Junior football, what is the future?

[Super Saddler]

5 minutes ago, Hossy87 said:

What league are these guys going to?

I can just  imagine the visiting supporters singing "Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way, oh what fun it is to see 5th Kirkcudbrightshire Rifle Volunteers win away".  Bit of a mouthful.

[AML67]

7 hours ago, Marshmallo said:

Yes. There is also geographical overlap - the SoS is a small section of WoS territory. Integrate the two leagues and let The Dog & Duck sides from farming villages in Dumfries compete against Talbot, Pollok, Kilwinning etc. They'll soon enough find their appropriate level.

Your derisory jibes aimed at the SOSFL are pretty pathetic and describing places as farming villages simply is in incredibly poor taste ! As you’ve been asked before I’ll repeat , do you actually know anything about the South , it’s member clubs or any of its playing staff ????

[AsimButtHitsASix]

4 hours ago, GordonS said:

Most of the population of Perth & Kinross is in the EoS/ LL territory too. 

Tbh, local authority boundaries areas are a poor way of dividing up the country. They're mostly arbitrary slices created by the Tories in the mid-90s to destroy the power of Strathclyde Regional Council and to gerrymander themselves some councils they thought they could control. They deprived Glasgow of its suburbs and scooped the poor people into big councils. Glasgow's boundaries are laughable, wriggling out to take in Easterhouse, Possil, Drumchapel, Castlemilk and Darnley but carving out Clarkston, Burnside, Ralston and Beasden. East Renfrewshire is a joke, so too is East Dunbartonshire. Dundee and Edinburgh have similar. 

They're also awkward chunks to work with because they're too big.

IMO it's better to slice it up using transport routes. For example, in your map putting Cumbernauld in the south but Glasgow in the west doesn't work as they'd be passing through Glasgow to most of their matches. 

Anyway. This is waaaaay off topic. 

Yeah. Absolutely any way it's sliced will have positives and negatives. I also done two way and three way splits with emphasis on population parity at just to see how things looked as a thought experiment at the time. Also for my own amusement on football manager editor.

[Hossy87]

Reading through pages and pages of this thread and the disparaging comments towards the South League is frankly embarrassing.  

We have a league that caters for football from Gretna to Stranraer.  Yes, we may not have clubs that are of the same standard as some East Teams or Juniors, but so what? We've always been accommodating towards teams looking to get their foot in the door and offer nothing but a foundation to play football and progress.  We have 4 licensed clubs and other clubs within looking to spend time money and effort to do the same. 

Maybe some clubs aspirations aren't to get the the LL or SPFL. Maybe we know our level, but maybe there are some who might want to give it a bloody good try.  

We are at T6, and whatever the future holds for our level we will deal with it. If any team in the South want to go to the WoSL I can assure you the other clubs will support them; because that's what's we do.

 

Edited February 18, 2020 by Hossy87

[Marten]

16 minutes ago, Hossy87 said:

Reading through pages and pages of this thread and the disparaging comments towards the South League is frankly embarrassing.  

We have a league that caters for football from Gretna to Stranraer.  Yes, we may not have clubs that are of the same standard as some East Teams or Juniors, but so what? We've always been accommodating towards teams looking to get their foot in the door and offer nothing but a foundation to play football and progress.  We have 4 licensed clubs and other clubs within looking to spend time money and effort to do the same. 

Maybe some clubs aspirations aren't to get the the LL or SPFL. Maybe we know our level, but maybe there are some who might want to give it a bloody good try.  

We are at T6, and whatever the future holds for our level we will deal with it. If any team in the South want to go to the WoSL I can assure you the other clubs will support them; because that's what's we do.

 

Good post, this is why I don't like the disrespect towards the SoSFL shown by some people here. Yes, there is an argument to be made that in the long term the SoSFL represent too small an area to be at tier 6, but the league has played a vital part in establishing the pyramid, a bit more respect is due. Ultimately, the league will have to drop down I think, but it should only be done in a way that's fair for its members, like by giving the clubs a chance in the WoSFL tier 6 conferences. If that doesn't work out, they can go back into the SoSFL at tier 7. That's just one possible solution, but I'm sure common sense will prevail.

[Marshmallo]

19 minutes ago, Hossy87 said:

Reading through pages and pages of this thread and the disparaging comments towards the South League is frankly embarrassing.  

We have a league that caters for football from Gretna to Stranraer.  Yes, we may not have clubs that are of the same standard as some East Teams or Juniors, but so what? We've always been accommodating towards teams looking to get their foot in the door and offer nothing but a foundation to play football and progress.  We have 4 licensed clubs and other clubs within looking to spend time money and effort to do the same. 

Maybe some clubs aspirations aren't to get the the LL or SPFL. Maybe we know our level, but maybe there are some who might want to give it a bloody good try.  

We are at T6, and whatever the future holds for our level we will deal with it. If any team in the South want to go to the WoSL I can assure you the other clubs will support them; because that's what's we do.

 

This is a very reasonable and well balanced post. The league absolutely has a right to exist in some form and giving teams a platform to play football is only a good thing. 

My issue is with the argument that it is deserving of a place at tier 6 just because. That to me is clearly not sustainable or in the best interests of anyone going forward.

[GNU_Linux]

Re: the WoSFL are the LL/EOS planning on doing annoucements weekly or will it be quiet until the expression deadline?

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

Correct the pyramid is there to find your level and I think your side would do well in the SOSL, maybe even win it.

Thanks, but from what im hearing about the regional conference idea its more likely Talbot playing sides from the sosl if you apply for the new league. Which will be nice for you guys not having to travel far, local games eh?

[Blackie Gold]

7 minutes ago, Inanimate Carbon Rod said:

Thanks, but from what im hearing about the regional conference idea its more likely Talbot playing sides from the sosl if you apply for the new league. Which will be nice for you guys not having to travel far, local games eh?

No doubt better opposition than were use to pumping eh?

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

No doubt better opposition than were use to pumping eh?

I wouldnt know, I dont tend to watch any games that involve Talbot, but good luck in the southern conference.

[Robin_Hood]

5 minutes ago, Blackie Gold said:

No doubt better opposition than were use to pumping eh?

You are aware that people simply tolerate you?

[Blackie Gold]

2 minutes ago, Inanimate Carbon Rod said:

I wouldnt know, I dont tend to watch any games that involve Talbot, but good luck in the southern conference.

Take it you don't have a TV licence?

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

Take it you don't have a TV licence?

Oh I do, I just think youre a shower of c***s tbh.

[Blackie Gold]

1 minute ago, Inanimate Carbon Rod said:

Oh I do, I just think youre a shower of champions tbh.

Sorted that!

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

Sorted that!

Oh you’ll get a high six for that one.

[Jeek]

Oh I do, I just think youre a shower of c***s tbh.

.

[holmparkheroes]

Can we keep the topic to Juniors and cut out the Juvenile patter from Amateur comedians.

[Footballfirst]

1 hour ago, GNU_Linux said:

Re: the WoSFL are the LL/EOS planning on doing annoucements weekly or will it be quiet until the expression deadline?

I don't think that we will hear anything before the close of the "interest" period.  At that point the LL should have a fair idea of the level of interest and should be in a position to give prospective clubs an indication of how the LL intends that the WoSFL will be structured and administered, e.g. a single division, conferences, play off arrangements, promotion, set basic ground requirements etc.

I'd expect that information would become public from the clubs who expressed interest, if not from the LL itself.  

Thereafter, the application period will follow up to the end of March. Depending on the numbers applying and accepted, then I'd expect the LL to firm up on the detail of the intended league(s) structure within a week or two, e.g. so that clubs would know that they might be entering conferences with seeding based on their final league position in their current leagues.

[Che Dail]

5 hours ago, parsforlife said:

Its been mentioned but it’s really worth reinforcing, the pyramid needs set up for so it works the clubs that play at each level and national football for the clubs in league 1/2 absolutely works, it worked a century ago and it’s working now, i mentioned earlier that it’s not up debate and it’s not NONE of those clubs would change it and nothing will change without them wanting it

EDIT-  to try and bring things back on topic if you see the tweets rosyth are putting out the they look 100% in for EoS

 

See when you've got full-time professional clubs like Kilmarnock losing in European competition to a part-time Welsh club on a twentieth of their budget, the realisation should kick-in, eventually,  that if that's the best this league structure can produce it really isn't working.

I'd love to write a full riposte to your short rebuttal (the Welsh league is regional at T2. Irish league at T3, while we're at it)... BUT, for the continuity of the thread: it is indeed great news about Rosyth, on the back of the Kirkcaldy & Dysart announcement. Hopefully their other Fife neebors follow suit. 

Would also be good to see one or two from West Lothian... any news?   

[GordonS]

2 hours ago, Hossy87 said:

Reading through pages and pages of this thread and the disparaging comments towards the South League is frankly embarrassing.  

We have a league that caters for football from Gretna to Stranraer.  Yes, we may not have clubs that are of the same standard as some East Teams or Juniors, but so what? We've always been accommodating towards teams looking to get their foot in the door and offer nothing but a foundation to play football and progress.  We have 4 licensed clubs and other clubs within looking to spend time money and effort to do the same. 

Maybe some clubs aspirations aren't to get the the LL or SPFL. Maybe we know our level, but maybe there are some who might want to give it a bloody good try.  

We are at T6, and whatever the future holds for our level we will deal with it. If any team in the South want to go to the WoSL I can assure you the other clubs will support them; because that's what's we do.

 

Great post.

I've been to a lot of SOS grounds in the last couple of years and ok, there are one or two that are just 3G cages with no cover, which isn't a great experience. But for the most part they're proper community clubs, grafting hard to give their town a football club, taking obvious pride in the ground and the team.

IMO the standard is better than the bottom end of the ER Juniors, in which I watched a Coupar Angus team play the worst football I've ever seen at senior or junior level. It's better than the North Caledonian League, which could easily be a Tier 6 league soon too.

Generally the SOS clubs do more for women and youth football than the Juniors, too.

But most of all, I can't help but laugh at fans of clubs with support in the very low hundreds crowdwanking over clubs with support in the high tens. Imagine what it looks like to the vast majority of Scottish football fans; "Hah! My tiny club is very marginally less insignificant than yours!"

We're all fans of minnows around here. That's why it's time we got rid of the artificial division once and for all and stuck together.