lionel hutz Posted May 27, 2015 Share Posted May 27, 2015 Idea returns: https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/sport/football/highland-league/592925/highland-league-president-calls-league-expansion/ I think there is gonna be any Tayside juniors joining, more than one should join to make the league seem less isolated Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Back Beach Posted May 28, 2015 Share Posted May 28, 2015 I don't see why they couldn't just put the highest team below Brora, that's willing and able to meet the SPFL standards, into the Play Offs. The report referred to earlier in the thread about Brora putting promotion to the fans was dated July 2014. Lots of water under the bridge since then so ignore. I have never seen such a determination from the club to win the 2015/16 Highland League and the word in the bar is that stand by for some very tasty news indeed. We were not ready to go up last year,albeit we would have survived. This coming year will be full on focus and whilst both Formartine and Turriff are both bigger spenders than Brora,it will be the Cattachs that are making the news again. Our first league game is home to Rothes on 1st August-We look forward to welcoming them !!!!!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy Shaker Posted May 28, 2015 Share Posted May 28, 2015 Brora were never better placed as a club to go up than in the season just finished. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LongTimeLurker Posted May 28, 2015 Share Posted May 28, 2015 I think there is gonna be any Tayside juniors joining, more than one should join to make the league seem less isolated Seriously doubt any Tayside clubs would be interested but suspect hoovering up the remnants of the North Caley league and attracting a few North region junior clubs would be easy for them if they eased up on licensing for their second tier. The Holy Grail doesn't have quite the same appeal in that part of junior football and Turriff were an also ran as a junior club in the not too distant past and are an example of what can be aspired to over time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacGafraidh Posted May 28, 2015 Share Posted May 28, 2015 They could emancipate the whole of the NCFL and Junior clubs and have a thriving pyramid there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyclizine Posted June 13, 2015 Author Share Posted June 13, 2015 https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/sport/football/highland-league/607008/great-debate-on-highland-league-split-decision/ Not going to be popular, but at least the board are thinking ahead. A 19+ team league will be extremely difficult to schedule, given the date restrictions, even if you scrap the cups. Nairn in particular were complaining about the loss of revenue from hospitality at the midweek fixtures, which are necessary to have some form of leeway at the end of the season. I would expect that teams in both leagues would be required to be licenced in order to facilitate their re-merger, should a Highland team go up with no replacement, if the current plans remain the same. Not sure about the playoff ideas... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilky1878 Posted June 13, 2015 Share Posted June 13, 2015 https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/sport/football/highland-league/607008/great-debate-on-highland-league-split-decision/ Not going to be popular, but at least the board are thinking ahead. A 19+ team league will be extremely difficult to schedule, given the date restrictions, even if you scrap the cups. Nairn in particular were complaining about the loss of revenue from hospitality at the midweek fixtures, which are necessary to have some form of leeway at the end of the season. I would expect that teams in both leagues would be required to be licenced in order to facilitate their re-merger, should a Highland team go up with no replacement, if the current plans remain the same. Not sure about the playoff ideas... A 19 team league, play each other twice. 36 games, same as the three leagues from championship till league two. Scrap the cups and maybe add one in scheduled on challenge cup dates for the teams not involved in it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HibeeJibee Posted June 13, 2015 Share Posted June 13, 2015 There is something slightly illogical about the solution to having to play more midweek games (which make less money from hospitality and gates than weekend games) being to reduce the number of games entirely. Unless the implication is that HL clubs actually lose money on midweek games, rather than just make less money than they do on Saturdays. At the moment HL plays only league games on Saturdays anyway, with the exception of the Scottish Cup and the HL Cup... I suppose you could scrap the latter (or play it off the end of the season like LL does) to free-up some more dates. About 18 months ago the 'Stables Plan' from Keith FC was unanimously rejected... It proposed 2 divisions of 10 clubs playing 18 games instead of the current 34 games; a further 6 games would have been generated by the reintroduction of the North Challenge Cup with a groupstage. It involved 1-up-1-down plus promotion-n-relegation playoffs for 9th/2nd/3rd/4th. Sounds like this is basically the same idea being tried again, but they haven't specified how many league games (so could be 27 games conceivably), and the groupstage would be in HL Cup... North Challenge Cup would be for clubs not involved in the promotion-n-relegation playoffs or these newly mooted Title Playoffs. I must say that the idea of Title Playoffs surprises me. Not only is the concept almost totally unknown in British and European football - it would also mean ending the league season even earlier (given Title Playoffs must precede Pyramid Playoffs)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grazza Posted June 14, 2015 Share Posted June 14, 2015 Would it be impossible to have promotion and relegation between Highland and North Region juniors. Would need to be proper agreement in place between them but basically run as they are and let the juniors keep their junior status but clubs would need to have SFA licences to get into highland league. Highest placed team that meet SFA criteria for getting into highland would go up and team that goes down from highland would play in junior cup etc. North Caledonian league could be offered to be be north division in parallel with west and east division. Highland North Superleague West. East, North Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fear no foe Posted June 14, 2015 Share Posted June 14, 2015 Would it be impossible to have promotion and relegation between Highland and North Region juniors. Would need to be proper agreement in place between them but basically run as they are and let the juniors keep their junior status but clubs would need to have SFA licences to get into highland league. Highest placed team that meet SFA criteria for getting into highland would go up and team that goes down from highland would play in junior cup etc. North Caledonian league could be offered to be be north division in parallel with west and east division. Highland North Superleague West. East, North Dont think we will ever see any involvement between SJFA and either Highland or Lowland leagues. Any current junior clubs down this neck of the woods would have to join Eos or Sos leagues and leave the Juniors. Up north would need, as the title of the thread suggests "Highland league restructuring " but that wont involve North region Juniors, the clubs maybe, but they will have to leave the Juniors IMO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HibeeJibee Posted June 14, 2015 Share Posted June 14, 2015 It should not be beyond the wit of Scottish football to connect the North Juniors to HL. It could be done without any reordering at all, just the creation of some promotion/relegation. Sadly, what should not be is not always so, however. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WaffenThinMint Posted June 14, 2015 Share Posted June 14, 2015 It should not be beyond the wit of Scottish football to connect the North Juniors to HL. It could be done without any reordering at all, just the creation of some promotion/relegation. Sadly, what should not be is not always so, however. If the Highland League truly grasp the thistle and go for two leagues of 16, the best of the North Juniors will be hoovered up into it and what's left of them would be perhaps more amiable to the prospect of cooperation. Right now there's a bit of an "us and them" mentality, but if a large enough group moved over, the rest would be more willing to accept that they have more in common with the Highland clubs than the Lowland-centric Junior set up which has been no friend to them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grazza Posted June 14, 2015 Share Posted June 14, 2015 I suppose there is a lot of conservatism and tradition and maybe if there can be a way to keep SJFA going and let it run all non amateur football below Highland and Lowland level. Clubs looking to get into Highland / Lowland of course would need to get the SFA licence and getting to play in Scottish cup would be useful carrot for that. The north is a vital starting point though there is a natural pyramid sitting there just needing joined up. The highland league I think should no longer accept applications for expansion but offer an invite to the junior champions to join or highest place team that wants to move up. Either juniors come to the table for a deal where teams can get relegated into top junior league or Highland will keep. If they hold off too long then maybe Highland could just form a 2nd division themselves. Surely some sort of northern cup involving both highland and junior teams would be a good starting point and offer a bit more fixture variety. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LongTimeLurker Posted June 14, 2015 Share Posted June 14, 2015 Think there will be a lot of resistance to a pyramid from HL clubs, which is why their preferred terminology was always a "progressive league system", which is basically what there is at the moment north of the Tay. In a genuine pyramid a lot of the smaller village and town teams like Rothes and Lossie would be slowly replaced over time by Aberdeen and Dundee junior clubs, because that's where most of the population is and there is already a significant overlap in playing standards even as things stand at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CityDave Posted June 15, 2015 Share Posted June 15, 2015 Think there will be a lot of resistance to a pyramid from HL clubs, which is why their preferred terminology was always a "progressive league system", which is basically what there is at the moment north of the Tay. In a genuine pyramid a lot of the smaller village and town teams like Rothes and Lossie would be slowly replaced over time by Aberdeen and Dundee junior clubs, because that's where most of the population is and there is already a significant overlap in playing standards even as things stand at the moment. A progressive league system will happen at some point with clubs coming up to a Highland League through automatic promotion or playoff I don't know, but it will happen. I would maybe see a Highland Premier League maybe as an example say 16 teams with two regional leagues below, Highland 1st and Tayside 1st and so on with their own 2nd Divisions. The clubs that have come up over the years from the Juniors to the Highland League have mostly done very well, Cove Rangers, Inverurie Locos, Formartine Utd and Turriff Utd so don't see why not teams like Banks O' Dee and Culter can't impact as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Father Ted Posted June 17, 2015 Share Posted June 17, 2015 Would it be impossible to have promotion and relegation between Highland and North Region juniors. Would need to be proper agreement in place between them but basically run as they are and let the juniors keep their junior status but clubs would need to have SFA licences to get into highland league. Highest placed team that meet SFA criteria for getting into highland would go up and team that goes down from highland would play in junior cup etc. North Caledonian league could be offered to be be north division in parallel with west and east division. Highland North Superleague West. East, North Seems the most sensible option to me, and attract further teams to the North (Caledonian League) to boost numbers. However, when you talk SFA and committees, common sense doesn't always prevail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NorthernLights Posted July 1, 2015 Share Posted July 1, 2015 Taken from the Inverurie Locos Facebook page... ‘The League Management Committee (LMC) of the SHFL met in Lossiemouth on Thursday 25th June and, by a majority, voted to develop detailed operational arrangements for a two-tier Highland League. ‘The meeting developed discussions arising from a draft starter paper that was circulated for clubs to comment on. These comments, along with any further views from clubs, will be used to develop detailed operational arrangements including constitutional arrangements and the structure of the playing season. ‘ The LMC has been engaged with this issue for a number of months as it has come to terms with the set of challenges arising from the introduction of the pyramid system in Scottish Professional Football. Two of those challenges are the focus of this element of work, namely the size of the league and the number of scheduled midweek fixtures required in a given season. ‘The number of clubs in the Highland League might, by virtue of promotion/relegation to/from the SPFL, vary from season to season. It is therefore possible that this number would exceed the current total with implications for the number of fixtures in the League Championship competition. Experience from the 2014-15 season has shown that an increased number of scheduled midweek fixtures has been significantly detrimental to club finances. Consequently, the option of two tiers was explored in view of that and it has been decided to create a set of planned arrangement which might be used if the size of the league were to increase. ‘The next stage of the process will be to develop that plan in detail so that it can be used in the event of the number of clubs rising above a critical threshold. Among the issues still to be finalised are: the exact level of threshold detailed arrangements for transition to two tiers, building on the agreed view that it should be on merit a structure for the playing season, including arrangements for promotion/relegation constitutional amendments enabling the changes should they be necessary. ‘Once this drafting process has been undertaken, Clubs will then seek to consult with key stakeholders, including sponsors and supporters.’ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HTG Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 It should not be beyond the wit of Scottish football to connect the North Juniors to HL. It could be done without any reordering at all, just the creation of some promotion/relegation. Sadly, what should not be is not always so, however. Connecting North Juniors is one thing but the Highland pyramid starts approximately at the Tay. If you're advocating a block movement then everything north from Dundee should be hoovered up. That would fire some cats into some pigeons. Won't be happening of course. The geographic regions are absolute fuckin bollocks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedLichtie86 Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 Connecting North Juniors is one thing but the Highland pyramid starts approximately at the Tay. If you're advocating a block movement then everything north from Dundee should be hoovered up. That would fire some cats into some pigeons. Won't be happening of course. The geographic regions are absolute fuckin bollocks. I have said from day one that the Highland/Lowland split starting at the Tay is daft. There should be a 3rd league made up, Midland League. Can start at the north border of Angus and go as far south as the central belt. Leaves the possibility of teams moving between the 3 leagues if there is an imbalance of teams in a certain league. And keeps clubs closer together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HibeeJibee Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 I have said from day one that the Highland/Lowland split starting at the Tay is daft. There should be a 3rd league made up, Midland League. Can start at the north border of Angus and go as far south as the central belt. Leaves the possibility of teams moving between the 3 leagues if there is an imbalance of teams in a certain league. And keeps clubs closer together. If there were 3 regions there is no way you'd divide it North, Midlands and South... It would be North, East and West. And given you'd need the Juniors it's quite possible the dividing line would still be at the Tay albeit I suppose you could carry it up to Stonehaven. Connecting North Juniors is one thing but the Highland pyramid starts approximately at the Tay. If you're advocating a block movement then everything north from Dundee should be hoovered up. I know, but linking-up with NR would be a start. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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