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[Ginaro]

40 minutes ago, FairWeatherFan said:

Its looking like if the Lowland League don't complete the season they'll put Kelty up again since they've never got the opportunity at the play-off in 2019-20.

Read it again...

[Robert James]

On 29/09/2020 at 23:30, timeforchange said:

Listened  to The Highland League Secretary on  Radio Clyde tonight and I think he is spot on. With the cases still currently rising there is no way we will be starting anytime soon with another 2 week semi lockdown about too be announced also. At least they gave there selves a fighting chance with their league voting for less games if they go ahead. We voted for more 20 team league ? Nonsense. Time to just get a vote done and call it instead of hanging on with the polishing cloth and crystal ball hoping something is gonna change. Save our clubs that don’t have sugar daddies and are having to fork out weekly sums to play meaningless friendlies in the hope that there is a change . The life belt has already been cast adrift and is floating away already. Not letting fans in is just a red herring , no changing facilities is here for a while, with the worst weather  months of the year still  to come. Nobody will blame you for trying but it just ain’t going to happen. 

Given the overall uncertainty of the virus, and the probable poor weather in the Highlands, in my opinion the Highland League should decide to limit the 2020/21season to

either  each club playing each other only once (ie 16 league games), instead of playing both home & away games,  

or splitting into 2 divisions (at tiers 5 & 6) for one season only, thereby following the decision agreed by the North Caley League.

This may also be something for the WoSL to consider ?

Edited September 30, 2020 by Robert James

[Samsonite]

8 hours ago, Robert James said:

Given the overall uncertainty of the virus, and the probable poor weather in the Highlands, in my opinion the Highland League should decide to limit the 2020/21season to

either  each club playing each other only once (ie 16 league games), instead of playing both home & away games,  

or splitting into 2 divisions (at tiers 5 & 6) for one season only, thereby following the decision agreed by the North Caley League.

This may also be something for the WoSL to consider ?

The Highland League have already confirmed this (if the season goes ahead) one round of games each team playing each other once.

[LongTimeLurker]

12 hours ago, Ginaro said:

Read it again...

...would be a very fitting epitaph for FWF when the time comes. Good to see there are opt out opportunities without any penalty in an LL context. Really fear for Bo'ness United in that context if Nicola Sturgeon uses lower level football to be different from Boris because crowds do very much matter for them unlike a lot of the clubs they will be up against in an LL context, who have funding models that do not rely on having much of an active fanbase.

Too bad Alex Salmond isn't still the SNP head honcho. Not sure to what extent he is a Lithgae Rose fan (have heard Hearts were always more his team) but have been told that some of his immediate family definitely are/were, so if he was still calling the shots it would be a lot easier to get lower level football onto the political radar. The fear with Nicola S is that she sees the current crisis as a way to exact some sort of Scottish housewife's revenge against the football by pushing it way down the list of priorities.

As you can see from this forum there are plenty of SNP activists/supporters who will never question any SG decision no matter how illogical and will relentlessly push the party line no matter what, so there probably aren't many political people giving her negative feedback on stuff like this, if she is the key to career advancement.

Edited October 1, 2020 by LongTimeLurker

[Marten]

There are no different rules here just because NS wants to be different from Boris Johnson. It's clearly explained why non-league football is not a priority and Sturgeon admitted she would have closed the pubs if she could afford to support the businesses. But closing pubs has a large effect on the economy and jobs, non-league footbal doesn't.

It's not as if Boris Johnson cares more about non-league football than Nicola Sturgeon does. He doesn't care about that at all. Then again, he doesn't care about people losing their lives either, he only cares about himself and his cronies.

[Steven W]

13 minutes ago, Marten said:

There are no different rules here just because NS wants to be different from Boris Johnson. It's clearly explained why non-league football is not a priority and Sturgeon admitted she would have closed the pubs if she could afford to support the businesses. But closing pubs has a large effect on the economy and jobs, non-league footbal doesn't.

It's not as if Boris Johnson cares more about non-league football than Nicola Sturgeon does. He doesn't care about that at all. Then again, he doesn't care about people losing their lives either, he only cares about himself and his cronies.

Correct. Non-league football in England (well the lower levels of non-league) have fans (limited in size, tracked and tarced, socially distanted) because of a succesful campaign that resulted in, what was in affect a mistake, being overturned. Furthermore in England they've had the good sense to differentiate between 'Elite' level and 'Non-elite'.

None of this happended up here (although granted some clubs have finally began to see the bleak future over the horizon), but the worst part, and the most worrying part, is the complete silence from the JRG. A group set up not long after the start of the pandemic to assist with Scottish football's recovery at all levels. They have a sub-group for Grassroots level, and to this day I'm not sure if that refers to kids football, or kids + non-league football. The JRG are simply not interested in Scottish non-league, and the same goes for the SFA.

I maintain, and have done for months, that in the case of the JRG & SFA, once the Premier League started back it was a case of 'Job Done'. 

[LongTimeLurker]

40 minutes ago, Marten said:

There are no different rules here just because NS wants to be different from Boris Johnson...

If the Tories were in power at Holyrood (I definitely don't want this!), it would be Sewel motion after Sewel motion and SG policy very much in lockstep with Westminster's in times of crisis. The SNP inherently want everything to be different from Westminster. It's their whole raison d'etre.

Edited October 1, 2020 by LongTimeLurker

[Marten]

17 minutes ago, LongTimeLurker said:

If the Tories were in power at Holyrood (I definitely don't want this!), it would be Sewel motion after Sewel motion and SG policy very much in lockstep with Westminster's in times of crisis. The SNP inherently want everything to be different from Westminster. It's their whole raison d'etre.

But Scotland isn't the odd one out in terms of Covid19 policy. It's actually England who are the odd ones out. The current policies are pretty much exactly the same in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Mark Drakeford isn't exactly keen on leaving the UK and you don't get much more unionist than Arlene Foster, yet these 2 work closely with NS and regulary discuss measures to take between them.

[FairWeatherFan]

13 hours ago, gogsy said:

I don't see anything there that would suggest that absolutely bonkers idea.

13 hours ago, Ginaro said:

Read it again...

1 hour ago, LongTimeLurker said:

...would be a very fitting epitaph for FWF when the time comes.

[beithboy]

if this happens we are in some trouble

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-54368306

[LongTimeLurker]

11 minutes ago, Marten said:

But Scotland isn't the odd one out in terms of Covid19 policy. It's actually England who are the odd ones out. The current policies are pretty much exactly the same in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Mark Drakeford isn't exactly keen on leaving the UK and you don't get much more unionist than Arlene Foster, yet these 2 work closely with NS and regulary discuss measures to take between them.

Whatever bud. No idea why you think any of that is relevant.

Edited October 1, 2020 by LongTimeLurker

[Talbot supporter]

Can see tougher restrictions being put in place shortly in Scotland

[LongTimeLurker]

18 minutes ago, beithboy said:

if this happens we are in some trouble

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-54368306

Hopefully they would implement more relaxing of the rules in the aftermath of the short circuit breaker lockdown, but doubt they are serious about really going through with this unilaterally. It's probably mainly about turning irrational hypochondriacs against Westminster and boosting the Yes numbers in opinion polls on independence. We care, he disnae level stuff basically. Boris would probably be advocating much the same if he was on the opposition benches at the moment, so it's just the games that all politicians play.

Suspect they'll find something less drastic than a circuit breaker as the point of difference from Westminster, as they won't want to antagonise people that want life to be as normal as possible but need to get them to feel relieved that it wasn't as drastic as what was being floated in the media. The problem we have right now until after the new cases numbers have clearly peaked is that they are unlikely to want to be seen to be opening anything up, which is what is needed to get WoS up and running.

Edited October 1, 2020 by LongTimeLurker

[Marten]

28 minutes ago, LongTimeLurker said:

Whatever bud. No idea why you think any of that is relevant.

Other than that it debunks your incorrect statement that she just wants to be different...

[Arthurlie1981]

So I see that Matt Hancock has announced that people in Merseyside and parts of the north east of England have been told not to attend professional or amateur sporting events as spectators as of today. Must be a political decision as it was in Scotland [emoji848]

[LongTimeLurker]

26 minutes ago, Arthurlie1981 said:

So I see that Matt Hancock has announced that people in Merseyside and parts of the north east of England have been told not to attend professional or amateur sporting events as spectators as of today. Must be a political decision as it was in Scotland

He's a politician, so of course it's a political decision.

[HuttonDressedAsLahm]

3 hours ago, LongTimeLurker said:

If the Tories were in power at Holyrood (I definitely don't want this!), it would be Sewel motion after Sewel motion and SG policy very much in lockstep with Westminster's in times of crisis. The SNP inherently want everything to be different from Westminster. It's their whole raison d'etre.

There is normally good merit in this argument, but in this year of all years, it really doesn't stack up to much.  Where we match England seems to only be because of funding issues.

Being in any way different to one of the worst responses to the biggest crises in generations is hardly profound stuff.   

[Tutankhamen]

5 hours ago, Marten said:

There are no different rules here just because NS wants to be different from Boris Johnson. It's clearly explained why non-league football is not a priority and Sturgeon admitted she would have closed the pubs if she could afford to support the businesses. But closing pubs has a large effect on the economy and jobs, non-league footbal doesn't.

It's not as if Boris Johnson cares more about non-league football than Nicola Sturgeon does. He doesn't care about that at all. Then again, he doesn't care about people losing their lives either, he only cares about himself and his cronies.

Also 20 MPs spoke up for our level of football in England.

Silence here.

[Marten]

Just now, Tutankhamen said:

Also 20 MPs spoke up for our level of football in England.

Silence here.

At a guess because people have been lobbying them, I haven't heard much about MSPs being lobbied...

[Arthurlie1981]

At a guess because people have been lobbying them, I haven't heard much about MSPs being lobbied...

I think the boat has been missed. If the UK gov are now advising fans not to go to professional or amateur sports as spectators in certain areas of England I would guess there is evidence about transmission happening at these events and I would guess that would be enough ammunition for the Scottish gov to say as it’s not happening.