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14 team "Premiership" next season


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I would rather have a larger team top league and more relegation places. Something like 18-12-12 with 4 automatic relegation places between the top two leagues and three between the middle/bottom.

I would imagine there would be quite a dogfight between a lot of teams to avoid the bottom 4. It should generate more interest.

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I like the way the top flight is working now. The relegation play-off place means that almost every side in the bottom six come the split is battling to avoid it (assuming the automatic relegation spot is occupied by a team cut adrift, as has been the case since the introduction of the play-off).

I would like to see the second-tier use the same format. Winners automatically go up, and the second place team goes into the play-off final against the 11th placed top flight team. Think that would generate great interest at the split.

Below that, I'd like to see regional leagues, whether that be within or out with the SPFL. I do not mean to offend any supporters of clubs in the lower leagues, but I've always felt that the best chance of reviving interest here is to have games within close proximity of each other, whilst maintaining a fairly accessible route to national football via promotion to the second tier.

One of the key things that is needed, though, is renaming of the leagues. Premiership, Championship, League 1 and League 2 is an utter nonsense. I firmly believe that part of the reason this league struggled to get a sponsor for as long as it did was down to the fact that most self-respecting blue-chip companies did not want to associate their name with 'Premiership' or 'Championship', as it just comes across as a cheap and nasty version of what exists down south. Total lack of originality from the SPFL on that one. Folk might say it's just a name, but it means so much more than that when you're trying to add real commercial value to the game. We had a fairy unique name before in the 'SPL'.

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This is about ensuring Rangers are in the topl flight next season, absolutely nothing else. If Rangers had been promoted last season this would not even be getting discussed.

'This' is not a firm proposal yet, only a solitary media report. Therefore for you to draw any motives from 'this' is bizarity and paranoia in the utmost.

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Sky want four old firm games.

Neil Doncaster wants to keep Sky happy.

If they were throwing serious money at us I could almost understand it, but they pay a paltry amount, and yet get to dictate the league structure.

And the thing is, we CAN play hardball. Rather than letting Sky and BT strike a deal to share games, let them bid against each other and get the price up.

The trouble is SKY/BT see our fitba as a filler item, they don't really care too much if we're there or not. They'll have us to fill those pesky empty slots but there's plenty other filler items out there.

You're right about the OF games though, if they could buy just them and maybe the championship decider and ignore all that other crap I'm sure they would because that is all that matters about our football of course (didn't the BBC in England do just that when BBC Scotland had the rights? They showed just the OF games nationwide?)

Anyway, the high heid yins aren't going to play hardball, they really aren't.

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  • 3 weeks later...

It always seems that for some an argument for bigger leagues stalls on the 'meaningless games' question, yet the argument for smaller leagues falls down with playing each other in the league four times each season.

The only way to avoid both (that I can see*) is to go with 12-12- for the top two tiers, with teams playing home and away against those in their league (22 games) but also playing one round of fixtures, home or away, against each team from the other top tier (12 games), to give a 34-game, 17-home-game season.

The benefits could be:

- none of the meaningless games of bigger leagues: leagues remain small and competitive;

- playing teams only twice - once home, once away - per league season;

- greater variety of playing 23 teams in each league season;

- more chance of a challenge to the OF as fixtures are easier for any potential challenger;

- relegation to the second tier not as financially disastrous, since second tier clubs still come up against each of the top tier clubs once per season;

- all 22 full-time clubs can be accommodated within the top two tiers (24 clubs);

- 17 home games are guaranteed, plus the new league cup, to give 19 home games in total;

- only 34 match-days makes it easier to plan for a winter break;

- only 34 match-days makes a proper (late-Feb to late-Nov) summer season feasible without major restructuring of the leagues;

- no split in the top tier means that teams aren't cut off from a challenge for a European place.

- greater incentive for teams to be promoted from tier 3, since they will play top tier teams immediately on promotion.

It might be necessary for two clubs to be relegated automatically from the second tier each season in order to keep a variety in the fixtures list for the top two tiers.

The fixtures between the leagues could go something like:

1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 11th ranked in Premiership (based on previous season) play at home to the same ranking teams from the Championship, and away to 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th, 12th in Championship. And vice versa for Championship equivalent.

2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th, 12th ranked in Premiership (based on previous season) play at home to same ranking teams from Championship, and away to 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 11th in Championship. And vice versa for Championship equivalent.

For the Premiership, the fixtures schedule could be, vs:

C-PP-C-PP-C-PP-C-PP-C-PP-C-PP-C-PP-C-PP-C-PP-C-PP-C-PP-C <----league of opponent

1 23 4 56 7 89 10 etc <---matchday number

opposition, so vs. a Championship team in week 1, Premiership opposition in weeks 2 and 3, Championship in week 4, and so on. Vice versa for Championship teams.

Whether you would then go to a league of 18 below this (so 12-12-18), or admit more clubs for a couple of divisions below along the same lines (possibly?), or regionalise at tier 3...

E.g.:

Premiership Championship Conference

1 CL 1 PR 1 PR

2 EL 2 PO 2 PR

3 EL 3 PO 3 PO

4 EL 4 PO 4 PO

5 5 5 PO

6 6 6

7 7 7

8 8 8

9 9 9

10 10 PO 10

11 PO 11 RL 11

12 RL 12 RL 12

13

14

15

16 PO

17 RL

18 RL

(*courtesy of 'restructureSPFL')

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And now for something completely different...

Split the 42 SPFL clubs into a 24 team top division & 18 team secondary division.

The top division is drawn into two 12-team conferences, probably best done on a semi random basis ~ one conference anchored on the OF duo, the other on the Edinburgh clubs. The highland duo and Dundee pair could alternate between conferences each season. The remaining 16 teams divided randomly, but with as many local rivalries preserved as best possible.

These conferences would both split after 22 games, with both top-sixes recombining, ditto the bottom-sixes - to form a Championship and a Relegation conference. Within the latter pair of divisions, the results of (the ten) matches already played against those teams progressing with them would be retained by each of the six teams coming from the same previou conference. Then each team plays 12 more matches in its new conference, home & away versus the six teams not already played against. Everyone's league schedule would consist of 34 matches.

The secondary division would be a straight up home/away round-robin of 34 matches.

Promotion/relegation would be 4-up/4-down between the Relegation conference and the secondary division, the final place to be settled by play-off/play-out.

An intruiging alternative idea that would give most 'diddies' their occasional chance versus the 'biggies'.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Would a 14-team Premiership with a 5/9 split address some of the issues with the current system and also with bigger leagues?

All 14 teams would play each other once at home and once away for 26 games; then the league would split with the top 5 playing each other again twice (so 4 more home games and 4 more away games) for 34 games in total, and the bottom 9 playing each other again just once (but still 4 more home games and 4 away) for 34 games in total.

It could:

- meet the biggest clubs' and sponsors' desire for best v best four times in a season, with the biggest games at the right time in the season;

- meet everyone else's desire for playing each other less (3 times rather than 4), with a series of one-off head-to heads for relegation;

- bring freshness to fixtures with there being more clubs in the top tier and with more promotion and relegation places;

- minimise supposed 'meaningless games' as often associated with bigger leagues (maybe);

- give some breathing space (but not too much) in the mid-table for player development under competitive circumstances;

- leave a decent depth of full-time clubs in the second tier, too, to help with competition and revenues in that division;

- make a transition to summer football easier without a major restructuring exercise because of a slight reduction in the number of fixtures;

- if implemented in tier 2 also, would give play-off-style head-to-heads for the top 5, replacing the situation where teams can play 6 times in a league season;

- help justify (not really) a 34-game, 18-team tier 3 who only meet each other twice per season, with the expanded division allowing more promotion/relegation to/from the regions.

E.g.:

Premiership Top 5:

Celtic CL

Aberdeen EL Play each other team both home and away post-split, for 8 further games and 34 in total.

Hearts EL

Ross County EL?

St. Johnstone Split after 26 games

Inverness

Dundee

Partick Thistle Bottom 9:

Motherwell

Hamilton Play each other team just once post-split, either at home or away, for 8 games and 34 in total.

Kilmarnock

Dundee Utd PO

Rangers RL

Hibernian RL

Championship

Falkirk PR

Raith PR

Queen South PO

Morton

Dumbarton Split after 26 games

St.Mirren

Livingston

Alloa

Dunfermline

Ayr United

Peterhead

Albion Rvs PO

Stenhousemuir RL

Airdrie RL

Conference

Cowdenbeath PR

Stranraer PR

Forfar PO

Brechin PO

Elgin PO

Queen's Park

East Fife

Annan

Clyde

Stirling

Arbroath

Montrose

Berwick

East Stirlingshire

Edinburgh City

Brora Rangers PO

Stirling University RL

Cove Rangers RL

Fourteen-Team League – Five/Nine Split – Post-Split Fixtures

Top Section

Match Day A

2 v 1; 5 v 4 (3)*

*team with a free date shown in brackets

Match Day B

3 v 2; 1 v 5 (4)

Match Day C

4 v 3; 5 v 2 (1)

Match Day D

4 v 1; 3 v 5 (2)

Match Day E

1 v 3; 2 v 4 (5)

Match Day F

1 v 2; 4 v 5 (3)

Match Day G

2 v 3; 5 v 1 (4)

Match Day H

3 v 4; 2 v 5 (1)

Match Day I

1 v 4; 5 v 3 (2)

Match Day J

3 v 1; 4 v 2 (5)

Bottom Section

Match Day A

7 v 8; 9 v 10; 11 v 12; 13 v 14 (6)

Match Day B

6 v 7; 8 v 9; 10 v 11; 12 v 13 (14)

Match Day C

14 v 6; 9 v 12; 7 v 10; 13 v 11 (8

Match Day D

6 v 9; 11 v 14; 12 v 8; 10 v 13 (7)

Match Day E

11 v 7; 14 v 10; 8 v 6; 13 v 9 (12)

Match Day F

9 v 14; 7 v 12; 6 v 11; 10 v 8 (13)

Match Day G

11 v 9; 12 v 6; 13 v 7; 14 v 8 (10)

Match Day H

8 v 11; 6 v 13; 7 v 14; 12 v 10 (9)

Match Day I

8 v 13; 9 v 7; 10 v 6; 14 v 12 (11)

{To use the template: select the ‘Find’ arrow at the top, right-hand corner of the document; then ‘Advanced Find’; select ‘More’; tick the ‘Match Case’ and ‘Find Whole Words Only’ boxes; select the ‘Replace’ tab; type ‘A’, for example, in the ‘Find’ box; type the team name in the ‘Replace’ box; then select the ‘Replace All’ box; all ‘A’s in the list should be replace with your team name.}

Notes on Fixtures

A) The numbers indicate the team’s league position at the time of the split.

B) The top section see every team playing every other team twice (i.e. once at home and once away); it tries to keep games as meaningful as possible by having the top two playing as early as possible in each round of fixtures (see Match Days A and F); and, by giving the lower of a pair of teams their home game first (for example: 2 v 1; 3 v 2; 4 v 3 in the first post-split weeks) to give them the best chance of closing up the league points and keep the subsequent games meaningful.

C) The final round of games in the top section has the four teams most likely to be involved in decisive matches playing against each other, with away games of equal difficulty for the top two to keep things as fair as possible.

D) The bottom section sees every team playing every other team just once, either at home or away, but does give four home games and four away games to each team (for fairness), with everyone guaranteed to play the team who finished directly below them at the split in a home game (earned on merit), and every second team thereafter at home (for fairness).

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For f**k sake, stop with all the mad split shite. As far as splits go what we have right now is decent. But leagues of 16 may be better. That's the only debate to be had, not all this mental shite about splits and protracted playoffs.

Sent from my iPhone using Pie & Bovril

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Also, as if copying the English Premiership / Championship isn't bad enough we've now got Conference? f**k off. About the only good use I can think of for Gaelic is the potential for a decent differentiated league name. Call it something unique, it doesn't even really matter what it translates to as only three guys and a sheep will understand it anyway.

Sent from my iPhone using Pie & Bovril

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Agree with that

I'm not in favour of reconstruction and I don't want us to stay up that way. That said, there's no more valid reason for 3rd and/or 4th in the Championship coming up than there is for 12th in the Premiership going down.

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Also, as if copying the English Premiership / Championship isn't bad enough we've now got Conference? f**k off. About the only good use I can think of for Gaelic is the potential for a decent differentiated league name. Call it something unique, it doesn't even really matter what it translates to as only three guys and a sheep will understand it anyway.

Sent from my iPhone using Pie & Bovril

Sorry I've not seen anything, what's this conference we are doing?

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