Junior football, what is the future?

[newcastle broon]

5 hours ago, Auld Heid said:

Makes a bit of a mockery of things - when clubs are hiring grounds to play games.  That's what they do in pub leagues - all scramble on a Monday to hire a park.

Surely there must be some sort of guarantee that a club is able to fulfill fixtures at a prescribed date/time.   Although the cost to hire for a game may be expensive that only occurs when they are at home. Clubs with their own facilities incur overheads 52 weeks of a year.

 

I think the Uni of Stirling are back at Forthbank next season. Their arrangement with the Falkirk stadium was only temporary as Falkirk were using their Gannochy grounds as a training base?  

[craigkillie]

3 hours ago, FairWeatherFan said:

I looked up the Lowland's rules on the matter "The bottom club will be relegated to the League which will have been decided by the Boards of the three leagues prior to the start of the new season."

I don't imagine Dalbeattie would have envisioned asking to go to the EoSFL at the start of the season. I also doubt that the leagues would of okay'd a club jumping leagues following relegation as it would have an effect on their standing.

 

This suggests to me that the decision for 2018/19 would be made any time before summer 2018, rather than being made a year in advance.

[Truthteller]

I thought this was the junior forum ?

Does the lowland league and EOSL not have their own section ?

 

[Glenconner]

27 minutes ago, Truthteller said:

I thought this was the junior forum ?

Does the lowland league and EOSL not have their own section ?

 

Have you been on those other forums? Up until recently it seemed completely dead outside of three or four teams getting a mention about once a fortnight. The EoSL must have wet its knickers once recent events kicked off. Still i don't blame the folks that run the EoSL, they are only looking after the home patch.

[Enigma]

I thought this was the junior forum ?
Does the lowland league and EOSL not have their own section ?
 

It’s titled “what’s the future?”. The future for a lot of Junior clubs is the EOSL and the LL so seems fine to me...

[Robert James]

5 hours ago, Glenconner said:

Did Clydebank apply to join the LL when it started?

No, but it coincided with the club's discussions with the council about the need to have a new ground (or an upgrade of Holm Park. The Bankies also held a club meeting with supporters about its future direction.

[Glenconner]

25 minutes ago, Robert James said:

No, but it coincided with the club's discussions with the council about the need to have a new ground (or an upgrade of Holm Park. The Bankies also held a club meeting with supporters about its future direction.

I'd be curious to know if there was anybody in the Clydebank fraternity who supported remaining in the Junior ranks. Be interesting to see how quickly the local business types take to arrive on the scene. Heard 25K is the going rate for a seat on the board at diddy level clubs (anything below a Dundee Utd)

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

I'd be curious to know if there was anybody in the Clydebank fraternity who supported remaining in the Junior ranks. Be interesting to see how quickly the local business types take to arrive on the scene. Heard 25K is the going rate for a seat on the board at diddy level clubs (anything below a Dundee Utd)

Im sure they released the results of the ballot with about 17% in favour of remaining.
I doubt they would allow any outside persons a seat on a trust owned board.

[Auld Heid]

9 hours ago, newcastle broon said:

I think the Uni of Stirling are back at Forthbank next season. Their arrangement with the Falkirk stadium was only temporary as Falkirk were using their Gannochy grounds as a training base?  

It's still not their  ground to which they can make decisions upon.  

If Stirling Albion have a fixture clearly that would take precedence and would see the Uni having  to play an alternative kick off from the scheduled time and all the knock on effects that can cause.  This isn't a unique situation and quite a few teams are nomads - for me this is not right.  

Teams are spending fortunes on their grounds to improve standards and obtain licences etc.   These nomads incur a fraction of the costs, incurring ground expenses as required.  

Would be interesting to see how closely the rules are being followed/enforced by the Association.

 

Edited April 17, 2018 by Auld Heid
.

[newcastle broon]

29 minutes ago, Auld Heid said:

It's still not their  ground to which they can make decisions upon.  

If Stirling Albion have a fixture clearly that would take precedence and would see the Uni having  to play an alternative kick off from the scheduled time and all the knock on effects that can cause.  This isn't a unique situation and quite a few teams are nomads - for me this is not right.  

Teams are spending fortunes on their grounds to improve standards and obtain licences etc.   These nomads incur a fraction of the costs, incurring ground expenses as required.  

Would be interesting to see how closely the rules are being followed/enforced by the Association.

 

No trying to be arsey but the fixtures are usually brought out for the season not long after the SPFL fixtures have been released. There are no knock on effects as the sharing clubs all have floodlights for a Friday night match or even Sunday afternoon. In Italy Inter share with AC Roma Lazio etc. 

I agree aboot teams spending fortunes on their grounds though. 

[Ross.]

10 hours ago, Robert James said:

And then of course there is Clydebank, who have confirmed that they intend to join the pyramid once the Holm Park redevelopment has taken place. Had it been ready for next season, would they have opted to join the SoSL or the EoS ?  We will never know, if the WoSL starts in 2019/20.

As it stands we have applied for EoS at the start of 19/20, so we already do know.

9 hours ago, Glenconner said:

Did Clydebank apply to join the LL when it started?

No.

4 hours ago, Glenconner said:

I'd be curious to know if there was anybody in the Clydebank fraternity who supported remaining in the Junior ranks. Be interesting to see how quickly the local business types take to arrive on the scene. Heard 25K is the going rate for a seat on the board at diddy level clubs (anything below a Dundee Utd)

Yes, there was a small but sizeable number who supported remaining junior, for many reasons.

The local business types are welcome to join the trust and put themselves forward for election like the rest of the members.

Edited April 17, 2018 by Ross.

[Robert James]

5 minutes ago, Ross. said:

As it stands we have applied for EoS at the start of 19/20, so we already do know.

 

Thank you for confirming you have applied to join the EoS in 2019/20. Very good news. 

Do you think that a West pyramid feeder league will also commence at that time, and if so, would this affect Clydebank's decision ?

[Ross.]

2 minutes ago, Robert James said:

Thank you for confirming you have applied to join the EoS in 2019/20. Very good news. 

Do you think that a West pyramid feeder league will also commence at that time, and if so, would this affect Clydebank's decision ?

I hope so, though I'm not 100% convinced it will be in place in time. If it is, I expect we will start there. A WoS league makes far more sense than what is currently necessary. I'm not sure if it would need to go to another trust vote but I can't see anyone who supports our move back to senior football choosing EoS over WoS as the starting point.

[Jason King]

16 hours ago, lithgierose said:

Could be more for the shire next season.falkirk stadium wont come cheaply.

I believe that Falkirk Stadium is quite reasonable to hire in comparison to similar facilities.

[Auld Heid]

25 minutes ago, newcastle broon said:

No trying to be arsey but the fixtures are usually brought out for the season not long after the SPFL fixtures have been released. There are no knock on effects as the sharing clubs all have floodlights for a Friday night match or even Sunday afternoon. In Italy Inter share with AC Roma Lazio etc. 

I agree aboot teams spending fortunes on their grounds though. 

I appreciate there are various examples of ground share - but this is hardly the same as the 2 Milan/Rome clubs sharing.   The difference we have teams starting from scratch  hiring parks to suit - or selling their parks and not replacing.  (A Glasgow team playing out of Alloa)

This allows them to bypass established teams, who are developing their park incurring all the associated costs but can't progress because they are still trying to get it up to scratch. 

[cmontheloknow]

1 hour ago, Auld Heid said:

It's still not their  ground to which they can make decisions upon.  

If Stirling Albion have a fixture clearly that would take precedence and would see the Uni having  to play an alternative kick off from the scheduled time and all the knock on effects that can cause.  This isn't a unique situation and quite a few teams are nomads - for me this is not right.  

Teams are spending fortunes on their grounds to improve standards and obtain licences etc.   These nomads incur a fraction of the costs, incurring ground expenses as required.  

Would be interesting to see how closely the rules are being followed/enforced by the Association.

 

Standard practice in LL / EoS / SoS as relevant is for groundsharers to play Friday night or Sunday afternoon at their designated ground. It seems it's only in our wonderful Junior world, where lights are seen as heretic, that teams have to look elsewhere. BSC, Shire, Edusport - three I can think of playing on Fri or Sun this season. Cumbernauld Colts perhaps also.

Edited April 17, 2018 by cmontheloknow

[Burnie_man]

The examples of BSC and Edusport is a fair point and exposes the loophole in licencing, where you can up-sticks and move far away from any perceived “home area” to somewhere that will take you.  Glasgow Uni are another example playing at Airdrie to keep their licence.

[Sergeant Wilson]

45 minutes ago, Burnie_man said:

The examples of BSC and Edusport is a fair point and exposes the loophole in licencing, where you can up-sticks and move far away from any perceived “home area” to somewhere that will take you.  Glasgow Uni are another example playing at Airdrie to keep their licence.

That's because Airdrie is a well known seat of learning, that has been attracting the intelligentsia for generations.

[Auld Heid]

2 hours ago, cmontheloknow said:

Standard practice in LL / EoS / SoS as relevant is for groundsharers to play Friday night or Sunday afternoon at their designated ground. It seems it's only in our wonderful Junior world, where lights are seen as heretic, that teams have to look elsewhere. BSC, Shire, Edusport - three I can think of playing on Fri or Sun this season. Cumbernauld Colts perhaps also.

Allowing teams to dictate when they play isn't exactly fair either.  Imagine two teams tied and one changes to a later kick-off so they know what's required.  Do their fixtures have a * next to them to state games played when a suitable park is available.

2 hours ago, Burnie_man said:

The examples of BSC and Edusport is a fair point and exposes the loophole in licencing, where you can up-sticks and move far away from any perceived “home area” to somewhere that will take you.  Glasgow Uni are another example playing at Airdrie to keep their licence.

This highlights a lot of my personal concerns that teams are abusing rules/loopholes because these leagues are more interested in numbers.  The SFA seem content to sit back and ignore the chaos.

[Robert James]

2 hours ago, Burnie_man said:

The examples of BSC and Edusport is a fair point and exposes the loophole in licencing, where you can up-sticks and move far away from any perceived “home area” to somewhere that will take you.  Glasgow Uni are another example playing at Airdrie to keep their licence.

Cove Rangers have won the HFL championship by playing at the grounds of Inverurie etc.  Clyde & Shire are currently playing away from their home towns, although financially it is far from ideal.

Surely this is to their credit ?