uberteeb Posted November 12, 2012 Report Share Posted November 12, 2012 (edited) It would also probably further reduce what's left of away supports of the ugly sisters, as their siege mentality would probably see them preferring to wallow in the atmosphere of their own bigotdoms every second Saturday to watch their wee team and keeping their money in their own clubs' pockets, than to go and watch their big team away from home. Possibly, but they seem to prefer giving the traditional songs an airing away from home than at their home grounds. And if it was us that had a second team somewhere would anyone really not go to the first team away games in favour of that? Either way the whole idea is utterly stupid. Plus you'd expect pretty much no fans to be at the colt away games as they will all be at the home games so its not like the wee teams will get the kind of windfalls they will get with ZombieCo this season visiting their grounds. Edited November 12, 2012 by uberteeb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaggernaut Posted November 12, 2012 Report Share Posted November 12, 2012 Possibly, but they seem to prefer giving the traditional songs an airing away from home than at their home grounds. And if it was us that had a second team somewhere would anyone really not go to the first team away games in favour of that? Either way the whole idea is utterly stupid. Plus you'd expect pretty much no fans to be at the colt away games as they will all be at the home games so its not like the wee teams will get the kind of windfalls they will get with ZombieCo this season visiting their grounds. Isn't it the case that quite a few reserve matches of the OF can attract several thousand fans? I'm pretty sure they used to, and that was only for the Reserves league. If their supporters knew that they were playing against 1st teams then I actually think that more of them would opt to take in their own reserve teams' home matches than travel. But agreed, the whole idea is utterly stupid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twinny Posted November 12, 2012 Report Share Posted November 12, 2012 Nearly every club in Spain is in debt and about 8 are effectively in administration. There are enough/too many senior clubs in Scotland as it is. No need to shoehorn in the dead beats stiffs, imo. 16 team top and second division. Pyramid and regional league below. One organisation. The SPL is finished as far as I'm concerned. Damn did I actually agree with Chuck Green on a point there It is only a proposal at the moment, but it has more bad than good points at the moment. Is there though? Half the Scottish senior teams are semi-professional, so comparisons to the number of senior teams in England where even non-league teams are fully professional aren't really valid. I agree the SPL is done. Everything should come under one body, and even though it is run badly this has to be the SFA. One thing that does concern me about a larger top league set up (which I am DEFINITELY in favour of) - would this lead to having a fully professional top league and everything below part-time? If so promotion/relegation could end up being the same few teams season on season, with the best couple of part-time teams and worst couple of professional teams constantly swapping places. Then again, the part-time threshold seems to be the bottom end of this division these days, so is my point moot? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fearchar Posted November 12, 2012 Report Share Posted November 12, 2012 Surely the obvious way to do it is just a slight alteration from the current system: promotion from the SPL into the SFL 3rd Division, and then on up through the divisions. You know it makes sense! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McKennan Posted November 12, 2012 Report Share Posted November 12, 2012 Second tier will feature only 10 teams. Okay, let me think here, which team is likely to be in that division? Stinker. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McKennan Posted November 12, 2012 Report Share Posted November 12, 2012 Nearly every club in Spain is in debt and about 8 are effectively in administration. There are enough/too many senior clubs in Scotland as it is. No need to shoehorn in the dead beats stiffs, imo. 16 team top and second division. Pyramid and regional league below. One organisation. The SPL is finished as far as I'm concerned. Damn did I actually agree with Chuck Green on a point there It is only a proposal at the moment, but it has more bad than good points at the moment. Criteria you could easily apply to Thistle. If there're suddenly two leagues of 16 will great riches rain down? Will the injustice of teams like Montrose and Elgin draining vital support and finances away from poor wee Celtic, Aberdeen and the rest suddenly be put right? A nonsense. Most of these teams deemed deadweight by the people who seem to put your line forward are pretty self sufficient. There are two teams just about dying on their arses - one in the SPL, the other is SFL1. Let the cull begin there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winter of '63 Posted November 12, 2012 Report Share Posted November 12, 2012 Old Firm Reserves in the League? Reminds me of the famous cry of anguish from the Glasgow Empire when Mike Winters of the "Comedy" Duo was joined on stage by his brother...Aw' no - there's two of them! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Stevenson Posted November 12, 2012 Report Share Posted November 12, 2012 I do wonder who the "brains" behind this daft proposal is/are. Longmuir has presumably had a hand in it. Who else? League Management Committee? The proposed start date of 2015/16 is the only thing I like about it as it isn't designed to accelerate Poor Wee Rangers into the SPL. They would have to successfully advance through the current Divisions year-on-year if they were to reach where Charles Green doesn't want them to be, though by 2015/16 it would no longer be the SPL so he could accept promotion if they won the 1st Division. If he's still there...... The Divisions being three different sizes seems utterly weird and the OF colt teams is a concept from the hey-day of David Murray's tenure at Ibrox. The Rangers FC are still not exactly setting the heather alight in SFL3 and their pals in the east end are finding it tough to battle on more than one front. I don't believe they have the depth to do this anyway. I reckon this will be kicked into touch, but I fear that Regan and the SFA will come up with something more to their and the SPL's taste, and probably just as crap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lenziejag2 Posted November 12, 2012 Report Share Posted November 12, 2012 16-10-18, No-no-no! 14-14-14, Yes-yes-yes! 2-up/2-down, yes/yes! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lady-isobel-barnett Posted November 12, 2012 Report Share Posted November 12, 2012 I do wonder who the "brains" behind this daft proposal is/are. Longmuir has presumably had a hand in it. Who else? League Management Committee? It certainly has all the hallmarks of something designed by a committee. I rarely miss a chance to have a go at the SFL but this idiocy has me speechless. Sadly I've no faith in the bigger blazers at the SFA being capable of running our game either. I'm not that uncertain that the SRU or the R & A wouldn't do a better job, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jagfox Posted November 12, 2012 Report Share Posted November 12, 2012 Criteria you could easily apply to Thistle. If there're suddenly two leagues of 16 will great riches rain down? Will the injustice of teams like Montrose and Elgin draining vital support and finances away from poor wee Celtic, Aberdeen and the rest suddenly be put right? A nonsense. Most of these teams deemed deadweight by the people who seem to put your line forward are pretty self sufficient. There are two teams just about dying on their arses - one in the SPL, the other is SFL1. Let the cull begin there. Sorry Twinny and Mac my deadbeats remark was in reference to the ugly sisters reserves. With regards to the too many teams, it just isn't viable for half the league clubs to go full-time and the second tier would probably be the ceiling for a lot of clubs, especially a ten team middle division. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twinny Posted November 13, 2012 Report Share Posted November 13, 2012 Sorry Twinny and Mac my deadbeats remark was in reference to the ugly sisters reserves. With regards to the too many teams, it just isn't viable for half the league clubs to go full-time and the second tier would probably be the ceiling for a lot of clubs, especially a ten team middle division. No need to worry about that part though, it's the most nonsensical thing to come out of any of the reconstruction talks ever. It would be viable for half the senior teams to be fully professional with a more even split of money. The English league pyramid has 17 levels in total, there's no reason why we can't have a five or six level pyramid with bigger leagues (apart from the dinosaurs holding it back, and perhaps geographical issues but those can be accounted for). The split between professional and semi-pro has to be somewhere. Wouldn't having a larger top league with all the professional clubs help the semi pro teams, meaning they are closer to the top level where money lies, even if that money is spread more thinly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lindau Posted November 13, 2012 Report Share Posted November 13, 2012 Thistle stand to win big, according to this article! http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/hampden-summit-on-league-reconstruction-as-sfl-1433266 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lambies Lost Doo Posted November 13, 2012 Report Share Posted November 13, 2012 The thing with the Colts team is that the away support would bring a lot of support, excitement and more importantly money to the clubs they play against. 2 summers ago the friendly v Celtic XI (mostly U19's) was a great crowd, helped our coffers and enjoyable game. That cannot be avoided. The attendances of teams in Div 3 and 2 is far too low and they would be better playing in a regional or junior league. There needs to be some change there. Also while 4 times a season and sometimes 5 or 6 due to cups is boring the good thing about the SPL is the split as teams in the middle fight hard to get into "Top 6". Could we maybe have a Top 14, with a 7/7 split with 2 teams going down and 3rd bottom in play off with Division below? That would keep end of season very exciting and lead to more movement in the leagues? However for 14 to work teams would play each other 3 times. 26 games before split. Then another 6 in the final run in. Our game v Dunfermline shows that people still get excited about football and we need to keep that in mind. Bums on seats are more important than tv money as Scottish football will never generate the cash of other leagues. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoda-jag Posted November 13, 2012 Report Share Posted November 13, 2012 Longmuir GTF 16-10-18 with 2 bigot colts = Stupidest of stupid ideas, not worthy of further wasting of my time typing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twinny Posted November 13, 2012 Report Share Posted November 13, 2012 The thing with the Colts team is that the away support would bring a lot of support, excitement and more importantly money to the clubs they play against. 2 summers ago the friendly v Celtic XI (mostly U19's) was a great crowd, helped our coffers and enjoyable game. That cannot be avoided. The attendances of teams in Div 3 and 2 is far too low and they would be better playing in a regional or junior league. There needs to be some change there. Also while 4 times a season and sometimes 5 or 6 due to cups is boring the good thing about the SPL is the split as teams in the middle fight hard to get into "Top 6". Could we maybe have a Top 14, with a 7/7 split with 2 teams going down and 3rd bottom in play off with Division below? That would keep end of season very exciting and lead to more movement in the leagues? However for 14 to work teams would play each other 3 times. 26 games before split. Then another 6 in the final run in. Our game v Dunfermline shows that people still get excited about football and we need to keep that in mind. Bums on seats are more important than tv money as Scottish football will never generate the cash of other leagues. The Celtic friendly worked because the first team was in Australia and it was their first home friendly of the summer. When the first team will be playing (probably televised) home matches, can you see many Rangers or Celtic fans going to watch their reserves? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Blutarsky Posted November 13, 2012 Report Share Posted November 13, 2012 Longmuir GTF 16-10-18 with 2 bigot colts = Stupidest of stupid ideas, not worthy of further wasting of my time typing. Total red herring to get everyone in a froth about how poor these proposals are. Expect a variation on SPL1/SPL2 to be tabled in a couple of weeks that will look attractive in comparison. Very cynical. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twinny Posted November 13, 2012 Report Share Posted November 13, 2012 Total red herring to get everyone in a froth about how poor these proposals are. Expect a variation on SPL1/SPL2 to be tabled in a couple of weeks that will look attractive in comparison. Very cynical. You could be right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaggernaut Posted November 13, 2012 Report Share Posted November 13, 2012 You could be right. JB may indeed by right. But if Longmuir (and his team) somehow think that such devious manipulation of the supporters is how he should go about his job, then it's all the more reason for him to be shown the door. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Bunny Posted November 13, 2012 Report Share Posted November 13, 2012 (edited) Thistle stand to win big, according to this article! http://www.dailyreco...-as-sfl-1433266 OMIG .. there's an article totally taking the pro-T'gers point of view - and I bet (for instance) Jeffries never agreed that the suggested new set up was any good, he'll hae just been asked "do you agree the league needs re-organised?" Twisted just to make out there's more support for this than there actually is - note the number of times Green is mentioned, I bet he's had a lot to say in this. BTW do you think it's maybe deliberately super-crap so they can have it rejected and come up with a "compromise" which is crap too but has what they really want (i.e.with a trick idea to fast track you know who). Then if the fans reject it they are accused of being unreasonable. Or am being paranoid? Edit: didn't see your post, JB, so it's not just me. Edited November 13, 2012 by Mr Bunny Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lady-isobel-barnett Posted November 13, 2012 Report Share Posted November 13, 2012 Meanwhile the SPL are pondering over some 12 team SPL 1/12 team SPL 2 set up with a mid season break up into three leagues of 8.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twinny Posted November 13, 2012 Report Share Posted November 13, 2012 Meanwhile the SPL are pondering over some 12 team SPL 1/12 team SPL 2 set up with a mid season break up into three leagues of 8.. I wouldn't actually mind that, small league but the novelty factor would keep it going for a couple of seasons until we think of something better. I've liked that system for a few years now but there must be a reason why the Swiss/Austrians/whoever used it abandoned it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaggernaut Posted November 13, 2012 Report Share Posted November 13, 2012 I wouldn't actually mind that, small league but the novelty factor would keep it going for a couple of seasons until we think of something better. I've liked that system for a few years now but there must be a reason why the Swiss/Austrians/whoever used it abandoned it. I'm not sure how it would work, but would the top four from the 2nd and the bottom four from the 1st then fight it out to see who would end up in the 1st the following season? In other words, it would be like an extended play-off competition? Given the likely disparity in wealth distribution between the two divisions, we'd have to expect seasons with no promotion to the top flight whatsoever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twinny Posted November 13, 2012 Report Share Posted November 13, 2012 I'm not sure how it would work, but would the top four from the 2nd and the bottom four from the 1st then fight it out to see who would end up in the 1st the following season? In other words, it would be like an extended play-off competition? Given the likely disparity in wealth distribution between the two divisions, we'd have to expect seasons with no promotion to the top flight whatsoever. That's it. The top eight would play for the spring/summer league championship, the middle eight would play for positions the following season, and the bottom eight would hopefully play to avoid relegation and for a division 3 title. How do you think Thistle and Dunfermline would do if, in 10 games time we moved into a league with St Mirren, Dundee, Morton and whoever else sits in those positions just now? I think we'd do not bad. You could argue the same thing about the current play-offs between div 1 and 2 (though most seasons both finalists seem to come up with someone or other going bust...). Transfer windows could be moved to the space between the autumn and spring leagues. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
watties wallies Posted November 13, 2012 Report Share Posted November 13, 2012 heard director from st midden on radio scotland saying reconstruction in this format is not on Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.