Celtic and Hearts B Teams in Lowland League?

[Brazilianlex]

52 minutes ago, Dundee Hibernian said:

All these suggestions recently: let's recall one of the more popular pieces of advice offered to the Old Firm sides when this was first put forward was that they should GTF.

That's still an attractive recommendation.

Advice that was carefully and fairly considered until the arrival of a couple of brown envelopes.

[edinabear]

Think Hibs b team will come in to balance the league

[Dev]

Maybe clubs rejected a renewal of last seasons' deal with the OF?

Quite a few put it to a vote of their supporters or otherwise did some sort of consultation. Might just take a few clubs sitting on the fence and abstaining to bring this about. 

[Brazilianlex]

Do the Lowland League hierarchy ever communicate with supporters.?

Seems fairly common knowledge that only two guest Clubs are to be admitted and that the SFA are imposing further criteria on their participation yet not a word from those in power so far.

[BS7]

12 hours ago, edinabear said:

Think Hibs b team will come in to balance the league

Not next season, hibs have a games programme for their development team next season.

[craigkillie]

3 minutes ago, BS7 said:

Not next season, hibs have a games programme for their development team next season.

They also, very crucially, didn't even apply to take part.

[Ginaro]

Plans for Celtic, Rangers and Hearts to field B teams in an expanded Lowland League next season are on the verge of collapse.

Clubs from Scottish football’s fifth tier recently voted in favour of admitting two guest sides for a second successive season.

Celtic and Rangers Colts were expected to fill the void until Hearts submitted a late application before the deadline.

Asked to change their rules to allow all three to enter a 19-team league, Lowland League sides voted against the proposal by a margin of 13 to three - with chairmen expected to decide which two of the three they wanted to admit by June 6.

In an unexpected ultimatum, however, the three Scottish Premiership clubs have now made it clear that the SLFL either allows all three guest teams to play - or risks receiving none at all.

Lowland League officials have now written to members outlining the current state of play.

And Sportsmail understands clubs are expected to revert to a 16-team league - with no guest teams admitted - when they discuss the matter at an AGM this Monday night.

Under last season’s arrangements both Celtic and Rangers paid £25,000 each as an entry payment for participation, with colts team ineligible for promotion.

With both clubs seeing the benefits to their academy players of playing regular competitive football against semi-professional opposition, Lowland League sides were set to ramp up the cost of entry. 

Irked by the apparent conditions attached by Celtic, Hearts and Rangers, the expectation is that members will end the guest club experiment on Monday.

On 21/05/2022 at 12:56, peternapper said:

and so denying teams lower down in the pyramid a place in the league

As has been pointed out before - and the above confirms - no teams have been denied a place in the league due to B teams, because the LL was only ever going to 18 for the sole purpose of accommodating Celtic and Rangers.

Now that two new teams will be in the league, let's hope there's another vote at some point next season to increase relegation.

[Blootoon87]

Great news. f**k them

[GNU_Linux]

So we aren't winning the world cup in 2026 then, sad.

[Dev]

1 hour ago, Ginaro said:

Plans for Celtic, Rangers and Hearts to field B teams in an expanded Lowland League next season are on the verge of collapse.

Clubs from Scottish football’s fifth tier recently voted in favour of admitting two guest sides for a second successive season.

Celtic and Rangers Colts were expected to fill the void until Hearts submitted a late application before the deadline.

Asked to change their rules to allow all three to enter a 19-team league, Lowland League sides voted against the proposal by a margin of 13 to three - with chairmen expected to decide which two of the three they wanted to admit by June 6.

In an unexpected ultimatum, however, the three Scottish Premiership clubs have now made it clear that the SLFL either allows all three guest teams to play - or risks receiving none at all.

Lowland League officials have now written to members outlining the current state of play.

And Sportsmail understands clubs are expected to revert to a 16-team league - with no guest teams admitted - when they discuss the matter at an AGM this Monday night.

Under last season’s arrangements both Celtic and Rangers paid £25,000 each as an entry payment for participation, with colts team ineligible for promotion.

With both clubs seeing the benefits to their academy players of playing regular competitive football against semi-professional opposition, Lowland League sides were set to ramp up the cost of entry. 

Irked by the apparent conditions attached by Celtic, Hearts and Rangers, the expectation is that members will end the guest club experiment on Monday.

As has been pointed out before - and the above confirms - no teams have been denied a place in the league due to B teams, because the LL was only ever going to 18 for the sole purpose of accommodating Celtic and Rangers.

Now that two new teams will be in the league, let's hope there's another vote at some point next season to increase relegation.

Now that the LL has shown that it can cope with  an 18 club season it's time to expand from 16 to 18 clubs in 12 months time so 2 extra promotion places for Tier 6  clubs in 12 months time and relegation expanded to 2 or 3 down in 12 months after that.

Simples.

[Bully Wee Villa]

Seems like the Lowland League is going to end up doing the right thing in spite of itself. The way they've conducted themselves has still been pathetic and a massive slap in the face for those who have pressed for a genuine pyramid for years, though.

[Pyramid Watcher]

23 minutes ago, Bully Wee Villa said:

Seems like the Lowland League is going to end up doing the right thing in spite of itself. The way they've conducted themselves has still been pathetic and a massive slap in the face for those who have pressed for a genuine pyramid for years, though.

In fairness to them, the LL have been pushing the SPFL for years for a proper pyramid. Previously the SJFA rubbished the LL, and it’s only since the WoSFL started that the major pressure started.

[Bully Wee Villa]

Yes, agreed. But then they f**k it up by trying to shoehorn the arsecheeks in while minimising the number of teams who can suffer relegation. They've come across as hypocritical shitebags. It's a shame that the leagues below have to suffer the consequences.

[MacDonald Jardine]

6 hours ago, Pyramid Watcher said:

In fairness to them, the LL have been pushing the SPFL for years for a proper pyramid. Previously the SJFA rubbished the LL, and it’s only since the WoSFL started that the major pressure started.

But they don't want a proper pyramid into the Lowland League. 

[FairWeatherFan]

It was always the best case scenario when Hearts applied. Who knew the FOMO from the Old Firm would be so strong that they'd join with Hearts to demand all 3 in.

If the 3 want to play each other so badly. I'm sure I won't be the first or last to suggest a reserve league

[lennyzer0]

1 minute ago, FairWeatherFan said:

It was always the best case scenario when Hearts applied. Who knew the FOMO from the Old Firm would be so strong that they'd join with Hearts to demand all 3 in.

If the 3 want to play each other so badly. I'm sure I won't be the first or last to suggest a reserve league

Hearts have wanted a reserve league for a while, so I'm choosing (in a slightly biased way, admittedly) to take this as a masterstroke by Budge and McKinlay designed purely to f**k over the Old Firm and make sure there are no colts teams in the LL next year.

[EdinburghBlue]

8 hours ago, Ginaro said:

In an unexpected ultimatum, however, the three Scottish Premiership clubs have now made it clear that the SLFL either allows all three guest teams to play - or risks receiving none at all.

This sort of arrogance not a surprise from Celtic and Rangers* but extremely disappointed in Hearts. Would have expected much better from the fan-owned club. 

 

[Pyramid Watcher]

1 hour ago, MacDonald Jardine said:

But they don't want a proper pyramid into the Lowland League. 

Not while they can’t get one out of it.

For the avoidance of doubt that is the reason given by the league as reported by several sources.

Edited May 26, 2022 by Pyramid Watcher

[Burnieman]

2 hours ago, FairWeatherFan said:

It was always the best case scenario when Hearts applied. Who knew the FOMO from the Old Firm would be so strong that they'd join with Hearts to demand all 3 in.

If the 3 want to play each other so badly. I'm sure I won't be the first or last to suggest a reserve league

Yip, I said a while back that Hearts stuck a spanner in their cosy little OF arrangement by applying.

Now the mask has slipped and all three are "demanding" (probably tabloid speak) entry.

LL now have an unexpected opportunity to reverse this nonsense and save face, repair the reputation of the league a little, and could repair it even more by staying at 18 by promoting both Darvel and Tranent, and agreeing to 2 up/down in future, which would mean VoL are saved.  That bits perhaps a step too far for them.

[Dav nan Gael]

Aye the Hearts putting an application in,was not in the LL's plans.......

Grubby it was,now been uncovered with them knocking back Hearts but still wanting to allow the Glasgow 2 in..........

Hopefully the LL see sense after now being threatened by the 3 clubs wanting entry,"with we're all getting in or none of us are joining patter " !!

Tell them to do one ...............

Edited May 26, 2022 by Dav nan Gael