14 team "Premiership" next season

[DbremMFC]

44 minutes ago, bennett said:

Add Falkirk, Raith, qots, St Boo, Dundee united etc to the premiership and I reckon they'd fit in well enough. Teams would have more chance of avoiding relegation, making teams bolder in their style of play/playing youths etc and in the long term this could boost oor game.

 

Bolder than fannying aboot with the challenge and league cups.

Exactly this glad to see im not the only one I keep thinking am going mental wanting a traditional league set up

[Ranaldo Bairn]

The way we have just now is not perfect, but I like it, and the split does its job to a satisfactory level nearly every year.

The "but but 7th can get mair points than 6th!!!111!!1one!!" brigade are not worth bothering about.

Would put a bet that the knicker wetters over on "Pie og Bøvril" are currently bemoaning Danish football being the laughing stock of Europe.

[HibeeJibee]

9 hours ago, Ranaldo Bairn said:

The way we have just now is not perfect, but I like it, and the split does its job to a satisfactory level nearly every year.

The "but but 7th can get mair points than 6th!!!111!!1one!!" brigade are not worth bothering about.

Would put a bet that the knicker wetters over on "Pie og Bøvril" are currently bemoaning Danish football being the laughing stock of Europe.

Interestingly enough the Danish Superliga effectively 'farmed out' their restructuring proposals to a marketing agency from Holland, who did a whole lot of analysis, then came up with a variety of options. Worth recalling Denmark had 12 teams till now playing 3 times for 33 games.

Things eventually came down to 2 proposals: one actually labelled "Scottish model", though also used in Northern Ireland, effectively just adding a split to their existing league - but from what I can see possibly a Top 4, Middle 4 and Bottom 4 with everyone playing 36 games in total; other a 14-team league labelled "Israeli model" with a Top 6 playing twice for 36 games and a Bottom 8 playing once for 33 games.

Brondby and Copenhagen were up for vetoing anything over 12 but were eventually persuaded to back 14. However, at the last minute the 6/8 was changed from the simple Bottom 8 to this labyrinthine arrangement of parallel pools, knockout relegation eliminators and EL playoffs.

[HibeeJibee]

Following coverage of fighting on the pitch post-match... do they have strict liability in the RFL, I wonder?... I've been reading-up on rugby league's "Million Pound Game" and the new format. I follow a bit of rugby league at national team level but have no real interest beyond that.

Frankly, it's utterly bizarre. Is there a more contrived system in UK sport?


* top level of 12... second level of 12... third level of 15 (becoming 16 next season)


* top level play home-and-away, plus "23rd game" aka Magic Weekend = 23 games
* second level play home-and-away, plus "23rd game" aka Summer Bash = 23 games

* split into Top 8, Middle 8 and Bottom 8

* Top 8 carry-over points, play once more = 30 games
* places 1-4 hold SFs & "Grand Final"

* Middle 8 start afresh, play once more = 30 games
* top 3 go to top level next season, bottom 3 go to second level next season
* places 4-5 hold "Million Pound Game" playoff for place in top level next season

* Bottom 8 carry-over points, play once more = 30 games
* places 1-4 hold SFs & "Championship Final"
* places 7-8 relegated


* third level play home-OR-away = 14 games (becoming 15 next season)

* split into Top 8 and Bottom 7 (becoming 8.)

* Top 8 play once more = 21 games (becoming 22)
* places 1-4 hold "Promotion Final"
* loser of that and places 3-5 hold SFs & "Consolation Final" for additional promotional place

* Bottom 7 play once more = 20 games (becoming 22)
* places 1-2 hold "Shield Final"
* last place receives Wooden Spoon


To add to the confusion there are 2 French teams in the top and second levels, and from next season a Canadian team in the third level...

That said with 8-8-8s, Neil Doncaster would love it. LOVE IT.

[Salvo Montalbano]

The rugby league system works to a certain extent but there is an issue with carrying over points into the super8 section since if one team is miles ahead and can't be caught there's little excitement. I think this year the top 4 were all but settled after one round of games. An added level of intrigue is (or possibly used to be - I've not watched it often since binning Sky Sports) is the "club call" element whereby the team who finishes first gets to pick their opponent for the semi-final stage. Having a play-off at the season end is quite common in rugby (every major competition in both union and league has one) but it's something that has never really taken hold in football.

[glasgow-sheep]

A Canadian team in the third level? How the hell is that funded?

[Elixir]

Why is HibeeJibee continuing to kick this total non-starter of a can down the road?

[HibeeJibee]

3 hours ago, glasgow-sheep said:

A Canadian team in the third level? How the hell is that funded?

No idea. It was only when I saw that the division had an odd number of teams this season (courtesy Toulouse being added), that I looked to see if it was being brought up to 16. It's a team called "Toronto Wolfpack"... If Wikipedia can be trusted they're paying away teams travel costs and playing their away games in blocks of four. It's not a particularly star-studded division - Barrow, Coventry, Doncaster, Gloucestershire, Hempel Hempstead, Hunslet, Keighley, London Skolar, Newcastle, North Wales Crusaders, Oxford, South Wales Scorpions, Whitehaven, Workington, York - and Toronto .

Strangely enough Canada aren't very good at rugby league; until now the only occasion they've even qualified to RL World Cup was 2000.
 

2 hours ago, Elixir said:

Why is HibeeJibee continuing to kick this total non-starter of a can down the road?

Thread has rather morphed from the original topic, into a sort of zoo of "unusual league systems and their strange ways" line... It was their take on the 8-8-8 which caught my interest - even stranger than SPL unsuccessfully proposed.