Scottish lower league football locked down for 3 weeks

[Stag Nation]

2 hours ago, banditjag said:

Great points, don't disagree. The rangers analogy, yes, I expect fans voices had a bearing on how clubs responded but that wasn't the only reason, but old ground. Let's not go there.

I've no doubt you are right but I'd just make a single point. It would require fans being of the same voice, a collective movement. I just doubt that at any club, barring something like rangers happening again, that would galvanise many supports. A single voice in this game changes nothing, and consensus is nigh on impossible. And as we have seen over my lifetime, clubs are, in the main, self absorbed and all about themselves. But it's a great point nonetheless.

League clubs are all (AFAIK) eother private limited companies or PLCs. The club's board has a legal duty to act in the interests of the company, not of the league or the wider game. Any director who fails in that duty is open to legal action by aggrieved shareholders. So, yes, it's self-interest, but it's their job.

[Forest_Fifer]

Looks like we’ll be playing again from 2 March.
 
So thats around 8/9 weeks to fit in 16 games or so if they want to do the full 27 games. Wonder if they’ll shorten it to just 18. 

They could extend the season by a couple of weeks, or maybe reduce the playoffs to one off ties instead of home and away. You could probably get another 4-6 matchdays in if you did that. Still tight, and you'd be playing twice a week for the rest of the season, but doable.
Having said that, I think they'll just go down to 18 games.

[bairn88]

This may be flawed logic, but haven’t seen it mentioned - could an attributing factor to clubs being able to afford the testing be helped by the fact the entire playing and management staff will have been on furlough at every club since 11 Jan (til mid Feb it seems) - around 5 weeks. 

Thats 5 weeks where clubs would have otherwise been paying their players, and if they’re aiming to finish the season where it would have finished anyway (possibly a shortened season in number of games), that’s basically just a free 5 weeks for clubs? £15k per month would be easily covered by that furlough time?

[Pride Of The Clyde]

I have lost all interest in this season, i wish they would just call the whole thing off. Who is to say if we do get back playing that there wont be anymore lock downs before May, where will that leave us ? If we have any more delays how in the hell are we going to finish in such a short time, no chance and clubs will have to fork out up to £40k for the slight chance of continuing with this season, money most clubs can ill-afford annd no guarantees.

[jagsfan57]

To be fair the statement does go on to quote Neil Doncaster who sits on the JRG and was clearly in agreement and says the SPFL has agreed to postpone fixtures until further notice. However, that's a little misleading as they didn't actually have any choice in the matter. As the opening paragraph makes absolutely clear, it was a decision of the SFA Board to suspend football nationwide. The SPFL adding its voice of agreement did not change anything.

I wasn’t trying to contradict anything you said and although it’s not hard for me to be confused, I at least understand how I was.

[vikingTON]

19 hours ago, Forest_Fifer said:

They could extend the season by a couple of weeks, or maybe reduce the playoffs to one off ties instead of home and away. 

Perhaps between Leagues One and Two, but why should Championship clubs agree to sit on their hands for a couple of weeks, to the clear detriment of their side's match fitness, before playing one off ties if they finish 9th?

The onus is on the seaside leagues to finish at the same time as the Championship or else the playoff between the two leagues should be considered null and void.

Edited January 29, 2021 by vikingTON

[theoriginalhedge]

4 minutes ago, virginton said:

Perhaps between Leagues One and Two, but why should Championship clubs agree to sit on their hands for a couple of weeks, to the clear detriment of their side's match fitness, before playing one off ties if they finish 9th?

The onus is on the seaside leagues to finish at the same time as the Championship or else the playoff between the two leagues should be considered null and void.

Could this be the attitude which is delaying a decision on a re-start ?  Or are the full time clubs themselves a bit more considerate of the situation and the lower leagues ? 

Surely the quicker agreement can be reached , the better chance of completing fixtures on time ? 

 

[vikingTON]

2 minutes ago, theoriginalhedge said:

Could this be the attitude which is delaying a decision on a re-start ?  Or are the full time clubs themselves a bit more considerate of the situation and the lower leagues ? 

 

 

Putting yourself at a massive disadvantage compared to the existing play-off setup is not 'considerate', it is lunacy. 

[Sergeant Wilson]

19 hours ago, Forest_Fifer said:

They could extend the season by a couple of weeks, or maybe reduce the playoffs to one off ties instead of home and away. You could probably get another 4-6 matchdays in if you did that. Still tight, and you'd be playing twice a week for the rest of the season, but doable.
Having said that, I think they'll just go down to 18 games.

Like it or not, part of the play offs design was to give second bottom club another chance. Do you think any of the would vote to reduce that chance of staying up?

 

[wee_bairn]

44 minutes ago, virginton said:

Perhaps between Leagues One and Two, but why should Championship clubs agree to sit on their hands for a couple of weeks, to the clear detriment of their side's match fitness, before playing one off ties if they finish 9th?

The onus is on the seaside leagues to finish at the same time as the Championship or else the playoff between the two leagues should be considered null and void.

Agreed. I can't see how the 27 game season is manageable given the break and the potential of postponements with covid cases.  An 18 game league is the most likely way of ensuring a season can finish in time to allow the playoffs to be played out.

[The Moonster]

1 hour ago, virginton said:

The onus is on the seaside leagues to finish at the same time as the Championship or else the playoff between the two leagues should be considered null and void.

Well there should be some onus on the governing bodies considering they were the ones who halted play. Thankfully the League 1 & 2 clubs have put forward a solution to get things finished on time though and hopefully it can be agreed. Agree there should be no extention though, if we can get it done on time then no play offs.

[third lanark]

If Maxwell was meeting the league one and two clubs yesterday surely an indication of yes you will be back shortly or no you won’t be playing for the foreseeable to be reviewed in another months time, or a likelihood of null and void  could have been given etc

[Pie Of The Month]

 

[Dunning1874]

The leagues all need to end at the same time for the sake of the playoffs, and you can't delay the Premiership and Championship to coincide with an extended L1 & L2 season because the European Championships mean the Premiership has to end as scheduled.

Reducing to 18 games is the only solution if it's a 2 March restart. Play every Saturday and midweek from then to the scheduled end of the season and you've got 18 dates.

Taking Clyde as an example, they have 19 league games to play if it stays at 27.  Okay, you could shoehorn an extra game in over a two week period by having them play, for example, Friday - Monday - Thursday - Sunday-Wednesday - Saturday rather than the usual Sat - Tues - Sat - Tues - Sat , but even that's more trouble than it's worth before considering that a) they're still in the Scottish Cup and b) there's a risk of further postponements due to weather and the obvious possibility of any team having a positive test with players isolating, and losing two or three dates as a result.

[bairn88]

2 minutes ago, Dunning1874 said:

The leagues all need to end at the same time for the sake of the playoffs, and you can't delay the Premiership and Championship to coincide with an extended L1 & L2 season because the European Championships mean the Premiership has to end as scheduled.

Reducing to 18 games is the only solution if it's a 2 March restart. Play every Saturday and midweek from then to the scheduled end of the season and you've got 18 dates.

Taking Clyde as an example, they have 19 league games to play if it stays at 27.  Okay, you could shoehorn an extra game in over a two week period by having them play, for example, Friday - Monday - Thursday - Sunday-Wednesday - Saturday rather than the usual Sat - Tues - Sat - Tues - Sat , but even that's more trouble than it's worth before considering that a) they're still in the Scottish Cup and b) there's a risk of further postponements due to weather and the obvious possibility of any team having a positive test with players isolating, and losing two or three dates as a result.

An 18 game season wouldn’t be everyone starting from 0, you know? It would be from where we are now (10/11 games), so only 7 to go - would only need to play on Saturdays, not midweek as well. 2 March - end of April is around 8 weekends. 

[Dunning1874]

9 minutes ago, bairn88 said:

An 18 game season wouldn’t be everyone starting from 0, you know? It would be from where we are now (10/11 games), so only 7 to go - would only need to play on Saturdays, not midweek as well. 2 March - end of April is around 8 weekends. 

Yeah that's what I'm meaning, sorry if that wasn't clear. Play to 18 games total and you can fit it in comfortably, keep it at 27 total and some clubs will need to cram 18 into two months.

[bairn88]

4 minutes ago, Dunning1874 said:

Yeah that's what I'm meaning, sorry if that wasn't clear. Play to 18 games total and you can fit it in comfortably, keep it at 27 total and some clubs will need to cram 18 into two months.

Yeah 27 would be a farce. Any covid call off (would be inevitable given every league has faced them) would mean 2 weeks or so wiped out, meaning you’d have to play 3 times a week at best. Non starter. 7 or 8 games in 2 months give you some leeway 

[The Moonster]

15 minutes ago, Dunning1874 said:

Yeah that's what I'm meaning, sorry if that wasn't clear. Play to 18 games total and you can fit it in comfortably, keep it at 27 total and some clubs will need to cram 18 into two months.

Pretty much all of League 2 are in the same position as ourselves and Clyde (needing 18/19 league games played). There's not a hope in hell we complete a 27 game season - there will be postponements due to weather and/or COVID. 

[Rbon]

We have 18 games to fit in plus a cup tie. We've already had two postponements and that was before we even hit the worst part of our winter. Not a chance we will fit those in within the allotted time frame especially with the unfortunate thing of games being called off for covid as well. 

as far as i can see it's either going to be we play an 18 game season or the season won't finish on time. 

Edited January 29, 2021 by Rbon

[David W]

I think we all agree that an 18 game season is the only realistic option in terms of playing further games. Whether the clubs see it like that though is a different matter (e.g. a club at the bottom of a league will see things differently to one at the top, are any clubs more susceptible to repaying season ticket money etc). Two months after having matches called off, Clyde still don't know whether they're to play matches or are facing a couple of defeats. A bit more haste and those games could easily have gone ahead in mid-December.

I personally think 18 games is a nice wee bit of entertainment and not enough to base promotion or relegation on.

It is actually shameful that the clubs didn't get together to map stuff like this out. None of what has happened over the last couple of months has been a surprise.