weebaldie

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/53270910 Not sure if this has already been posted.

Regarding this BBC Report (June 15th) on Championship kicking off provisionally on October 17th with training resuming in August :- https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/53002695 I wonder if certain championship clubs might now be kicking themselves that this date has been announced as that's a full seventeen weeks away and still leaves a huge window of opportunity for considering or 'being persuaded' to at least tweak the league structure to 12/12/10/10. The Hearts situation aside, this would address what all football fans cannot deny to be our biggest injustice, that all important 'game in hand' which is possibly still our ace card which Hearts don't hold. The one thing that really annoyed me at the time when the Championship, Leagues 1 and 2 were terminated was all Premiership teams were in effect put on standby to see if the 2019/20 season could resume and have the fixtures completed. At this time both Thistle and ICT could have been given the same status in order to try to play our unfulfilled 28th fixture within the same timeframe. ICT would still have remained second regardless of the result. All the Championship teams could have been paid their League money with QoS and ourselves both paid for 10th place until our crucial game v ICT took place to finalise positions. As it transpired of course, this didn't happen for the Premiership anyway but nevertheless our 'game in hand' was effectively considered irrelevant by the SPFL. Had Rangers been two points behind Celtic with a game in hand, would the Premiership have been terminated and Celtic awarded the title? Assuming actually true, I did have to laugh at the following statement in the above report, obviously specifically for Hearts benefit :- 'Currently, only Premiership clubs are currently allowed to train before the division's 1 August start.' i.e. don't bother getting ready to play, you're definitely no' getting a game in the Premiership on August 1st! Surely clubs can start training whenever they like?

QoS take the biscuit - handed a 'get out of jail' card to vote to terminate Championship/League 1/2 to save themselves and then vote against Reconstruction. Thistle would have been getting pelters if our positions had been reversed, especially from our own fans.

Eighteen team championship, 36 games , restart in September (10 weeks away) -Thistle problem solved.

Has the SPFL actually made any official statement regarding the status of Leagues 1 & 2 for Season 2020/21? Surely all clubs and fans need to know the following:- 1. Is there a 'route map' back to getting these leagues up and running? 2. Will the SPFL decide when these leagues will start or is it up to the clubs? 3. If it's the clubs in each league, how many need to agree to start up? 4. How much notice is required before setting a start date and drawing up a fixture list? I'd be arguing that unless the SPFL can guarantee right now that League 1 will take place in season 2020/21 then given the already extraordinary circumstances of our demotion, we must be accommodated in the Championship when it starts mid October. As things stand, if League 1 doesn't happen, we're also being denied the opportunity to be promoted back to the Championship within a year. The SPFL and Championship teams can and should resolve our Court action immediately as our reinstatement wouldn't technically be a restructure of the league. (Of course a resurgence of Covid19 might blow everything out of the water but hopefully not for all our sakes).

Now that the current dozen Premiership clubs have successfully ring-fenced themselves, perhaps the delay to the start of the Championship until October (15 weeks away) allows the opportunity for the League 1 & 2 clubs that are ready to participate in 2020/21 to collectively demand to also start league fixtures in October. If, as rumoured, many would prefer to mothball, that would have to be a viable Third Tier of at least 10 teams or an 'upgrade' into the Championship.

The SPFL must have a duty to create a viable league structure to accommodate every member club that wishes to participate in the 2020/21 season. All Championship, League 1 and League 2 clubs should have to declare their intentions by the end of June as to whether they intend to do so or not. If it's financially 'too risky' to put a team on the park behind closed doors then so be it, let these clubs mothball and they can apply to 'rejoin' the SPFL league at sometime in the future. All leagues should start at the same time as the Premiership in August. That would allow the possibility of an expanded Championship of up to 19 clubs if there are not enough to make up a 3rd Tier of at least 10 teams. Having enforced demotion on us, to deny us the opportunity to actually play matches for (at least?) a season surely would have to be legally challenged?

Was there a phone call a couple of weeks ago to Queen of the South along the lines of... 'Neil here, we're considering a proposal to terminate the lower leagues as they stand, would you approve it?' QOS - 'Aw wait a minute, if Thistle win their game in hand, we're doon without kicking another ball and still eight games to go!' Neil - 'Eh, Thistle won't be playing their game in hand' QOS - 'Whit? Really? Is that allowed? Aye OK then'

I paid for a season ticket to watch Thistle in a fair league competition run by the SPFL. Under the current National Emergency, no teams should be being relegated/demoted/expelled from uncompleted league competitions. By terminating the 'lower' leagues, the SPFL have also knowingly and constructively denied the club in 10th position of the Championship the opportunity play a 28th fixture to match the number of games played by the club in 9th position which was only two points ahead. This is fundamentally wrong under any circumstances regardless of that teams's poor form. Meanwhile, the SPFL play a waiting game hoping that the Premiership may actually be played to a conclusion, even beyond the end of June, to avoid any controversy relating to the 9-in-a-row bragging rights of one club. The more I think about it however, I'm confident we will still be in the Championship whenever football restarts as their will forever be a 'how could that possibly happen' question relating to the 2019/20 Championship relegation of a team with a crucial game in hand.

I renewed my season ticket today. I've also written a letter to the SPFL demanding THEY pay a refund of my 2019/20 season ticket money, citing THEIR decision to terminate THEIR Championship 'product' and therefore knowingly denying Thistle the opportunity to play a 28th fixture to match the number of games played by QOS; while at the same time allowing the Premiership the opportunity to play games up until the end of June, however unlikely that may be. Never mind the big injustice of the expulsion/relegation, this alone makes my blood boil. Assuming we are in League 1 whenever football restarts, has anyone given thought to a way of dignified protest at every match from now on? How about standing up in silence from the moment teams take to the pitch until the ball is kicked off to commemorate the death of sporting integrity?

I agree, suggested this a few pages pages back. Especially if any of the remaining 2019/20 Premiership games do go ahead somehow, we can argue that we have been constructively denied the opportunity to play our 'game in hand' to bring us up to 28 games that most of Championship teams have played. In fact, a provision could have been made to fulfill all the unplayed matches up to the 28 game mark in the the three lower leagues. For example, Ayr might have moved ahead of Dundee and . Arbroath had 2 games unplayed and could have hit 42 points and third place. Whether we've been rotten this season or we 'deserve to go down' is irrelevant. The more I think about it, I still can't believe this has been allowed to happen.

To demote us with the game in hand is not 'harsh', it is simply wrong. In effect, an SPFL kangaroo 'pools panel' has decided we would not win this game. Could we demand the opportunity to play this deciding game against ICT (or even a play-off with QOS) immediately prior to the start of the 2020/21 season, if and whenever it happens?

Performance apart, was wearing that dull blue away strip necessary last night? It's obviously essential at the likes of Tannadice (which I attended), but I always feel slightly cheated travelling to away games and seeing the team not coming out in red & yellow. Watching the match on TV last night, it was a dull spectacle visually and I reckon that strip doesn't help the team much when trying to find and judge passes to our own players.

What are the rules regarding what warming up substitutes can wear and where they can stand? As far as I'm concerned, I found the St J subs distracting on several occasions when play was on wing as they were wearing white bibs on top of blue track suit tops, the same colours as the strips their team was playing in. Also, at the Elliot sending off, the three subs were standing on the line in effect spectating around the corner flag and then became involved in the incident, moaning at the referee.

It's not just Firhill that's having pitch problems with the weather. It's rained almost every day, torrentially for 3 solid months and the ground is saturated. The west coast generally gets double the rain that the east coast gets. The football authorities need to get real. It's time to accept that climate is deteriorating i.e. wilder and wetter, as predicted. It's not just about a playable pitch. Anyone watch Dunfermline v. Airdrie on Alba last night? Pitch fine, wind and rain hellish. Game against Dundee a fortnight ago was a farce (no excuse for losing though). Too many weekends are being wasted when the weather and pitches are better/drier i.e. July-November. Maybe more mid-week games would be better played then as well rather waiting until the pitches are already wrecked by February, having been played on in sodden conditions in December & January. OK, international duty and all that, but we were able to qualify for World Cups when there were no blank saturdays. IMO, we now need summer football (because of the deteriorating climate), a bigger shorter league of 16 teams, with strict alternating Home and Away fixtures. If we continue to play through the winter, artificial surfaces will eventually become compulsory, although the thought of watching football as seen on New Douglas Park every other week might just make me decide to chuck it. The attendances at up coming re-arranged mid-week league fixtures are going to be very interesting. That's if they're actually on in, considering even more cr*p weather is being forecast.