Tier 4 - Restrictions.

[FairWeatherFan]

9 minutes ago, newcastle broon said:

English non league clubs looking at proposals of ppg from the 2 seasons combined with promotions but no relegations. Not sure if that would work up here though? Interesting all the same? 

 

I think it would be too messy up here with all the changes that have taken place between seasons. I believe most of the English non-league just null & voided last season so it's the same teams.

[newcastle broon]

The EBAC Northern League have issued a statement as well.

 

[Auld Heid]

Any update from the EOSFL given the likelihood that lockdown is going to continue for a good while yet?

[AlanCamelonfan]

1 hour ago, Auld Heid said:

Any update from the EOSFL given the likelihood that lockdown is going to continue for a good while yet?

Well considering its upto sfa rather than eosfl. If it starts back early March season will get done. Any later could be shortened season 

[Gazzah]

Obviously a different level but the Fife ammies league have said they would be able to complete their league campaign with a April restart and June finish playing two games a week which gives 26 game slots . The Season usually needs to be done before Agm second week in June but an extension to season will be allowed. Maybe contracts etc stop this at this level but surely clubs would rather finish season this way than ppg if viable.

[Burnieman]

Any update from the EOSFL given the likelihood that lockdown is going to continue for a good while yet?

None. I just can't see the SFA allowing a resumption until the lockdown is ended. The mood music from politicians is that don't expect lockdown to end anytime soon.

I see L1 and L2 clubs have committed to testing to try and get restarted.

[Andy groundhopper]

Can see the benefits of restarting IF testing is increased, but again the costs come into it. Can't see anything lower down the pyramid before March/April at best, guess there are various options on how to finish the season - dependant on whether any promotions are on the table. Am just hoping for a better future for 21/22 with fans back.

[CrossgatesCynic]

I just can't see how clubs at this level can afford to be routinely testing players, given their ability to claw back revenue from gate money is nullified. It's a tough decision to suspend play at this level but there's going to need to be a serious conversation in the near future about the consequences of calling the season early outside the SPFL.

[Stoosh83]

Due to these restrictions and ultimately the unknown, I personally think there is no better time for a shake up in Scottish football.  Summer football is a must IMO. 1st of April to 31st October. Everyone non league, amateur,  grassroots. It's a no brainer. 

[GordonS]

16 minutes ago, Stoosh83 said:

Due to these restrictions and ultimately the unknown, I personally think there is no better time for a shake up in Scottish football.  Summer football is a must IMO. 1st of April to 31st October. Everyone non league, amateur,  grassroots. It's a no brainer. 

A friend of mine used to play in the second tier of women's football, who played summer football. She said you exercise less in the off season when it's in winter, summer holidays were an absolute pain with all the players and coaches with kids missing a couple of weeks at a time, pitches couldn't recover in the winter and you have a remarkably high number of games off in the summer due to waterlogged pitches anyway. I follow Glasgow City a bit and seasons culminating in winter is weird. I've been at two Scottish Cup Finals in bloody terrible weather. 

As for your timetable - 5 months without football??? Yeah, no thanks.

There are obviously benefits like training in much better weather so spending more time on technique than staying warm, but I think it's far from a no-brainer. My own preference is to keep it as it is. 

Edited January 26, 2021 by GordonS

[Sergeant Wilson]

18 hours ago, GordonS said:

A friend of mine used to play in the second tier of women's football, who played summer football. She said you exercise less in the off season when it's in winter, summer holidays were an absolute pain with all the players and coaches with kids missing a couple of weeks at a time, pitches couldn't recover in the winter and you have a remarkably high number of games off in the summer due to waterlogged pitches anyway. I follow Glasgow City a bit and seasons culminating in winter is weird. I've been at two Scottish Cup Finals in bloody terrible weather. 

As for your timetable - 5 months without football??? Yeah, no thanks.

There are obviously benefits like training in much better weather so spending more time on technique than staying warm, but I think it's far from a no-brainer. My own preference is to keep it as it is. 

We effectively have summer football anyway. Late finishes for those interested in non league and mid July start for the League Cup elsewhere.

The new organisations might limit the late finishes but I'd build in a break (I know, which month?) and add on the extra at the beginning or end of the season.

The notion of summer football always seems great, but the practicalities of formalising it rule it out.

Edited January 27, 2021 by Sergeant Wilson

[Ginaro]

20 minutes ago, Stoosh83 said:

Due to these restrictions and ultimately the unknown, I personally think there is no better time for a shake up in Scottish football.  Summer football is a must IMO. 1st of April to 31st October. Everyone non league, amateur,  grassroots. It's a no brainer. 

That's 31 Saturdays, to fit in 30 fixtures plus cup games - you'd need to add on another month on either end of the season (March-November) since a normal season from August to May is 44 Saturdays.

[Stoosh83]

The weather between November and February is horrendous for football.  You just need to look at fixtures list  before the shutdown to see the amount of Ps.  

The pitches wont be getting cut up anywhere near as much and can get decent maintenance on them. 

Nowadays more players work shifts, and go on holiday, stags, breaks all season, without a care for the club. Rather than just the school holidays. 

As for the saturdays, well your arguments pretty poor as midweek games could easily fit in. Only 1 per week max, rather than the usual end of season 4 games in 8 days scenario.  

As far as I'm concerned, there are too many people who are deciding our game, who just dont do change. Scottish football will only get worse if we dont do suhn.

[GordonS]

6 hours ago, Stoosh83 said:

The weather between November and February is horrendous for football.  You just need to look at fixtures list  before the shutdown to see the amount of Ps.  

That's not true, and you'd be amazed at the number of postponements in summer.

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The pitches wont be getting cut up anywhere near as much and can get decent maintenance on them. 

You can't repair pitches when there's no good sunlight, you need to do it in summer.

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Nowadays more players work shifts, and go on holiday, stags, breaks all season, without a care for the club. Rather than just the school holidays. 

An awful lot of players, managers, coaches and officials have kids and are stuck with the 6-7 weeks in July & August for their main holiday. Few of them take much time off during the season. Clubs will end up trying to avoid signing guys with kids.

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As for the saturdays, well your arguments pretty poor as midweek games could easily fit in. Only 1 per week max, rather than the usual end of season 4 games in 8 days scenario.  

Right now we deal with any fixture backlogs in May (or June if you're Junior). You want to try dealing with them in November?

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As far as I'm concerned, there are too many people who are deciding our game, who just dont do change. Scottish football will only get worse if we dont do suhn.

I'm massively for change, I just think this is considerably more hassle than any benefit. 

[Stoosh83]

If your massively for change, then what would you massively change?

Postponement during these months aren't true? Have you looked on the eosfl website? Theres teams not played since November. 

[GordonS]

4 hours ago, Stoosh83 said:

If your massively for change, then what would you massively change?

Well to give one example, I'd ban both 11-a-sides and league football for under 14s, I'd prevent kids from playing for more than one club/school at the same time and I'd limit the number of 11-a-side competitive matches played by under 17s to about 30 a year. I'd split youth matches into four quarters of 20 minutes and require all subs to play at least quarter of every match.

I'd look to nominate a lead club for every community of about 10,000 to 25,000 people and they'd each have a full-time coach responsible for coaching male and female squads from adult right down to the youngest stage (the first teams could still have a traditional manager too). They'd work with the local schools and the best players would only play for the clubs, not the schools.

Each one of these clubs should have at least one grass and one 3G pitch, with floodlighting on the 3G pitch. They'd run after-school clubs at as low a price possible (as they do in Iceland), open to any standard and age. 

Above this I would have regional elite academies, run by the SFA and not clubs. The clubs shouldn't have any players under 16, they should all be in academies. 

Our entire focus needs to switch to technique, technique, technique. Just now it's all on winning, but you don't learn how to play the game that way.

I'd set up an Erasmus-style exchange programme among clubs so that young players aged 18-21 could get at least 3 months, and preferably a season, at a club in a different country.

As for league structures, I'd prefer 12-12-18. The regional pyramid below this is coming together nicely. 

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Postponement during these months aren't true? Have you looked on the eosfl website? Theres teams not played since November. 

And other clubs haven't had any postponements, so it's often about the state of specific pitches. Obviously there are more postponements in winter, but in Scotland we have a surprising number all year. We're wet AF all year round. If we switch to summer football then there will be fewer, but I don't think that's enough to overcome the downsides.

[Burnieman]

16 hours ago, Stoosh83 said:

As far as I'm concerned, there are too many people who are deciding our game, who just dont do change. Scottish football will only get worse if we dont do suhn.

Seriously, on the EoS forum you're claiming that?

[AlanCamelonfan]

1 hour ago, GordonS said:

Well to give one example, I'd ban both 11-a-sides and league football for under 14s, I'd prevent kids from playing for more than one club/school at the same time and I'd limit the number of 11-a-side competitive matches played by under 17s to about 30 a year. I'd split youth matches into four quarters of 20 minutes and require all subs to play at least quarter of every match.

I'd look to nominate a lead club for every community of about 10,000 to 25,000 people and they'd each have a full-time coach responsible for coaching male and female squads from adult right down to the youngest stage (the first teams could still have a traditional manager too). They'd work with the local schools and the best players would only play for the clubs, not the schools.

Each one of these clubs should have at least one grass and one 3G pitch, with floodlighting on the 3G pitch. They'd run after-school clubs at as low a price possible (as they do in Iceland), open to any standard and age. 

Above this I would have regional elite academies, run by the SFA and not clubs. The clubs shouldn't have any players under 16, they should all be in academies. 

Our entire focus needs to switch to technique, technique, technique. Just now it's all on winning, but you don't learn how to play the game that way.

I'd set up an Erasmus-style exchange programme among clubs so that young players aged 18-21 could get at least 3 months, and preferably a season, at a club in a different country.

As for league structures, I'd prefer 12-12-18. The regional pyramid below this is coming together nicely. 

And other clubs haven't had any postponements, so it's often about the state of specific pitches. Obviously there are more postponements in winter, but in Scotland we have a surprising number all year. We're wet AF all year round. If we switch to summer football then there will be fewer, but I don't think that's enough to overcome the downsides.

A lot of what you said is correct although some of it is lack of discipline with young people. Every generation gets worse.

I've been watching si ferry podcast interviewing former professional and all say the same that they dont do the apprenticeship like they did in the past. Cleaning boots cleaning the terraces. 

Frank mcavennie said he was somewhere and kids were all on this astro but he said hed rather see kids play on the waste ground next to it because it didnt cost anything. Let them play. Too much trying to get them to play like Barcelona but they arent Barcelona. When I was growing up their was a slabbed area in front of my house and we used to all play football their. It could be 11 a side at times. That same area doesnt have any kids playing football on it.

These guys were playing against men at 16 and it toughened them up.

[Cyclizine]

Proponents of summer football never tell us which competitions they want to cull in order to fit their massively reduced season.

[Stoosh83]

4 hours ago, Burnieman said:

Seriously, on the EoS forum you're claiming that?

I'm saying EOS should go summer football, so why not on the eos forum?