Season a write off?

[Brazilianlex]

Leagues 1/2 will be declared null and void, Lowland and Highland leagues will be up in arms, then Rangers, SPFL and SFA will ride to the financial rescue of Clubs to propose a reconstruction of 16 Clubs in League 2 to include the Old firm Colts.

Almost like it was planned !

[Thom & Gerry]

Certainly not beyond the realms of possibility. Good shout.

[Sergeant Wilson]

43 minutes ago, Brazilianlex said:

Leagues 1/2 will be declared null and void, Lowland and Highland leagues will be up in arms, then Rangers, SPFL and SFA will ride to the financial rescue of Clubs to propose a reconstruction of 16 Clubs in League 2 to include the Old firm Colts.

Almost like it was planned !

They did it last week.

[Dunning1874]

18 hours ago, craigkillie said:

If football can be restarted by the end of February then you can completely the whole season - that's only about six games per month for March, April and May which is easy.

It doesn't leave much room for manoeuvre in the calendar though, considering you also have at least two rounds of the Scottish Cup with L1 & L2 teams still in it to fit in and the risk of further postponements, while dependent on the length of suspension they may need some time to train before restarting games.

Assuming every league can be completed rather than the season being written off, you need to have all the leagues finishing at around the same time for the sake of the playoffs so no team taking part is twiddling their thumbs for weeks waiting for another league to finish, and am I right in saying the Premiership can't finish any later due to the European Championships? So the Championship then needs to be finishing on 30 April as planned in order to get through the playoffs in time to provide a finalist for 19/23 May as scheduled?

As an example, Clyde have only played 8 games so far, so have 19 league games to fit in. Say league games resumed on the last Saturday in February and they were scheduled to play every single midweek from then to the current scheduled end date on 1 May, that would give them their 19 games.

However, they're still to play their second round tie in the Scottish Cup, and if they beat Highland League opposition they then have a third round tie v Elgin or Ayr. Win that too and they've lost three dates to the Scottish Cup. It's also not unheard of to have weather postponements in March, so they could lose games to that as well. Add in the potential for a Covid outbreak for them and you could lose another ten days and three games, while anyone else in League One could have an outbreak costing a game too.

All of a sudden you're looking towards the end of May before the playoffs at either end of League One can start, meaning the 9th placed Championship side (and possibly the 2nd-4th placed League Two sides if they haven't had similar issues) are past the date of contracts expiring and have had almost month off before being able to play their games, with the playoffs then not being complete until June.

It's doable, but it's unnecessarily risky and messy. Regardless of the wisdom of the decision at the time, lower league clubs pretty clearly went with 27 games and a delayed start in the hope it would give them as many games as possible with fans back in the ground, and the fixture imbalance of playing everyone three times was worth having for the chance of that revenue.

Now we know there's no chance of fans being back this season it'd surely be far better to cut back to 18 games, giving both a a balanced fixture list and more importantly some space in the calendar whenever something else goes wrong.

[Sergeant Wilson]

8 minutes ago, Dunning1874 said:

It doesn't leave much room for manoeuvre in the calendar though, considering you also have at least two rounds of the Scottish Cup with L1 & L2 teams still in it to fit in and the risk of further postponements, while dependent on the length of suspension they may need some time to train before restarting games.

Assuming every league can be completed rather than the season being written off, you need to have all the leagues finishing at around the same time for the sake of the playoffs so no team taking part is twiddling their thumbs for weeks waiting for another league to finish, and am I right in saying the Premiership can't finish any later due to the European Championships? So the Championship then needs to be finishing on 30 April as planned in order to get through the playoffs in time to provide a finalist for 19/23 May as scheduled?

As an example, Clyde have only played 8 games so far, so have 19 league games to fit in. Say league games resumed on the last Saturday in February and they were scheduled to play every single midweek from then to the current scheduled end date on 1 May, that would give them their 19 games.

However, they're still to play their second round tie in the Scottish Cup, and if they beat Highland League opposition they then have a third round tie v Elgin or Ayr. Win that too and they've lost three dates to the Scottish Cup. It's also not unheard of to have weather postponements in March, so they could lose games to that as well. Add in the potential for a Covid outbreak for them and you could lose another ten days and three games, while anyone else in League One could have an outbreak costing a game too.

All of a sudden you're looking towards the end of May before the playoffs at either end of League One can start, meaning the 9th placed Championship side (and possibly the 2nd-4th placed League Two sides if they haven't had similar issues) are past the date of contracts expiring and have had almost month off before being able to play their games, with the playoffs then not being complete until June.

It's doable, but it's unnecessarily risky and messy. Regardless of the wisdom of the decision at the time, lower league clubs pretty clearly went with 27 games and a delayed start in the hope it would give them as many games as possible with fans back in the ground, and the fixture imbalance of playing everyone three times was worth having for the chance of that revenue.

Now we know there's no chance of fans being back this season it'd surely be far better to cut back to 18 games, giving both a a balanced fixture list and more importantly some space in the calendar whenever something else goes wrong.

I don't disagree, but can you imagine L1 if Falkirk or Thistle had a slump and lost out by a few points or goal difference to go up after only 18 games rather than the original 27?

I don't think I would ever stop laughing!

[craigkillie]

36 minutes ago, Dunning1874 said:

It doesn't leave much room for manoeuvre in the calendar though, considering you also have at least two rounds of the Scottish Cup with L1 & L2 teams still in it to fit in and the risk of further postponements, while dependent on the length of suspension they may need some time to train before restarting games.

Assuming every league can be completed rather than the season being written off, you need to have all the leagues finishing at around the same time for the sake of the playoffs so no team taking part is twiddling their thumbs for weeks waiting for another league to finish, and am I right in saying the Premiership can't finish any later due to the European Championships? So the Championship then needs to be finishing on 30 April as planned in order to get through the playoffs in time to provide a finalist for 19/23 May as scheduled?

As an example, Clyde have only played 8 games so far, so have 19 league games to fit in. Say league games resumed on the last Saturday in February and they were scheduled to play every single midweek from then to the current scheduled end date on 1 May, that would give them their 19 games.

However, they're still to play their second round tie in the Scottish Cup, and if they beat Highland League opposition they then have a third round tie v Elgin or Ayr. Win that too and they've lost three dates to the Scottish Cup. It's also not unheard of to have weather postponements in March, so they could lose games to that as well. Add in the potential for a Covid outbreak for them and you could lose another ten days and three games, while anyone else in League One could have an outbreak costing a game too.

All of a sudden you're looking towards the end of May before the playoffs at either end of League One can start, meaning the 9th placed Championship side (and possibly the 2nd-4th placed League Two sides if they haven't had similar issues) are past the date of contracts expiring and have had almost month off before being able to play their games, with the playoffs then not being complete until June.

It's doable, but it's unnecessarily risky and messy. Regardless of the wisdom of the decision at the time, lower league clubs pretty clearly went with 27 games and a delayed start in the hope it would give them as many games as possible with fans back in the ground, and the fixture imbalance of playing everyone three times was worth having for the chance of that revenue.

Now we know there's no chance of fans being back this season it'd surely be far better to cut back to 18 games, giving both a a balanced fixture list and more importantly some space in the calendar whenever something else goes wrong.

 

You might be right with this - you'd hope that Ian Blair at the SPFL is being proactive about this in terms of fixture scheduling and is drawing up the various possibilities. If it's just the initial three weeks there's almost certainly no issue, but I don't see that as being very likely.

[Mick1867]

15 hours ago, Bring Your Own Socks said:

SPFL could have sorted this easily. Whenever a team has to miss a game due to the pandemic they forfeit the fixtures they miss and 3 points go to their opponents along with payment of the win bonus by the reckless club. At all levels. And then of course a lower final league position could result in relegation or at least less prize winning cash. That would have focussed attention for club officials. 

You're at it  

[Gordon EF]

1 hour ago, Dunning1874 said:

Now we know there's no chance of fans being back this season it'd surely be far better to cut back to 18 games, giving both a a balanced fixture list and more importantly some space in the calendar whenever something else goes wrong.

If the resumption form the pause is delayed then cutting the season to 18 games and finishing up the cup and aligning to the end of the Premier and Championship seems like the most sensible decision for Leagues One and Two. Of course it all depends when/if we can unpause. 

I think that'd still be messy for the non-leagues. They can't cut their seasons up into quarters nicely so I'm sure there'd still be big rammies about what to do. 

Clubs in relegation trouble might also not like the idea of only having 8-9 games left to reach safety, as opposed to 17-18. I imagine there will be people pushing for null and void. Question is, how many?

Edited January 12, 2021 by Gordon EF

[Brazilianlex]

1 hour ago, Gordon EF said:

If the resumption form the pause is delayed then cutting the season to 18 games and finishing up the cup and aligning to the end of the Premier and Championship seems like the most sensible decision for Leagues One and Two. Of course it all depends when/if we can unpause. 

I think that'd still be messy for the non-leagues. They can't cut their seasons up into quarters nicely so I'm sure there'd still be big rammies about what to do. 

Clubs in relegation trouble might also not like the idea of only having 8-9 games left to reach safety, as opposed to 17-18. I imagine there will be people pushing for null and void. Question is, how many?

You can’t decide a season on 18 games and decide promotions and relegations.

play for title and places over 18games to keep players fit and fans  something to watch  but no promotions or relegations would be best option then start again next season.

[Guest The Phoenix]

1 hour ago, Brazilianlex said:

You can’t decide a season on 18 games and decide promotions and relegations.

play for title and places over 18games to keep players fit and fans  something to watch  but no promotions or relegations would be best option then start again next season.

Sorry but a "just for fun" league would be beyond farcical., for Clubs, Managers, Players and fans. 

[Thom & Gerry]

Cutting the season to 18 games, as the Highland League has done, is the sensible position to take if as is likely the suspension goes on beyond the end of the month. I think it will be almost impossible to get a consensus to do this or null and void. Clubs going for promotion will want that retained, clubs relegation threatened will want it scrapped or keep the status quo giving them as many games as possible to get out of their predicament. This of course will be grossly unfair on HL and LL teams seeking promotion. This is why I can see clubs taking the option that appeases the majority which is reconstruction.

[Aberdeen Cowden]

5 minutes ago, The Phoenix said:

Sorry but a "just for fun" league would be beyond farcical., for Clubs, Managers, Players and fans. 

Scrap the cup for a start.

[vikingTON]

24 minutes ago, Thom & Gerry said:

 This is why I can see clubs taking the option that appeases the majority which is reconstruction.

There is no one magical 'reconstruction' option that meets the interests of every (or even most clubs), which is why this route has failed time and time again. 

[craigkillie]

Scrap the cup for a start.

Will it not be one of the biggest income sources for the clubs involved? Even if it came down to it, I suspect it would be more profitable for the clubs in League 1 and below to withdraw from the cup and have it play out with the remaining clubs. Scrapping it completely would make no sense.

[vikingTON]

The cup can clearly be held over into next season anyway, given that they just did it for 19/20. Punt the Betfred back to single knockout and run it alongside the Scottish in July/August.

[Brazilianlex]

The day after the SFA throw the lower leagues under the bus, allegedly until the end of January, Nippy comes out today and says even if things are better, restrictions are unlikely to be lifted at the end of the month so that’s that then, season over.

Scot Gov were at the meeting with SFA and must have known this.

The SFA do not care about lower league, non league Football and never will

[Brazilianlex]

40 minutes ago, virginton said:

There is no one magical 'reconstruction' option that meets the interests of every (or even most clubs), which is why this route has failed time and time again. 

Rangers have a great idea apparently !

[Gordon EF]

1 hour ago, The Phoenix said:

Sorry but a "just for fun" league would be beyond farcical., for Clubs, Managers, Players and fans. 

That's essentially what Cowden's season would be regardless.

[The Moonster]

4 hours ago, Gordon EF said:

If the resumption form the pause is delayed then cutting the season to 18 games and finishing up the cup and aligning to the end of the Premier and Championship seems like the most sensible decision for Leagues One and Two. Of course it all depends when/if we can unpause. 

I think that'd still be messy for the non-leagues. They can't cut their seasons up into quarters nicely so I'm sure there'd still be big rammies about what to do. 

Clubs in relegation trouble might also not like the idea of only having 8-9 games left to reach safety, as opposed to 17-18. I imagine there will be people pushing for null and void. Question is, how many?

I guess the question about null and void is how much money does it cost clubs? I assume sponsorship money might be lost and league placing prize money couldn't be dished out. If that number is quite large then I doubt you'll see many shouting for it. 

3 hours ago, Brazilianlex said:

You can’t decide a season on 18 games and decide promotions and relegations.

We can decide a season any way we want as long as all member clubs vote it through. 

[Ivo den Bieman]

35 minutes ago, Brazilianlex said:

The day after the SFA throw the lower leagues under the bus, allegedly until the end of January, Nippy comes out today and says even if things are better, restrictions are unlikely to be lifted at the end of the month so that’s that then, season over.

Scot Gov were at the meeting with SFA and must have known this.

The SFA do not care about lower league, non league Football and never will