Scottish cup 2019/20

[CFCbhoy]

Stewart kean can only play first 5 games he told me 

[mouse10]

Stewart kean can only play first 5 games he told me 

Must be 4 left then he’s already played 1,if a remember you writing on here couple weeks back it’s a load of shite u seen his wife saying on fb now it’s only 5 games [emoji23][emoji23][emoji23] his dads at the club a think he will know better don’t know why your so bothered anyway

[auld yin wae knowledge]

3 hours ago, tug said:

Would be interested to see figures without over 35’s as them being in can be misleading to where amateur is in comparison to last few years.

We are seeing clubs fold , not fulfilling friendly fixtures more and more  , not sure what the answer is but certainly worth looking at local leagues again as there does not seem to be appetite to travel as much for players these days with society changing , working shifts more common etc .

Tug, we at the SAFL had a meeting with the office bearers of The SAFA and one of the proposals we put forward was for the current Saturday afternoon Leagues to become regionalised in other words The SAFL is allocated a region say for example Inverclyde / Dumbarton and all clubs in that area play under our jurisdiction, same with The Cally they for example are allocated region like East Kilbride / Motherwell/ Hamilton  area and clubs new or existing play under that banner, all Leagues would still run their own cup competition's within that region and the Scottish and West would be as normal

These proposals only apply to Saturday afternoon football at first but if successful could be adopted by all,

After the 1st Season in operation the top 2 from each region would form 2 super Leagues

Benefits would be local travel which is a big cost and allow each League/ Region to speak with Local councils in they region re pitch hire.[ at the moment some Leagues have about 4/ 5 councils to do this ]

We also would scrape the rule preventing players from playing either Saturday morning or Saturday afternoon.

The SAFA at the last meeting was sitting with £375.000 [ plus £25,00 from the excellent sponsorship deal announced today ] some of this could be used to assist Leagues/ Regions to support clubs with costs.

But sadly we did not get support from The Executive committee though we were informed the constitution avenue is open to all.

 

[AMB]

3 hours ago, auld yin wae knowledge said:

Tug, we at the SAFL had a meeting with the office bearers of The SAFA and one of the proposals we put forward was for the current Saturday afternoon Leagues to become regionalised in other words The SAFL is allocated a region say for example Inverclyde / Dumbarton and all clubs in that area play under our jurisdiction, same with The Cally they for example are allocated region like East Kilbride / Motherwell/ Hamilton  area and clubs new or existing play under that banner, all Leagues would still run their own cup competition's within that region and the Scottish and West would be as normal

These proposals only apply to Saturday afternoon football at first but if successful could be adopted by all,

After the 1st Season in operation the top 2 from each region would form 2 super Leagues

Benefits would be local travel which is a big cost and allow each League/ Region to speak with Local councils in they region re pitch hire.[ at the moment some Leagues have about 4/ 5 councils to do this ]

We also would scrape the rule preventing players from playing either Saturday morning or Saturday afternoon.

The SAFA at the last meeting was sitting with £375.000 [ plus £25,00 from the excellent sponsorship deal announced today ] some of this could be used to assist Leagues/ Regions to support clubs with costs.

But sadly we did not get support from The Executive committee though we were informed the constitution avenue is open to all.

 

When part of the Amateur set up I attended a meeting (probably about 8 years ago) where the SFA presented how they seen the future of football, including  how they seen Amateur football panning  out over the years. The current set up is nowhere near the structure they had in mind (and I include the Juniors) The Amateur Association I was involved in  were not up for this and were all about protectionism for their league, when they should have been working with people to move forward together. I don’t fully agree with Tug  on how he talks about Local leagues, but he does have a  good point about changing structure and creating local interest and saving costs. Auld yin wae knowledge; Some of the stuff you suggest here seems decent but probably needs a bit of tweaking, but is a great start. 

There needs to be a healthy constructive debate about the future of the Amateur game and breathe a bit of fresh life into it. It isn’t all bad and there are some excellent clubs and people involved, but SAFA and associations certainly need to work with powers at be, as their are sensible people there, who are progressive thinkers but who also need to break free from the status quo and think of the game as a whole, rather than old view points and allegiances.

There is a recently published paper on how football contributes to Scottish society and how many people (particularly youths) play football. In my opinion the Amateur game Plays a massive part in this and should get as good a platform as Youths, as the befits to society are massive 

I could go on about structures and how SFA and Local Authority policy is misguided  in order to attract-public money into clubs who are “accredited” with youth pathways etc etc, but that is another debate......here Enders the rant

[Gunner]

9 hours ago, AMB said:

When part of the Amateur set up I attended a meeting (probably about 8 years ago) where the SFA presented how they seen the future of football, including  how they seen Amateur football panning  out over the years. The current set up is nowhere near the structure they had in mind (and I include the Juniors) The Amateur Association I was involved in  were not up for this and were all about protectionism for their league, when they should have been working with people to move forward together. I don’t fully agree with Tug  on how he talks about Local leagues, but he does have a  good point about changing structure and creating local interest and saving costs. Auld yin wae knowledge; Some of the stuff you suggest here seems decent but probably needs a bit of tweaking, but is a great start. 

There needs to be a healthy constructive debate about the future of the Amateur game and breathe a bit of fresh life into it. It isn’t all bad and there are some excellent clubs and people involved, but SAFA and associations certainly need to work with powers at be, as their are sensible people there, who are progressive thinkers but who also need to break free from the status quo and think of the game as a whole, rather than old view points and allegiances.

There is a recently published paper on how football contributes to Scottish society and how many people (particularly youths) play football. In my opinion the Amateur game Plays a massive part in this and should get as good a platform as Youths, as the befits to society are massive 

I could go on about structures and how SFA and Local Authority policy is misguided  in order to attract-public money into clubs who are “accredited” with youth pathways etc etc, but that is another debate......here Enders the rant

I've mentioned this a few times, on different forums. But the biggest issue IMO is the player pathway. The structure isnt broken, there's no need for regionalisation IMO. Its simply down to a lack of players - and money isnt the main factor in that either. There's simply nowhere near young players coming in to amateur football. A big part of the solution to this IMO would be taking the u21's and even the u19's from the SYFA. However, they will never let these age groups go. At 18 you are an adult, there's no reason to be playing under the jurisdiction of the SYFA. 

This 'ownership' is the single reason that youth players can't sign dual contracts with Amateur teams, the same way that they can with Junior teams. It's not forbidden by the SFA... it's only the SYFA that are preventing this. The SYFA see a more prestigious pathway being youth > junior. Than youth > amateur. What happens is guys get to 21's and the majority dont go junior... they have then never been involved with an amateur team, have no link to our game and fall away from it altogether. 

It's simply all down to power & being in control. And it's seriously damaging our game. The sensible pathway would be youth > amateur. With deeper links and a more realistic pathway put in place between youth teams and amateur teams where players are likely to continue playing. Those good enough, will still move junior. 

I Think if this pathway can be improved, then we will see greater numbers of new players enter our game. Even the allowing of dual contracts between youth and amateur. 

Structurally, in our own game. of course there could be some tidying up. I think there's committees for committees sakes. There's people who wear their involvement in our game like a badge of honor yet contribute nothing. It's nice to sway your a part of it and nothing more. But for me, regionalisation solves nothing. Teams make their own decisions to move leagues fully aware of the travelling involved. 

[GAVT67]

We ( Wishaw High School FPs )  moved from the old Lanarkshire Association in 2007 and 2008 knowing that instead of heading up to the top end of Hamilton to play an Eddlewood or Low Waters or heading up to Airdrie to play Glenboig that we would now be travelling a bit further afield and this is true but in truth you are never really any further than an hour away from anywhere and we personally wouldn't want to go back to that playing all local teams. Yes it can be a pain in the arse midweek at the end of the season for a month or so but it would be no less of a pain playing localy in my opinion. 

[Ginaro]

3 hours ago, Gunner said:

A big part of the solution to this IMO would be taking the u21's and even the u19's from the SYFA. However, they will never let these age groups go. At 18 you are an adult, there's no reason to be playing under the jurisdiction of the SYFA. 

I think the SYFA no longer has U21s in the east, with the clubs moving to the Lowlands U20s on Friday nights.

[Gunner]

1 hour ago, GAVT67 said:

We ( Wishaw High School FPs )  moved from the old Lanarkshire Association in 2007 and 2008 knowing that instead of heading up to the top end of Hamilton to play an Eddlewood or Low Waters or heading up to Airdrie to play Glenboig that we would now be travelling a bit further afield and this is true but in truth you are never really any further than an hour away from anywhere and we personally wouldn't want to go back to that playing all local teams. Yes it can be a pain in the arse midweek at the end of the season for a month or so but it would be no less of a pain playing localy in my opinion. 

I agree entirely Gav. 

[Crazy Feet]

EKYM v St Joes must be the tie of the round eh? A bumper that for a first round tie.

[CFCbhoy]

21 hours ago, mouse10 said:

 

Must be 4 left then he’s already played 1,if a remember you writing on here couple weeks back it’s a load of shite u seen his wife saying on fb now it’s only 5 games his dads at the club a think he will know better don’t know why your so bothered anyway

 

I'm not bothered in the slightest mate. There was a claim that this is best strike force in the league and all I am saying is his wife claimed it was a load of shite and Stewart has told me too my face he can only play first five games so that's it really 

[auld yin wae knowledge]

7 hours ago, GAVT67 said:

We ( Wishaw High School FPs )  moved from the old Lanarkshire Association in 2007 and 2008 knowing that instead of heading up to the top end of Hamilton to play an Eddlewood or Low Waters or heading up to Airdrie to play Glenboig that we would now be travelling a bit further afield and this is true but in truth you are never really any further than an hour away from anywhere and we personally wouldn't want to go back to that playing all local teams. Yes it can be a pain in the arse midweek at the end of the season for a month or so but it would be no less of a pain playing localy in my opinion. 

Gavin  - [ I think that's your name] midweek games are a big issue for all Leagues at the end of season as is travelling, the SAFA were inundated with calls at the end of the season with Leagues Unfilled fixtures.

Surely when you see 2 of your Leagues clubs fold before the season has started has to be concerning for all, especially when one of the clubs has been going for over 40 years 

Dougie I agree with several of your points and I would say money is a factor ok, not the real issue but definitely a issue 

the proposals I have mentioned in my post is meant to be a starting point for debate within The SAFA  and could be tweaked to include what Dougie is saying and others opinions.

 

[Boscerson]

Using the west/central area as an example, to me it makes no sense to have so many different leagues covering the same area.

The best 2 leagues are widely considered to be the Central and Caley and they cover a similar area. Some towns even have a split with nearby teams in different league set-ups (Stirling with Milton in Caley and Bannockburn in Central springs to mind).

SAFL, GGPL and SDAFA also cover large parts of the same region too.

On a Saturday morning 3 leagues (SSMFL, GDSML and Glasgow Colleges FA) cover the same area (4 when the Churches league is included).

The league committees all do a great job in running their own individual leagues but I feel it would be a good time to at least consider pulling resources together, look at merging leagues and try to reshape the amateur set-up to stop it dwindling away even further.

It might not stop teams folding altogether but a larger set-up could absorb these losses better, would be more competitive as teams would find their level within the divisions and would be stronger financially rather than various leagues running 1/2 divisions and competing for new teams etc.

[GAVT67]

Of course its concerning for all as it wont just be happening in the CSAFL but in many leagues across the board. It nearly happened to Wishaw High School FPs 3 years ago and thankfully with the CSAFL's understanding, advice and guidance we managed to see it out till the end of that season . We got our new gaffer and coaching staff in that summer and have never looked back. We were fortunate and other teams on the brink may not have that bit of luck of pulling in players or securing sponsorship which could keep a struggling team afloat or not. Nobody wants to see clubs go to the wall. It happened to us in February and we'd been going for 57 years at that time. The amount of time a club has been going will make no difference if they have 1. No cash to run a football team or 2. No players to put a team on the pitch.

[Amateur Footie Fan]

Using the west/central area as an example, to me it makes no sense to have so many different leagues covering the same area.

The best 2 leagues are widely considered to be the Central and Caley and they cover a similar area. Some towns even have a split with nearby teams in different league set-ups (Stirling with Milton in Caley and Bannockburn in Central springs to mind).

SAFL, GGPL and SDAFA also cover large parts of the same region too.

On a Saturday morning 3 leagues (SSMFL, GDSML and Glasgow Colleges FA) cover the same area (4 when the Churches league is included).

The league committees all do a great job in running their own individual leagues but I feel it would be a good time to at least consider pulling resources together, look at merging leagues and try to reshape the amateur set-up to stop it dwindling away even further.

It might not stop teams folding altogether but a larger set-up could absorb these losses better, would be more competitive as teams would find their level within the divisions and would be stronger financially rather than various leagues running 1/2 divisions and competing for new teams etc.

Agreed. It would be fantastic if a pyramid system for the amateur Saturday afternoon could be agreed. Geographically it could be West/Central area, Lothian & Fife etc. A top league with ALL the best teams would be incredible and the leagues below it wouldn't be half bad either. It would require leagues to put personal self interest behind that of improving the amateur game.

[Ayrshire Neautral]

On 07/08/2019 at 14:54, mouse10 said:

Drongan way Keane and connor boyd up top best strike force in the league imo

Having 2 good strikers will only get you so far especially after seeing the mossblown game earlier this week.  

[justagoalie]

7 hours ago, Crazy Feet said:

EKYM v St Joes must be the tie of the round eh? A bumper that for a first round tie.

  Why are you commenting on a Scottish Cup tie in a chat headed Scottish Cup 2019/20.

You should know bettet☺

[Drogba1888]

2 hours ago, Boscerson said:

Using the west/central area as an example, to me it makes no sense to have so many different leagues covering the same area.

The best 2 leagues are widely considered to be the Central and Caley and they cover a similar area. Some towns even have a split with nearby teams in different league set-ups (Stirling with Milton in Caley and Bannockburn in Central springs to mind).

SAFL, GGPL and SDAFA also cover large parts of the same region too.

On a Saturday morning 3 leagues (SSMFL, GDSML and Glasgow Colleges FA) cover the same area (4 when the Churches league is included).

The league committees all do a great job in running their own individual leagues but I feel it would be a good time to at least consider pulling resources together, look at merging leagues and try to reshape the amateur set-up to stop it dwindling away even further.

It might not stop teams folding altogether but a larger set-up could absorb these losses better, would be more competitive as teams would find their level within the divisions and would be stronger financially rather than various leagues running 1/2 divisions and competing for new teams etc.

Are Bannockburn and Milton not even in the same breath? The leagues certainly aren’t?! 

One club challenging for majors every year and the other fighting relegation? 

[murray1990]

Having 2 good strikers will only get you so far especially after seeing the mossblown game earlier this week.  

Especially when one of them still plays with hurlford juniors

[Boscerson]

Was just using them as an example of 2 very nearby clubs in different leagues.

Theres examples all over the place. Dumbarton Acad & St Pat's, Colville Park & Dalziel HSFP, Wishaw FP and Wishaw WW and that's only the Caley and Central leagues.

Are Bannockburn and Milton not even in the same breath? The leagues certainly aren’t?! 
One club challenging for majors every year and the other fighting relegation? 

[GAVT67]

1 hour ago, Boscerson said:

Was just using them as an example of 2 very nearby clubs in different leagues.

Theres examples all over the place. Dumbarton Acad & St Pat's, Colville Park & Dalziel HSFP, Wishaw FP and Wishaw WW and that's only the Caley and Central leagues.

Dont assume that all these teams would want to play in the same league. One of the main reasons we moved from the old Lanarkshire League was there were too many teams from Wishaw in it at that time. Certainly wasn't the main reason but it was an issue. Memory isn't what it was but I'm sure there were 4 or 5 teams in Wishaw at that time and that was before Wishaw Wycombe were on the go. Wouldn't want to go back to those days.