Club Licencing

[FairWeatherFan]

11 hours ago, CowdenMiners1204 said:

Do they have plans to get division 3 upto 16 teams?

Cupar Hearts must have thought about taking the journey into the league set up.

Not really something that's upto them. Lowland still favours EoS area teams might see additions coming top down. Everything else is dependent on applications. As seen with Linton Hotspur getting in, meet the criteria it should be a formality.

Plenty of suggestions will no doubt be thrown out there over the next year. All the usual suspects to make an appearace: Cupar Hearts, all the Borders towns with former EoS sides, as well new kid on the block Tullibody St Serfs.

 

[Dev]

9 hours ago, FairWeatherFan said:

Not really something that's upto them. Lowland still favours EoS area teams might see additions coming top down. Everything else is dependent on applications. As seen with Linton Hotspur getting in, meet the criteria it should be a formality.

Plenty of suggestions will no doubt be thrown out there over the next year. All the usual suspects to make an appearace: Cupar Hearts, all the Borders towns with former EoS sides, as well new kid on the block Tullibody St Serfs.

 

A Livingston club (not named) was on here a while ago making general enquiries about what would be involved in stepping up at some time ahead. Then from the Lothian & Edinburgh Amateurs there's Kirkliston South Queensferry who also showed future potential interest.

(Depending on what, if anything, comes of a conference league) There must be a chance that the balance of power in the Lowland League will change quickly and the relegation/promotion situation with Tier 6 meaningfully altered. The window of opportunity to move up into the EoS could closed or be more difficult to get through soon, so Linton Hotspur's move could be very good timing, indeed.

 

Edited June 11, 2023 by Dev
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[FairWeatherFan]

27 minutes ago, Dev said:

The window of opportunity to move up into the EoS could close or be more difficult soon, so Linton Hotspur's move could be very good timing, indeed.

Right now there's room for 7 teams (16-16-16-18) without perhaps thinking outside the box. That's years of room to work with and the EoS has shown itself to be more than capable to accomodate numbers with non-traditional formats.

This isn't the WoSFL where they've kicked around the idea of capping numbers.

[Dev]

6 hours ago, FairWeatherFan said:

Right now there's room for 7 teams (16-16-16-18) without perhaps thinking outside the box. That's years of room to work with and the EoS has shown itself to be more than capable to accomodate numbers with non-traditional formats.

This isn't the WoSFL where they've kicked around the idea of capping numbers.

I hope that you turn out to be right. The EoS's conferences idea was good. It should be considered by other leagues e.g. SPFL with Divisions 1 and 2 merged and enlarged into two parallel conferences with clubs re-allocated annually in order to freshen things up.

You shouldn't overlook the fact that the WoS did wish to regionalise the lowest tier of its' league but that was stopped by the SFA. Quell surprise!

Edited June 11, 2023 by Dev
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[Ray Patterson]

I think once you get to Tier 8/9 districtisation is the sensible approach.

I really don't understand the SFA's disquiet about it. They don't run the disciplinary procedures at that level.

[FairWeatherFan]

9 hours ago, Ray Patterson said:

I think once you get to Tier 8/9 districtisation is the sensible approach.

I really don't understand the SFA's disquiet about it. They don't run the disciplinary procedures at that level.

It's one of those things that sounds good in theory. Try splitting a merged 2nd and 3rd Division regionally. Majority of the teams are in the West Lothian/Edinburgh hub. It really only saves the handful of outliers from Fife-Borders travel. 

It would also leave 3(4) promotions spots between the 27 teams. While currently there are 6(8) promotions and 3(4) relegations to keep things interesting.

I could see the Third Division end up in Conferences, that might be regionalised. The current division could go from 11 to 24. 12-12 Conferences: Play own Conference twice, other Conference once. Giving a 34 game season which is still manageable.

[Ray Patterson]

5 hours ago, FairWeatherFan said:

It's one of those things that sounds good in theory. Try splitting a merged 2nd and 3rd Division regionally. Majority of the teams are in the West Lothian/Edinburgh hub. It really only saves the handful of outliers from Fife-Borders travel. 

It would also leave 3(4) promotions spots between the 27 teams. While currently there are 6(8) promotions and 3(4) relegations to keep things interesting.

I could see the Third Division end up in Conferences, that might be regionalised. The current division could go from 11 to 24. 12-12 Conferences: Play own Conference twice, other Conference once. Giving a 34 game season which is still manageable.

I think if you look at countries of a similar size, they have a lot more than six regions when you go down the pyramid.

It also gives you the opportunity to strengthen ties to the Amateur game.

Cupar Hearts (for example) would leave the a Fife League to go to a Fife and West Lothian League rather than having trips to Hawick. Although I get at the moment there is a weird West Lothian heavy feel to the Third. Same is true in the West, you have Lugar Boswell Thistle and Campbeltown Pupils in the same league at Tier 10 - a 3hr 50 drive according to Google.

For me Tiers 6, 7 and potentially 8 should be region-wide, with Tier 9 and 10 being at a district level. With the EoS and WoS being much stricter on ground requirements at the Region-Wide level.