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Glad to hear from someone likeminded in terms of regionalisation of lower league clubs. Dismissal of my views on financial sustainability of the current model of football in Scotland have been refuted in an article in Saturday's Herald . Begbies Traynor , a leading insolvency practitioner reveals that three of Scotland's clubs in the top three divisions are under 'critical financial pressure' and 50% of all clubs in the four leagues are experiencing early signs of financial distress .

Will things be better in the brave new world ?

A few things here, firstly the three clubs who are they?(I can have a pretty good guess btw) what makes you think playing in a national league is in any way to blame?

The 50% showing early signs, well let's just say that's football, without very strict financial rules your going to get that. You will get similar rates world wide. As a buisness model football just generally just isn't very good. High guarenteed costs will highly variable income.

You simply cannot apply the same financial judgements to football as you do elsewhere. The way clubs run their buisness is in a way backwards, they don't want to make profit.

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No idea who the clubs are, didn't name any in the article . Doesn't really matter , this is symptomatic of how the Scottish game tries to live the pipe dream.

The lack of business model has got us exactly where we are.

Your argument about clubs not wanting to make profit is an odd argument.

My understanding of a pyramid system was to allow ambitious clubs to progress.

Without profit , you can't invest , without investment , clubs will perish on the vine in the new world.

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Glad to hear from someone likeminded in terms of regionalisation of lower league clubs. Dismissal of my views on financial sustainability of the current model of football in Scotland have been refuted in an article in Saturday's Herald . Begbies Traynor , a leading insolvency practitioner reveals that three of Scotland's clubs in the top three divisions are under 'critical financial pressure' and 50% of all clubs in the four leagues are experiencing early signs of financial distress .

Will things be better in the brave new world ?

I'd be surprised if any of these three clubs are traditionally in League One or League Two though - and that's where you are wanting regionalisation I assume? Rangers and Dunfermline are or have struggled financially but i don't think regionalisation would have helped them.

I would question the financial sustainability of how some clubs continue to operate rather than the league set-up.

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I have no idea where these clubs are but some must be operating in the lower reaches of Scottish football.

My argument is indeed in favour of regionalisation at this level purely for financial reasons.

Scotland differs greatly form the English lower and non leagues .

We do not have the luxury of full time clubs playing in all these levels , clubs hail from towns which are sparsely populated , isolated and have poor road networks . This allied with having to compensate players to take time off makes no sense whatsoever.

Scottish football needs a financial reality check . It is fine describing the prestige of the current set up but the quality is not replicated on the park.

I'm afraid I have no magical solution to this but I fear many clubs who have lived in the red for years will go to the wall only to be followed by clubs who are unable to sustain higher league football.

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Even then, it was actually Airdrie. A time team unacustomed to the lower 2 leagues at the time, who bit the dust.

Let's compare the number of full and part time teams who've gone into admin.

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True, it was Airdrie who bodysnatched them.

They'd been in trouble for a while, though.

To answer my own question (I think) the previous team appears to have been Clachnacuddin who went into administration and infact liquidation during the late 1980s. They were in admin again a few years ago, oddly enough - but survived. But they were playing in a regional league, the Highland League!! So that doesn't get us much further forward.

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Take away the direct cash injection (no direct associated expenses unlike most items that contribute to a club's overall turnover) provided by league subsidies so that SPFL3 and SPFL4 clubs would have to be self-financing like those in the nonleague seniors and juniors and the cost of a bus trip to Elgin or Peterhead and paying a squad of a minimum of 18 to 20 players a realistic wage that covers time spent traveling back and forth to away games as well as training and playing the actual games would be a much bigger issue for clubs based in the central belt than it is at the moment. These clubs are being inflated up to a level of operations they would find difficult to sustain if left to their own devices, because of the collective voting clout they wield at AGMs.

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What is intrinsically wrong with Scottish football is the "it's always been" mentality. If you had a blank sheet of paper, you would not set-up a league system where Annan and Elgin are in the same division at the 4th tier, who are part-time, and play in front of a few hundred fans. It makes no logical sense.

However, there's little point debating the issue as we'll all carry on as before due to self interest and perceived "loss of prestige", and the game will continue to stagnate.

And starting from a blank sheet of paper you would have all football clubs in Scotland under one football association.

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Just Saying, in Portugal, (a country with a similar population and geography to us) They have their Primeira Liga (16) followed by a Segunda Liga (22) then the third tier is split up into 8 regional leagues of 10, before more regionalisation. So we don't have to have a North/South Divide in football.

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Just Saying, in Portugal, (a country with a similar population and geography to us) They have their Primeira Liga (16) followed by a Segunda Liga (22) then the third tier is split up into 8 regional leagues of 10, before more regionalisation. So we don't have to have a North/South Divide in football.

1. Portugal has a population of over 10 million and Scotland has over 5 million. Hardly the same.

2. Same Geography? Once again hardly.

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We can all have our various idea of how things should be – but we must never lose sight of the fact that nothing will change until those league 1 and 2 clubs feel the need for change.

I seriously doubt there is any appetite for change at present so we can only work within the structure we have right now.

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1. Portugal has a population of over 10 million and Scotland has over 5 million. Hardly the same.

2. Same Geography? Once again hardly.

I mean it is not like England (55m), Germany or Spain and Portugal is a country who footballing wise Scotland aspires to be like. (6th Best League in Europe) As for Geography, they have a mountainous north and a lowland south

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Off the top of my head , a number of clubs have been close to the brink , the list is of course not exhaustive and I apologise in advance if my reply is not total accurate.

Morton

Clyde

QOS

Stranraer

Gretna (live the dream !! )

East Stirling

Airdrie

Livingston

Albion Rovers

Many of these clubs survived because of the generosity of directors and fans. I am sure many clubs live a hand to mouth existence.

How does that improve the quality of football I wonder.

I am not au fait with the machinations at Clach but I believe that the demise of the club was nor related to them playing in a regionalised league.

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Off the top of my head , a number of clubs have been close to the brink , the list is of course not exhaustive and I apologise in advance if my reply is not total accurate.

Morton

Clyde

QOS

Stranraer

Gretna (live the dream !! )

East Stirling

Airdrie

Livingston

Albion Rovers

Many of these clubs survived because of the generosity of directors and fans. I am sure many clubs live a hand to mouth existence.

How does that improve the quality of football I wonder.

I am not au fait with the machinations at Clach but I believe that the demise of the club was nor related to them playing in a regionalised league.

We did experience generosity from fans, and not just our own fans.

But we also cut our cloth and paid back our debts - not something you can say for the bigger clubs - effectively companies - who went into administration and simply avoided paying all their debts.

By the way - our debt was not down to playing away matches at Elgin or Peterhead - it was down to financial mismanagement which - in the view of many fans - should have been looked at by the polis.

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I rest my case in terms of business plans.

If a club is run appropriately , independent auditors should audit the club books at the end of each financial year.

How much does it cost Stranraer for an away match at say Elgin midweek ?

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I agree with that completely.

All Scottish sneiorfootball clubs should be subject to an annual financial audit and sanctions within agreed rules. A second "insolvency event" should result in expulsion from the SPFL. Everyone is sick of football clubs jockeying exisiting business legislation and walking away scot free from creditors, with little sanction, amidst TV news footage of a grim faced McGruther/ other administrator walking in an out of the club offices, and pathetic polyesyter-clad middle aged men in tears- ah jist want a team tae support (having happy clapped the unsustainable spending in the first place).

The excuses range from "it would cost too much" and "it would take too much time" and "there's enough red tape in the game already". Sorry, that doesn't wash.

Of course such measures would need to be approved by the very people who absolutely do not want forensic financial scrutiny and transparecy- the clubs themselves.

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I rest my case in terms of business plans.

If a club is run appropriately , independent auditors should audit the club books at the end of each financial year.

How much does it cost Stranraer for an away match at say Elgin midweek ?

Don't know, but expect it's a helluva lot. However, in all our time as league members this sort of fixture has never caused us a problem apart from the last 2 or 3 seasons when we have been recovering from mismanagement. I would far rather be in a national league than a regional one. But if it were to cause us problems I'd expect the club to be looking after financial matters prudently and to highlight these problems.

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