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AM Soccer?


Black Dug

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5 pages.....What has a thread regarding AM SOCCER applying for the LL got to do with the juniors in the 1st place ?

AM Soccer, another potential new club with no fans (as yet), may be about to get a place in the pyramid by applying to the LL, bringing it up to its full quota of clubs.

The Juniors have a great many clubs with plenty of history and one or two fans who have, en masse, been excluded from the pyramid.

In short: the unfairness of the 'pyramid' in its present guise to established clubs and communities.

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AM Soccer, another potential new club with no fans (as yet), may be about to get a place in the pyramid by applying to the LL, bringing it up to its full quota of clubs.

The Juniors have a great many clubs with plenty of history and one or two fans who have, en masse, been excluded from the pyramid.

In short: the unfairness of the 'pyramid' in its present guise to established clubs and communities.

I remember when I was excluded by the government from going abroad.

Although the reality was that I never bothered to apply for a passport or buy any plane tickets that would allow me to go abroad but let's not bother with those details eh? ;-)

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Why not have a quick look at those details?

How is it that 150+ Juniors were supposed to apply for up to 16 places available in a new league, many of which were already spoken for?

Talk about a rigged game.

Or, to use your analogy, why would you apply for a passport if you were already a stigmatised illegal immigrant? ;-)

I've nothing against AM Soccer, by the way. I happened to agree with the McLeish Report (Part 1; p. 24) when it spoke of different models of clubs needing to exist to expand the base of the game, getting more kids and communities involved, etc. Good luck to them: I hope it works out. It's a shame it has to be an either/or dichotomy when both new clubs and Juniors clubs could easily be accommodated within a rational pyramid set-up.

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Why not have a quick look at those details?

How is it that 150+ Juniors were supposed to apply for up to 16 places available in a new league, many of which were already spoken for?

Talk about a rigged game.

Or, to use your analogy, why would you apply for a passport if you were already a stigmatised illegal immigrant? ;-)

I've nothing against AM Soccer, by the way. I happened to agree with the McLeish Report (Part 1; p. 24) when it spoke of different models of clubs needing to exist to expand the base of the game, getting more kids and communities involved, etc. Good luck to them: I hope it works out. It's a shame it has to be an either/or dichotomy when both new clubs and Juniors clubs could easily be accommodated within a rational pyramid set-up.

Well 1 or 2 could of applied, or you know got off their arse and worked towards licensing (well at least on this one a very small % have begun/achieved that) or maybe just maybe the sjfa could have engaged with the process that led to the LL being formed in the first place.

I have 0 doubts that should a junior club that applies either have or able to show they will very shortly get a license then they will have a very good chance of getting in, but if the don't apply or can't show they will get a license for the beginning of next season, and the likes of AM soccer can prove they will then it's the duty of the league to accept those clubs providing space is available.

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I think it's a positive thing that these types of clubs are applying for the league. They seem to have long-term plans in place rather than relying on history.

In the future, these clubs will enter at a lower point in the pyramid than step five and that's more sensible. Right now, the Lowland League has vacancies and this is where these new clubs should enter.

The junior clubs haven't been excluded. They've excluded themselves. AM Soccer are more deserving of a place in the Lowland League than any of the top junior clubs. Why? They've actually applied for a place in the league.

I still hope that one day we will see a unified system. It's the way forward for Scottish football. Until that point happens, we cannot penalise ambitious clubs just because we're hoping the big junior clubs will eventually join the pyramid.

I have a feeling the juniors will end up like the Northern League in England. Once of a higher stature, refusing to join the pyramid until eventually joining it at a lower place than they would have been if they'd got involved from the start.

I still think tier five should have followed the junior model of north/west/east divisions but I suppose that would only really have been possible if the juniors had got involved. Some people claim the juniors would never have got involved no matter what happened here so it's hard to tell if anything would have made a difference.

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Just to be clear, Linlithgow Rose are in a position to apply and have been for 2 seasons. They have not applied because they cannot afford to take the risk that moving into the LL will not decimate their finances.

This is about more than history - albeit that plays a part. Linked to the history are the biggest games (and therefore gates) the club will attract.

It is much easier for a completely new entity just starting out to jump into the lowland league than it is for a club who has certainty around what it can achieve and earn within its existing environment as opposed to jumping to a league where gates are much smaller and there is nothing like the attraction to supporters who look forward to playing their biggest rivals as well as being part of the junior cup which for all its flaws is a great competition.

There is something of a redrafting of history here among the "they had their chance" brigade. Those of you with good sense know that it was always going to be much more difficult for the juniors than you guys or a new team. I'm not excusing the complete lack of dialogue since then but the leap for Linlithgow as things stand carries a big financial risk (and cultural). I don't see how any club apparently moving up the ladder of Scottish football should expect to have to manage genuine financial risk - that suggests a flawed model.

Good luck to AM Soccer on their quest and i would like to see my team in the lowland league but i can understand completely why it hasn't happened in the absence of any activity to deal with the stand off between this league and junior football. Frankly that's a disgrace on the part of the SFA that it has festered for this length of time.

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Let's be honest what financial risk?

Do Linlithgow make anything of note from away fans?a few hundred from Bo'ness once a year? Certainly don't make anything worthwhile from prize money.

The Bo'ness game is worth thousands on its own in the league. There were over 2000 at a cup final between the sides at the end of last season. Anyone who knows my posting record on this whole area will know how much of a pyramid enthusiast I am so it doesn't sit well with me to express reservations on the subject but you will have to trust me when I say that we would take a big financial hit by moving on our own as opposed to with some top junior teams.

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Will the attitude at Linlithgow change is the license is revoked due to non participation in the pyramid system? The finances will take some hit then.

Maybe. But nobody seems too keen to fire that bullet - see my gripe about the complete lack of leadership from the sfa on this.

Eta - I don't think the sfa will be overly keen to do this. Yes Linlithgow are in the "wrong" structure but having shown some forward thinking to try and secure the licence I'm not sure the sfa would want to be seen kicking it's only "progressive" junior member right in the nuts.

This whole thing needs hammered out with the SJFA.

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The LL is not an easy sell for clubs like Linlithgow with a decent sized support in the Juniors.

The club will be owned and run by their members and telling them that they`re no longer playing Boness,Bonnyrigg and Newtongrange but that their big games will be against Whitehill,Spartans and Edinburgh City isn't going to go down to well!

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I think it's a positive thing that these types of clubs are applying for the league. They seem to have long-term plans in place rather than relying on history.

In the future, these clubs will enter at a lower point in the pyramid than step five and that's more sensible. Right now, the Lowland League has vacancies and this is where these new clubs should enter.

The junior clubs haven't been excluded. They've excluded themselves. AM Soccer are more deserving of a place in the Lowland League than any of the top junior clubs. Why? They've actually applied for a place in the league.

I still hope that one day we will see a unified system. It's the way forward for Scottish football. Until that point happens, we cannot penalise ambitious clubs just because we're hoping the big junior clubs will eventually join the pyramid.

I have a feeling the juniors will end up like the Northern League in England. Once of a higher stature, refusing to join the pyramid until eventually joining it at a lower place than they would have been if they'd got involved from the start.

I still think tier five should have followed the junior model of north/west/east divisions but I suppose that would only really have been possible if the juniors had got involved. Some people claim the juniors would never have got involved no matter what happened here so it's hard to tell if anything would have made a difference.

You can't really say that they've excluded themselves when so few could have moved to the LL in the first place.

AM Soccer aren't more deserving of a place at all. It might be that it's easier for AM to make the application because they don't have the established league structures, derbies, etc to think of that the Juniors do.

The perception, right or wrong, may be that the top Juniors have more at risk from joining what is, honestly, a compromise/fudge of a league (the LL) than any new club has.

The Juniors may be reluctant to leave because they know from experience that their non-league pyramid makes more sense for them and, if we're going down that road, we should also be looking at integrating the clubs from Leagues One and Two into that structure, at tier 3 of the national game.

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If they wanted the structure to have a big say in things then they had plenty opportunity to work towards that, the LL happened in the way it has done in no short part due to complete disengagement from the sjfa. If they want to move as individuals then the opportunity is there.

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So Bo'ness bring 600 fans which translates to approx £1800 counting concessions vat etc. that's not even £50 pw over a 40 week season. Can you really not cope with that?

No. There is a huge multiplier effect. These games and games like the scottish junior cup are what keep our support interested in the less attractive games. With the best will in the world, BSC Glasgow is not going to cut it and neither is the limited range of opposition that exists in the restricted environment that is the current LL. I'm not having a go at the LL in all of this but you can question me on finances all you want and carry your doubts but my club would really struggle to sell the current set up and indeed pay for it. We really need a better integration model than one club sticking it's neck on the line and taking all the risk.

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If they wanted the structure to have a big say in things then they had plenty opportunity to work towards that, the LL happened in the way it has done in no short part due to complete disengagement from the sjfa. If they want to move as individuals then the opportunity is there.

What opportunity?

You mean two places in the LL for the start of next season, then the EoS from which there is only one (potential) promotion play-off place each season. Hardly an incentive to give up what you have or a real opportunity to progress.

The 'pyramid' as it is - yet another closed shop which, as we have seen from the SPL, doesn't work.

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