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Junior football, what is the future?


Burnie_man

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Somewhere in the future I think people have to accept that the LL, HL, WOSFL are Senior Leagues now - maybe to keep the Junior Cup going, the amateurs below, are the new 'juniors' sitting under the Senior Leagues. Don't think the majority of ex juniors will be interested once the pyramid settles down.

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5 minutes ago, Andy groundhopper said:

Somewhere in the future I think people have to accept that the LL, HL, WOSFL are Senior Leagues now - maybe to keep the Junior Cup going, the amateurs below, are the new 'juniors' sitting under the Senior Leagues. Don't think the majority of ex juniors will be interested once the pyramid settles down.

Amateurs have their own national cup competition. It's called the Scottish Amateur Cup, oddly enough.

Edited by Cyclizine
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4 minutes ago, Andy groundhopper said:

Yeah I realise that, just trying to see a way of keeping the SJC going IF its needed. Seems a cock up having Senior clubs playing in a Junior Cup that's all.  Will the retaining of 'junior' status  be  at a certain tier downwards ?

There's no need to differentiate between senior and junior clubs. There's never been any significant difference between the two "grades". I can see why there might be an argument for the amateur grade to remain, as there is a natural cut off between club football and recreational football, but really we should just do like they did down south nearly 50 years ago and just bin the idea of grades and have one class of footballer.

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On 04/04/2021 at 14:57, GNU_Linux said:

imo that would ultimately come down to whether taking part in said cup would require joining the SJFA or not.

There is one other "incentive", for retaining the Junior Cup, ie the winners continue to enter the Scottish Cup.

It is anticipated that as more West & East senior clubs become licensed, the incentive for them to enter the SJC, will reduce. Pyramid promotion will be the priority for top/ambitious junior clubs.  

Within 5 years, most of the clubs who EITHER don't want to obtain an SFA licence, OR can't do so, as it isn't viable (ground, finance, support level, etc, inadequacies)..  These smaller clubs, will have an enhanced opportunity to win the Junior Cup, and have entry into the Scottish Cup (alongside the Amateur cup winners).  This is probably why Girvan don't enter the SCC, as they are already licensed, and don't need to qualify. 

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14 hours ago, invergowrie arab said:

There won't be a junior cup qualifier spot in the Scottish Cup going forward 

Correct.

Longer term, as the former top Junior clubs, no longer maintain SJFA membership, the smaller clubs may wish to keep the SJC as their only route into the Scottish Cup.  Not having to play against the former 'junior giants' increases their chance of becoming Junior Cup Winners ..........and the chance of Scottish Cup entry, the following year.

However, whether the SFA will allow the (future) Junior Cup winners, to enter the 'senior' cup, has yet to be confirmed.

 

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  • 3 weeks later...
5 hours ago, John S said:

No more Junior teams south of Tayport?

Dunno, but none outside the pyramid at all by the looks of it, and membership of the SJFA will soon be little more important than of regional associations like the Fife FA. 

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8 hours ago, John S said:

No more Junior teams south of Tayport?

No more leagues run by the SJFA south of Tayport, but there are still about 50 SJFA members in the West of Scotland League. Who knows if the West Lothian juniors have kept their membership.

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6 minutes ago, LongTimeLurker said:

It would take rule changes at the upcoming SJFA AGM to make that possible so probably not.

Considering they changed the rule for West clubs, I can't see too much objection against a rule change for WL clubs.

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4 minutes ago, LongTimeLurker said:

It would take rule changes at the upcoming SJFA AGM to make that possible so probably not.

Staying in the SJFA is entirely possible if they want it since they're rewriting the Constitution all over again.

There was the rule change for it last year, and there's going to be a rule change this year due to the apparent scrapping of the East Region into at least another name.

 

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9 minutes ago, Marten said:

Considering they changed the rule for West clubs, I can't see too much objection against a rule change for WL clubs.

The WoS and SJFA had to mutually agree before that happened. If you think the EoS and SJFA will do that anything like as easily then you haven't been paying attention to what has been happening over the last few seasons. Where exactly would SJC games fit into an already very busy programme of EoSFA cup competitions and EoS league fixtures?

Edited by LongTimeLurker
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7 minutes ago, LongTimeLurker said:

The WoS and SJFA had to mutually agree before that happened. If you think the EoS and SJFA will do that anything like as easily then you haven't been paying attention to what has been happening over the last few seasons. Where exactly would SJC games fit into an already very busy programme of EoSFA cup competitions and EoS league fixtures?

EOS and SJFA are already talking to each other about the ML/EOS boundary. And from what I know, those discussions are going amicably. Let's not forget that the people in charge of the SJFA now aren't the same ones as when the SJFA tried to get ERJFA / WRJFA in at tier 6 previously.

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7 minutes ago, LongTimeLurker said:

The WoS and SJFA had to mutually agree before that happened. If you think the EoS and SJFA will do that anything like as easily then you haven't been paying attention to what has been happening over the last few seasons. Where exactly would SJC games fit into an already very busy programme of EoSFA cup competitions and EoS league fixtures?

I'm pretty sure who the SJFA admits as members is entirely there own business.  They can have anyone they want.

Scheduling of any competition they want to run is entirely a different matter and it doesn't look likely any senior league will give them much space for weekend fixtures.

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9 minutes ago, LongTimeLurker said:

The WoS and SJFA had to mutually agree before that happened. If you think the EoS and SJFA will do that anything like as easily then you haven't been paying attention to what has been happening over the last few seasons. Where exactly would SJC games fit into an already very busy programme of EoSFA cup competitions and EoS league fixtures?

The EoSFL never stopped the likes of HoB signing up for the Fife FA. Which is the kind of comparison everyone made to the WoSFL clubs when retaining their SJFA memberships. Scheduling of the SJFA Cup is the concern of the SJFA.

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Not one Fife team retained their SJFA membership last year and I haven’t seen any mention in the statements from this year’s entrants to say that they are staying in the SJFA.

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