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AM Soccer?


Black Dug

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Htg you know nothing about bsc

I know enough to make a judgement on whether they are a bigger draw than we have at the moment. But I'll indulge you, what is your average away support at games in the Edinburgh area?

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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.

That's the situation if they choose to come on board now. It's not the situation if they had engaged in the process two years ago. Although the eos and sos sides who now make up the LL had been in the most part striving to achieve a liver and diverting funds there. Most junior sides- lithgae and a couple of others as noticeable exceptions- chose a different path for finances.

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You may well be a bigger draw but you have been going for a hundred years and and it's a day out for all the country bumpkins because there is heehaw else to do this is bsc glasgows first season and they are still trying to get a fan base together and i am convinced that will happen

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You may well be a bigger draw but you have been going for a hundred years and and it's a day out for all the country bumpkins because there is heehaw else to do this is bsc glasgows first season and they are still trying to get a fan base together and i am convinced that will happen

I'm not arguing with how you are going about things. The point was made to me that the loss of gate income was not a reason to not sign up to the Lowland League when it plainly is. I asked a reasonable question - how many supporters do you take to an away game in Edinburgh and surrounding areas? There really wasn't any need for the country bumpkin pish. Maybe Scottish football should consider the financial impact on clubs of allowing an unsupported, brand new outfit who don't have a ground to call their own into its fifth tier. BSC is a huge community club but the adult team thing is completely new enterprise and in my view clubs shouldn't be accessing tier 5 without their own dedicated and licenced facilities - my club spent decent money getting the ground up to scratch.

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You criticised ekfc all last season and they ended up doing better than your pishy team and also doing better this season than your pishy team so keep on being disrespectful to all at bsc glasgow and it will come back and punch you right on the dish so keep it going followthrough keep it going

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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.

"They have not applied because they cannot afford to take the risk that moving into the LL will not decimate their finances."

You see this is the part I really don't get. Losing two games against Bo'ness vs playing in the big Scottish Cup every year (and potentially the Challenge Cup as well now) & gaining extra fans because of the prospect of a shot of getting into the big kids league?

Secondly, are Linlithgow fans really that bothered about the prospect of losing any game other than the Bo'ness one? What about the other matches? Of those who are lost, how many more will be gained from the locality as the Rose finally starting to play clubs that mean something to your average member of Joe Public? Ask anyone in the streets of Linlithgow have they heard of Newtongrange Star or Peniculk Athletic and they'll scratch their heads. Ask them if they've heard of Gretna or Spartans however... and that's half your battle, getting people interested in games with clubs that don't register in the average Scottish football fan's consciousness.

Yes, there's some clubs in the LL whose support leaves something currently to be desired, but you face the same risk in the Juniors if someone decides they want to play Football Manager Hot Seat Reality Mod & starts moneyshotting some two men and a dug for support outfit - before you know it there's one of the few big crowd clubs like Pollok in the tier below & everyone's feeling the pinch at the gates as a result.

At least in the LL there's less risk of this because the stricter ground criteria means clubs have to do something to attract in fans to justify the outlays spent off the field as much as on it. East Kilbride are the classic example, attracting a decent enough support for a very young club well above what EK Thistle ever achieved.

There's also the point of view of the ease for which LL clubs can plan ahead financially. The Junior world is a hand to mouth existence of week to week fixture lists, so clubs don't know whether they're about to hit a "red week" thanks to an away day until a week to go - & never know whether it is going to be a succession of "red weeks" at all.

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Waffen, I'm on record multiple times as a pyramid enthusiast. The juniors is a bit of a shambles in my view and there isn't an obvious solution to improving it without stepping out of its bubble. But ...

We are currently in the Scottish Cup. And we play in a highly competitive structure for all its flaws. Folk need to remember that we have one of the few remaining successful social clubs attached to the ground,. When Bo'ness or other big games come calling the place is jumping. That's worth a lot to us and it supports how we maintain and improve our facilities.

Culturally, most of our fans love the competitive nature of the games. They love the ability to watch a decent standard of player in good facilities for £5. Many are "refugees" from the SPFL - me included I suppose, albeit long since rehabilitated.

I would dearly love an integrated structure for Scottish non league football. But it needs to be lead by leaders not have the buck passed for one team to take all the risk.

I'm pulling together an article for the next issue of our club magazine on the whole area of the pyramid. Not bothered whether folk agree with the views or not but it won't surprise you to know that nobody really emerges with much credit.

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You can bring Bo'ness with you if you want.

They can't be too far away from from satisfying the license criteria given the level of support and recent success that they have had. I read that they were a bit annoyed with the SJFA earlier this season so it shouldn't be too much of a wrench to leave them.

Would this be more palatable to the fans if the two of you jumped ship at the same time.

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You can bring Bo'ness with you if you want.

They can't be too far away from from satisfying the license criteria given the level of support and recent success that they have had. I read that they were a bit annoyed with the SJFA earlier this season so it shouldn't be too much of a wrench to leave them.

Would this be more palatable to the fans if the two of you jumped ship at the same time.

Definitely more palatable. I suspect they need a fair bit of work on player facilities - that may be their biggest drawback. I should have added in my previous post that whilst I can point many fingers across Scottish football for the impasse, I can't criticise LL clubs themselves for getting on with it.

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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.

So fans turn up vs Montrose because you'll play Bo'ness at some point? I find that hard to understand/believe.

I really have no idea what you want done, you either apply or you don't, I'm not going to campaign for you to apply , but it just means you'll be viewed as the rest, preferring to abuse from the outside and enjoying a little backwards bubble. You ask for sfa to at but how? The juniors as a whole have been against the process from day 1 and reject every single opportunity to get involved properly with any pyramid, I find it hard to say everything should stop as we wait on them for however long, the pyramid should be for all, but if some don't engage then others will move in and that isn't something that should be stopped.

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.

Well there's chances to join the LL that's opportunity to join the pyramid, or as you point out if those places are filled clubs can access the pyramid at a lower level. Thats ignoring all the opportunities that have been passed up already.

. Maybe Scottish football should consider the financial impact on clubs of allowing an unsupported, brand new outfit who don't have a ground to call their own into its fifth tier. BSC is a huge community club but the adult team thing is completely new enterprise and in my view clubs shouldn't be accessing tier 5 without their own dedicated and licenced facilities - my club spent decent money getting the ground up to scratch.

100% disagree on both points (percieved) support should not be a factor at all in choosing clubs for the places available. The number of fans through the gate is a concern of that club and that club only, it is only up to the league to decide how close they are to meeting the requirements for playing in the league , that is meeting entry level licensing, and if it comes down to it, playing standards, nothing else matters, not support, not if they have a rivalry with a side already in the league and not where the club is based so long as they are in the regions boundaries.

As for grounds, yes Linlithgow have invested in their own ground, but there seems to be a perception that it doesn't cost clubs to rent grounds, as if it's an easy cheap way of doing things, it isn't. I don't get why ground sharing is seen as a particularly bad thing, to me Stirling uni or Bsc are no different to my club or the Many others that rent grounds, and if we ban clubs from renting grounds then there will be utter chaos, it wouldn't surprise me if more clubs rented than owned, it will certainly will be close.

Long post but ye know deal with it.

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Definitely more palatable. I suspect they need a fair bit of work on player facilities - that may be their biggest drawback. I should have added in my previous post that whilst I can point many fingers across Scottish football for the impasse, I can't criticise LL clubs themselves for getting on with it.

I would exempt Spartans and Threave Rovers from that, because they had a major role in organising things, but the others saw an opening and took it and can't be blamed for that. It's a positive thing for the LL that clubs like EKFC, BSC Glasgow and AM soccer have emerged to disrupt the "closed shop" aspect of things. Any further boost to the number of clubs in the Borders or Dumfries-shire could have been fatal to the credibility of the new fifth tier and any talk of pyramids would have ended after a failed Lowland League for a very long time. Things won't stand still once the new system has bedded in. People will come out of the woodwork to take over moribund clubs with enclosed grounds and chase the dream of SPFL progression. The fix was in, but things will slowly evolve.

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You criticised ekfc all last season and they ended up doing better than your pishy team and also doing better this season than your pishy team so keep on being disrespectful to all at bsc glasgow and it will come back and punch you right on the dish so keep it going followthrough keep it going

You do know he plays for whitehill?

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Surely not i understand that ww are a top quality team of course they are but my point is followthrough comes on here and is disrespectful to clubs that are just starting out on their adventure so there is no way that these teams can compete with clubs that have been going for a hundred years of the park but on it they will give any team in the lowland league a game and bsc will have everything sorted for next season unfortunately bsc cannot control the weather i wonder though if ww have had any postponements at their ground this season

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