would need one of the other clubs to reach the Europa League group stages a couple of times so that they could access substantially greater finances on a regular basis. That would be enough to see them put out a team of a quality to consistently beat The Rest in league matches, rather than stumbling and dropping points in seemingly easy games. After that, it's just luck as to whether one of the OF have an off season, and how the decisions and chances fall in the head to heads against them. Of course fewer head to heads against the best teams in the league would make things easier, but the restructure that would require ain't going to happen because clubs want the money from the OF's fans and from TV for playing x4. A bit of a Gordian knot, then, but my starting point would either be a sugar daddy to put in the initial capital to reach European group stages, or league restructuring so there'd be fewer head to heads between the best teams. I had thought that the additional European place would help increase our chances of someone reaching group stages, but seemingly the average coefficient will drop again next year since the total country coefficient points will have to be divided by our 5 European participants rather than 4 up until now.

Murrayfield has the largest capacity, so if the Euros really are coming to Scotland now (and the government seem yesterday to have sent Uefa the guarantee of fans at games) then shift the games to Murrayfield as the same Covid-safe percentage of capacity will lead to a greater number of fans experiencing the fun than at Hampden. And with so few fans, relative to the original planned full stadium, able to go now every thousand able to experience the Euros counts.

I would begin to think about closing the EoSFL to new applications from clubs now. The focus should be shifting to linking up with amateur leagues below, as feeders to the EoS in order to complete the pyramid fully.