grazza

Following the Supreme Court ruling, there is a chance the Government could lodge an appeal to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, the EU’s highest court.

Another win for Caps. Really enjoying watching this team. We played great in the first but it was still 0-0. The call for first penalty of manchesters 5 on 3 was annoying how can you hold someones stick with your rib. Now issue with the 2nd for high sticking and it did draw blood. In the end we won in a shootout with us scoring after their goalie fell over Quite fortunate but we should have had won this game in regulation but great character by the team and this weekend did not have Dobron, Schultz or Milan in the lineup. That's 4 wins in a row and 5 games in a row where we have conceded 2 goals in each (not counting empty netter in Belfast). I would actually say Dobron should not rush back. if you tell me any night we will concede 2 goals I would take that. He is a good player though so no doubt will be important but while the D are doing so well keep it rolling as it is. Tonight was first league match so great to have 2 on the board. Next week is just challenge cup for both games so no need to risk anyone with niggles. One more win would see us definitely through anything more would be a bonus. Hoping to make it up to Dundee if supporters bus is running then first visit of Fife on Sunday should tasty Dutes threatening changes so they may be playing for their jobs.

Still in Canada cannot leave until he physically has it. I read delay was because he applied at British consulate in Halifax which is part time but he had gone via Toronto it would have been much faster.

From Caps forum: 'Last night, as per EIHL rule 209, we expected Dundee to play in white/light colour as nothing else had been agreed prior to the game. This was not the case, as they turned up with red strips also. In order for the game to proceed a solution had to be found. What happened was not ideal by anyones standards, but it was a solution to the problem at hand, and the game was played. Not sure what else could have been done under the circumstances. ' It is a bit like in football where teams get punished for fielding ineligible players. Surely the league should have a system so ref's can see what players are allowed to play in that match and something like that with jerseys. Panthers wearing yellow on Friday will likely be because they had a 3 match road trip in Scotland 3 nights in a row. Would assume though they made arrangements for that. If away teams are not going to arrive with their standard away jersey they should be making arrangement for that to happen. Caps done this when they wore red in pre-season in Dundee. Its not a massive deal just frustrating as was my first game of season and we have a lot of new players so unable to see names and numbers. We really need our import goalie in. Despite 8-3 loss last night we weren't that bad another couple weeks and every in and fit and we should be much better.

Guildford won't be going to elite unless they change ownership they make decent profit in EPL has they have largest fanbase but only need to maybe spend a bit more than other teams to be strong but not too strong to keep it interesting. Not ambitious in a sporting sense but sadly that is the way they are and their fans would rather win trophies in a micky mouse league than go professional where they would do okay after adjustment. Think London are still trying for KHL and its Neil Black working on that so he is someone that can actually make something happen. The KHL I don't think will happen but if it does like many other KHL teams it will not really rely on fans to fund it but could still be an elite team in London as well. I don't think non or newbie hockey fans are sophisticated enough to be more interested in a game v Lada Tolgliatti compared to a place they have heard of and funner team name in Belfast Giants even though KHL would be much higher standard. Aberdeen have ambitions to go to elite league but would be dependent on getting ice in the proposed new aberdeen conference/ exhibition centre if they could get that could use existing rink in the short term. Apparently have had very good crowds in SNL. Also other than the football team there isn't any full time professional sports team between there in dundee or inverness/Dingwall so massive catchment area and potential. Assuming London is still another year or two away if there has to be a 12th team which would be ideal but essential in my opinion I think Leeds is a possibility. They are setting up Cardiff's old temp rink there. i think it is being ran by Silverblades who now run Altringham ice rink and big reason for Manchester Storm being setup so see pro hockey as important for attract people to the rink. When Hull pulled out the league I think they were approached about if they could have a team in Manchester and made it happen at quite short notice and the Leeds rink is practically identical to the Altringham rink. Challenge cup is a bit stale would love some sort of cup involving for example French/Norwegian/ Danish teams perhaps a team could host a group over a long weekend. Doubt it will ever happen but would be nice. If though they need to work with ten elite teams 4 teams out of 5 going through is crap.I would say group winners get a bye to the semi's and teams in 2nd and 3rd can play in quarters for the other spots. Scottish cup would love to see 4 Scottish teams perhaps a preseason event and the host rink could alternate. Play offs - while a ten team league assuming 3 or 5 games series are not viable the change I would make is that the regular season winners get a bye to the final 4 and teams 2 -7 play in quarters for 3 remaining spots. The play offs should decide the overall champ and champ league entrant so this bye would mean there is a tangible rewards for winning regular season and play offs have shown top teams can miss final 4 take Sheffield last season for example. Nottingham is fine to host but panthers should be made to give up their locker room for the weekend. I have been to 5 play off weekends 3 out of the 5 times panthers won but the other 2 times they didn't make the final 4. Its not ideal but if they every moved them to London it would be too far and expensive for many to go. I'm a Caps fan and want to win a trophy but a full on consolation cup would be meaningless. Perhaps though just for some fun the 6 teams that don't make the final 4 could have a 20/20 style tournament. 2 groups of 3 with 20 minute matches (1st ten mins 4 on 4, 2nd ten mins 3 on 3). Would only need a roster of 10-12 players for it. Please though get rid of 3rd places play off match might as well do a legends match like they do with winter classic if that is only option. I don't really see a merger as suggest above for a UK wide 3/4 import level. It is a bit like the issue the highland and lowland league have in football there is a much bigger population and player pool in the south so there isn't enough teams/player in the north to be equal. Only way would maybe be a north,central and south split but teams cannot afford the travel for when they travel beyond their own area. Solway to Basingstoke for example would be massive travel and costs to make it happen. This is semi pro hockey so guys have jobs during the week and they give up a lot of their weekends already with the 2 or 3 hours travel they need to do even sometimes to play at home. They would never see their families or have free personal time if they had to combine this with day job. Callum Boyd left caps to go to clan as he has day job in Ayrshire and was travelling 3 hours round trip to Edinburgh to train and play up to 6 times a week. If a 3/4 north import league was viable I think Dundee and Fife would have tried that rather than go elite and perhaps caps would join them. They tried the northern league with teams from NIHL north and it wasn't viable.

I wonder how for example Stadium MK got built give it far exceeded what was needed for MK Dons and they are only tenants. Given that Hampden and Murrayfield are limited to is it 3 or 4 concerts at a push each year due to concerns from local residents maybe a 30K stadium with each access to the A77 and perhaps some other transport links could be an option. The stadium could be used a convert venue more often but also be used for things like Scottish Cup/ League cup semi's. Perhaps if premiership play off final was one off that would be ideal location. Also when the Rugby team play their Autumn friendlies not big enough for Murrayfield they could play there and perhaps a pro Rugby team could be tenant there e.g. Glasgow for bigger matches. Location wise I think from a commercial point of view its about the catchment area and infrastructure so probably would be in between Glasgow and Edinburgh but probably closer to Glasgow.

For Caps last year it really wasn't a money issue as they base their budget on the crowds they get. McCallum suddenly retiring just seemed to totally change the dynamic things on the ice just didn't click. Was very annoyed that despite a league agreement that teams within the elite league pretty much tapped two of Caps players. I know the Caps agreed to the transfer but didn't have much choice once these players had their heads turned. It is Dobron's first head coach gig but he has been running training camps over the last year and think he was going for the 2nd highest coaching certificate probably IIHF equivalent of Fifa. So while a rookie coach I think very well qualified for the role. The signing plan seems to have worked well this summer with most players with experience of captaining or assistants and many within the last few years and many of them know each other already so plenty of leadership in the locker room. Also the 2 russians it seems to be first time any elite team has signed a player that has spent most or all their career in the Russian leagues,.The elite league seems to be obsessed with the north american minor leagues so i think these guys could be a surprise and the big murrayfield ice should suit them. Would expect Clan to be favourties for conference as usual but should be very competitive. This year surely a make or break season for Finnerty he has had 5 seasons at arena teams (2 in Sheffield, 3 in Braehead) and one final 4 appearances. Fair enough 2 out of 3 conference titles is probably about par with the resources but he needs to push on a win a challenge cup or get to a play off final. Manchester I could see having a good year Pacha has shown himself to be a great coach getting Hull into final 4 in their final year and his first as coach and building a new roster from scratch in just weeks at Manchester. Dundee seem to have a very good goalie that they got early on They have brought a couple of promising young EPL players and would imagine with costs of housing etc won't be much cheaper than imports. Not really many standout players for them but seem balanced. Fife I get the feeling may struggle this year. The loss of Danny Stewart as associate coach will be a big loss for them. They need to freshen things up and final 4 spot last year probably inflated their season. They have been very loyal to Todd probably as he stuck him the in the SNL days. Fan base wise they are probably in same sort of size as Cardiff or Coventry. I don't see any good Scots coming through their system. Plews done well at Caps in his first year seems crazy Fife overlooked him.

Star Trek Beyond - 7.5 Back from triple header so was bit tired when watching the latest film. It perhaps started off a bit slow compared to other films but did feel a bit more like watching a series. The chemistry between characters particularly Spock and bones seem to be more reflective of original series. Spock still seems to show a bit much emotion too often though I suppose life events have made him a different person. This film doesn't get to caught up in the money shot action sequences. Seemed a more back to roots sort of film and more in tune with Roddenbery's vision. Would recommend it to fellow star trek fans and probably enough to get those that didn't like JJ Abrams interpretation back on side. It was not fast paced really though the ending didn't drag too long either. A bit more skill and wit to resolve problems rather than muscle or flukeyness like the last 2. 2009 movie holds up well though Into Darkness while a decent enough action film just doesn't really feel like Star Trek the more I see it.

Las Vegas are getting a team from 2017/18 season and will play in the Pacific Division. Should do alright with the tourism there can expect teams to bring decent sized away support for a weekend break and casinos will buy up tickets for corporate etc so maybe a few seats paid for but not sat on. Local population over 2 millions and this is first major sports league to have a team there so should have a good chance. Lot of locals moved there so may just go to support other teams when they visit. Quebec City's bid for a expansion franchise has been differed. By sounds of it NHL would like to have Quebec and happy with the owners and market. They say they the Canadian dollar has an effect which it no doubt does but there are 7 Canadian teams already. The main issue I think is geography and they would need to go in east and so an existing team move over to west but I think the team that moves would need to agree to it. Detroit spent years trying to move East can't see them wanting to move back. Think they want the expansion fee so it will probably happen but think a struggling east conference team e.g. Carolina could maybe go to Seattle to align the conferences.

Independence Day Double Bill Independence Day (1996) - Seen this before but first time in a cinema. A good benchmark for a proper summer Sci Fi action. Good fun. This has aged nicely 8.5/10 Independence Day Resurgence (2016) - it was decent as a standalone film. The new characters we never really got a chance to get to know and their backstory pretty rushed and weren't really essential to the overall story they tried to replace Will Smith with 3 people. The large crowd scene for the anniversary celebration just looked very fake CGI mess and this film I think got a bit too caught up in the gizmos. Brent Spinner done a great job and his humour kept the audience interested. Decent enough film but helps if you seen the original to relate to and understand the returning characters otherwise would feel like you missed half an hour at the start. It will not rate too well if put head to head with the original though. 6/10

Its been pretty decent, not sure how a tv review show about cars get so much attention and analysis as if it is expected to be a HBO masterpiece. I probably wouldn't have been that fussed about tuning in but seeing all the negativity thought I would see what the fuss was about. If viewing figures are just live ones that prob a reflection of demographics only live tv I watched is a football match and similar story for friends. Evans comes across as a prat and as time goes on especially with challenges etc it will be the guy people love to hate and cheering on mr cool matt Le Blanc. The celebrity in car challenge I think could do with Matt joining in as well to interview.

Coming to accept that I am suffering some sort of depression. Kind of just thought it was maybe it as result of not achieving what I wanted graduating at the worst possible time that probably had an impact on it but been okay for few years (8 years) though what feels normal might not be great. The last few months I just can't get much joy from things that would have kept me occupied before, Just feels like I'm going through the motions. Just feel irritated by the smallest thing so going to cinema or pub just seems like too much hassle. Can't be doing with any meaningless small talk with people either but do what I need to appear polite. My jobs pretty straight forward Monday to Friday so have weekends free which is nice. The actual day to day work is fine though don't seem to have enough to do. Really noticing though that people in team are taking liberties, being the only guy in the team I just thought no point in making a deal about it just keep head down but where I have tried to take ownership and said I would train someone which I started to do a colleague took this over saying we would all take part in giving this training but just seems to be her that is doing it. Basically seems like a competition when we are suppose to be working as a team. I will try to speak to my manager about this work situation. I just don't feel like I have the energy to call out bad stuff when I see it but just bottles up and makes me feel like maybe there is something wrong with me for giving a crap and I can't command respect from people in professional setting. Its not just work, at home I can have a football match on and just stare at the screen not really enjoying it even if not a bad game but feel like there is nothing else I can do at that point. I can maybe watch a show then at end think I should really be doing something else. Later on in the night I maybe start to settle get into something and it just puts me off going to sleep where it feels like a reset button and starting from bottom of ladder again the next day. I am trying so while prob not sleeping as much as I should I go a bit earlier than before, Go for walks at lunch at work and longer walks at weekend. Trying to eat a bit healthier or at least less unhealthy and less portions. Never really have a proper breakfast maybe a bit of lazyness there but just don't feel hungry at the start of the day. Not sure exactly how to control this beyond measures I have taken. Work wise I need to speak to my manager about how I am feeling as I do probably come across as quiet and should be taking more ownership but when I do it and the credit seems to be taken by others. I'm not sure though in a work setting how they should be reacting if say I think I am suffering from some sort of depression. Will they listen and nod but ultimately ignore or would they have expected me to have sought medical advise at that point. Anyway I'm sure there others on here that are having a much worse time and my heart goes out. It just feels like it is not so much a feeling of sadness or regret but like I have forgotten something really important and my brain is doing overtime to work out what it could be but having no answer.

Having problems with my phone. Its android and keeps connecting itself to either wifi or data connection and installing lot of crap so some sort of virus or spyware. I have tried restoring to factory setting and deleting all data on the phone but it still comes back anything else I can try. Cheers

Super Saturday getting the most out of my gamecentre / NHL.tv sub. Started at Half 5 with Wings @ Rangers, Now a derby with pens @ Flyers which has been end to end stuff and my Ducks @ Avs at half 10. Expect LA to get the win to get the division but hope we can better their result to take it to the final game on Sunday but main thing is to avoid injuries.

It is really lack of common sense in setting fixtures. Surely extreme journeys such as this they could arrange to play 2 of the matches in August and 2 in April making postponement much less likely a scenario. A lack of access from teams below the national system has been unhealthy. Clubs like East Stirling, Montrose really have had little incentive until pyramid starts get going to better themselves. I would personally go for 12-12-12 at national level with 3rd tier split into north and south conferences so say stranraer and peterhead only play each other once home away but teams in their own 6 team conference twice home and away.

Yeah been an extremely frustrating year as a caps fan. A lot of blame seems to go towards the owners but they spent more than they ever had before on their roster and the team showed early on that they were capable of being a safe play off team. As soon as Mccallum left it all fell apart Hayes stopped putting any numbers up. Since then probably our 3 highest earners in Hayes, Rutherford and Zanette have left. Fan don't appear willing to constructively critise Emmerson. He he is lovely fellow to speak to and great guy to maybe have as a captain but his first year as coach has been a disaster and is still using good will in the bank form our run at the start of the season. Any team in our league that has a player coach usually also has a player assistant coach its a good ploy to get an older experience player from a higher level to get some coaching on their CV. Nikita Kashirsky would be my choice for a new coach. When Dundee won the conference a couple years ago he was player assistant coach. Jeff Hutchings the head coach had a day job so I think missed some of the training sessions and the next year when Nikita had left the team were rock bottom in the league. Interesting with Clan I can't help but think Finnerty is quite a lucky guy that just seems to be embroiled in the clique of british hockey. He got the Sheffield job where you are expected to win the league or at least some sort of trophy. In each year he won nothing and didn't even make the final 4 in the play offs. The two guys after him Doug Christainson was fired when they were 2nd and Gerad Adam fired after is his first half season he won the play offs and the next the regular season.I think Paul Thompson will get more time as he is in the sort of clique even if he wins nothing. At Clan overall Finnerty has been okay but probably had a higher budget than his predecessors, losing to Hull in play offs was big blow for him last year. He does have a habit of choking towards the end of the year and his track record in 4 seasons with arena clubs is one final 4 place in 4 attempts.

Fixed the issue I had

Creed - 7/10 - Pretty good if you have seen the previous Rocky films. Rocky suddenly appears to be a lot more articulate and insightful perhaps grown with age. One pretty basic error that bugged me was that the fight in Liverpool was at night and its pitch dark so lets assume say 9 to 11 pm yes Mrs Creed was watching from her LA home and it was pitch dark there. I remember something similar with American Snipper where USA and Iraq both appeared to be in the same time zone.Nice way to keep the legacy going rather than 70 something rocky in the ring or a reboot.

Livingston in terms of fanbase now I think fairly comparable to Airdrie, Dumbarton, Peterhead and with crowds 700-950 if there is little to no away support. Only 2869 for last years challenge cup final. Fair enough it was Alloa the opponents but a Livy pushing for promotion you would have to be an optomist that they might bring in another 500 or so people. Not sure how they have managed to retain full time football and with a lot less away support surely couldn't. Morton I guess guess would probably be a top end team and having derbies with St Mirren will be vital. Have looked at their recent crowds the Raith game okay was a Friday night so will give so leaway but they are probably sitting at about 1500 or so home fans where they are pushing for a play off slot. So really you would need to be pushing for the title to mitigate the loss of large away supports so a best case scenario your finances might stay about the same. As the current system works there really is the competition to incentive ambitious smaller teams to build towards full time football if they want to become a stable top 2 tier team. There would be much less chance of bigger teams coming down if there was a bigger top flight. Fair enough the Rangers issue is because of the death of the old club but Hibs are there on their incompetence like St Mirren and quite possibly Dundee Utd next year. A bigger top flight makes it a bit easier for these teams to bring in a couple of players in Jan that will keep them up. When Inverness or Hamilton went back down the media didn't really care but the odd bigger club in the league gives the 2nd tier a bit more exposure and a boost in gates for teams.

A lot less bigger away supports in new structure. Ayr and Dunfermline will probably bring in crowds comparable to some of the existing teams but you are only guaranteed a single home game against them. Livingston's average crowd will drop substantially and I think Queens would also suffer from not having away crowds from ,Rangers, Hibs, Falkirk and St Mirren twice a season. Instead they will have Ayr, Dunfermline, St Mirren and Morton just once a season as only likely decent sizes away supports. For Ayr and Airdrie it is a small step up so at the moment instead of 2 decent sized away supports from Dunfermline we maybe get 4 in a 16 team tier 2.Though Ayr's crowds have boosted as we have a decent chance of promotion this year I'm not sure we would attract as much or more if we were playing Albion Rovers in a mid table tier 2 game. I think Ayr at the moment are some sort of hybrid between full time and part time. Likes of Airdrie, Peterhead, Dumbarton and Alloa would probably next closest but really I think would need to build from bottom up like Hamilton and getting to 2nd tier as it is now with decent away supports

The top tier I think we are quite limited in what we can do with it while Celtic and probably in time Rangers are the only teams likely to win or compete for league over the course of a season. There is always going to be and should be Euro spot for cup winners so really there is little or no scope for euro play offs without us having more than 4 team in Europe on a regular basis. Things are tight outside of top 2 at the moment though Dundee United are a bit behind at the moment. I don't see there being much wrong with the competitiveness of the top flight outside of having a chance to win the league. The only merits for more clubs I can see is potentially just playing each other 2 times and perhaps with more teams less chance of relegation and less meaningful games clubs will blood even more younger players. Cyprus had the issue of meaningless games for midtable teams so reduced from 14 to 12 though they have changed back to 14 after a year again. As mentioned we don't have many full time teams in Scotland. Well we probably do ourselves a disservice 20 teams for a nation of our size is probabably bigger than you would expect. I would say though that likes of Livingston, Queen of the South, Raith, Morton, Dunfermline are full time but only just and that is helped by having other decent sized clubs in 2nd tier increasing attendances and coverage. Dunfermline I know are in tier 3 but have mentioned they would need to consider full time football in longer term so basically need to get back up asap. In essence any 16-16 format is to merge the top 3 tier into 2 and will have 10 current tier 3 teams and 6 of the weakest tier 2 teams (half of which will be part time already and teams I have mentioned would probably need to go that way). The top league I think will almost turn into a franchise league if your a tier 2 team go full time and your almost certain to be in top league within 2 years. One year your playing Celtic, Hearts, Aberdeen the next Albion Rovers, Brechin City and Stenhousemuir the gulf is massive. As it is we have had some highly supported teams Hibs, Hearts, Rangers and quite possibly Dundee Utd are more likely to go down which is an added bonus on gate money and media exposure in tier 2. Clearly in general crowds had dropped in the last 15 years or so but more of that I think is down to easier access to international leagues which people unfairly try to directly compare their local level with, ticket prices increasing beyond inflation and poor deals agreed and presentation with media partners. Those that administer and work in Scottish football also seem to talk it down which doesn't help. 1 or 2 clubs being as dominant is not really a factor in other nations of similar size. Hearts winning the 2nd tier last season was refreshing a galvanised support much like HIbs in 1999.

No one has been relegated in my plans unless maybe you maybe looking at how lowland and EOS teams merge into the non league. Two automatic relegation spots form SPFL would also boost Falkirk's chances of going up. Also would be inviting 6 new teams to SPFL in my plan. Even if the top two tiers stayed the same number as currently I think we are mad not to have some sort of regionalisation at tier 3 and below at part time level.

Interesting thread. I can see why there is merit in 16 team top flight in that there is no real gap between top end of tier 2 and top league but wouldn't be anything more to play for really and more meaningless games,.If there is less games though teams may carry smaller squads. Lets say it happened and for argument the biggest 4 teams went up Sevco, Hibs, St Mirren and Falkirk. Your left with QOS, Morton, Raith and Livy who are probably clubs that year to year already need to evaluate if they can stay full time. You would lose away crowds from these bigger end teams and in a bigger 16 team league probably less pressure on them to stay full time to stay up. The likes of Hamilton in tier 2 had a pretty low home following but boosted by decent away support from central belt teams. Why top two tiers having 16 teams but tier 3 only 10? Would have to play each other 4 times in ten team league surely. I suppose my national league A and B could merge but I was mindful of a Stirling or East Fife I think a hybrid system would mean travel wise its not really worse for them. Respectfully I don't think the 2nd tier is a natural level for clubs like Albion Rovers or Stenhousemuir. At the moment Albion are kind of living the dream of maybe making a play off slot. Really they would need to have more infrastructure and less reliant on volunteers to get established at that sort of level by all means they could make it in current setup which would be a roy of the rovers story which would be great if they earn it. The non league level leave them to work it out but each region gets same number promotion slot to national levels. Existing lowland leagues I think though should be placed at top of region given efforts they have made to licence and build but ultimately SJFA have autonomy to run this level. Tier 1- Only Celtic and maybe Sevco are likely to win this in foreseeable future. Battle for Europe so need to have a slot for best of the rest in third and of course Scottish cup. 1 up one down was very stale. Play off is progress but 2 down automatically make there a lot more to play for. Needs to be a challenge to get to top tier rather than 75% plus of full time teams (maybe a part time team a some stage in top tier or at least until they get there) Can't see them happy to potentially half amount of Glasgow, Dundee derbies, Edinburgh derbies, Highland derbies. The real challenge is having more to play for which isn't really about how many teams are in league but more if there can be a euro play off and more threat of relegation. Tier 2 - Want a strong core of full time clubs at least half ideally more even if mainly young guys. This is for clubs with reasonable sizes supports 1500 plus ideally and still a core of decent away crowds helping boost smaller clubs maybe to or close to full time level. If clubs want to remain or aspire to be full time they need to at least play as many games if not play more. I would say conference is probably comparable level in terms of crowds down southe (if You exclude Hibs and Rangers) they play 46 games and that probably allows and justifies a lot of them to be full time. With 12 teams you have option to emulate premier split (interesting for challenging for promotion play offs and with potential 3 relegation slots) or you go for 44 games. to squeeze a few more pennies and more games for young squad players. tier 3 / 4- Travel costs could be reduced, want to be part of national setup but avoid extreme trips to peterhead or stranraer twice a year and certainly not when weather is at its most likely worse. Local games e.g. Angus derbies will give a boost to crowd so business hat on 4 times a season probably makes sense. Surely if we stay national this is the level that a 16 team league and 30 match days makes sense at a part time level.

Seems to be often the top league that is expanded in any of these plans I just don't really see how you make more meaningful games unless there was some sort of play off for euro positions etc. The 2nd tier is very important and maybe even the key area for small ambitious clubs.I think adding potentially 10 new teams into top 2 tiers kills full time football outside of top league. Elite Division - 12 teams though would make 11th place an automatic relegation slot. If we ever got a 5th Euro slot then a play off where winner of bottom section of split could get a slot e.g. final 4th v semi winner, semi final 5th v quarter winner, quarter - 6th v 7th, Each one off matches with higher ranked team getting home advantage in one off game. Celtic, Aberdeen, Hearts, Dundee, Dundee Utd, Ross County, Inverness, Kilmarnock, Motherwell, Hamilton, Partick, st johnstone Championship Division - I would go to 12 teams. They then have options of more matches to generate more income or have a split like premiership which would mean teams fighting for play off contention getting into top half. Ambitious part time teams might have more chance to get up and establish themselves and strive towards more professional setup. Bottom 2 would be automatically relegated. Promotion play offs runners up get bye to final, 3rd place plays 4th in semi's. Rangers 2012, Hibs, St Mirren,Dumbarton, Raith, Falkirk, Livingston, Alloa, QOS, Morton, Dunfermline, Ayr National Division A - 12 teams. This level would be a hybrid between national and regional setup. North East and South East conferences. Play own conference 4 times = 20 games and other conference 2 times = 12 games. 2 conference winners (1 will be overall winners) go up automatically. Next best team in overall table get bye to promotion final. Next team down in overall table play 10th championship team in semi final. Games such as Stranraer v Peterhead would be fixtured in say August and April to minimise sillyness. North - Peterhead, Forfar, Cowdenbeath,Stenhousemuir,Brechin, Elgin South- Albion, Stranraer,Airdrie,Annan, Clyde, Queens Park National Division B basically the same as A but taking in 6th lowest league two sides and best couple of teams in highland, lowland/eastern juniors. and western juniors. North - Montrose, Arbroath, Stirling, Brora, Cove, East Fife South- Berwick, East Stirling, Edinburgh City, Kirkintilloch, Pollock, Bonnyrigg Regional Leagues - Champions of 3 regions go up. Western as it is just now but incorporate South of Scotland league into its lowest tier alongside ayrshire and central. Western Lowland league teams going into top division. Eastern - Merger of Eastern Juniors and East of Scotland and eastern lowland teams Highland - Highland league at top and incorporating juniors and north caledonian league below Scottish cup - would be open to all clubs and top amateur clubs could be encouraged to enter and would like the idea of the top teams entering in a round of 64. League Cup - try out the group stage but make sure that its not just group winners that can progress some sort of play off for runners up or something. Challenge Cup - Tier 2 and 3 bye to round 2. In round 1 12 tier 4 teams joined by Junior cup holders and holders of west, east and highland cups or best teams not already in competition. Junior cup - keep the tradition there and boosted by Highland, SOS and EOS teams and teams dropping from national league. Open to all regional level clubs below 4th tier and potentially top amateur clubs. Think something like this would give a bit of something and not really take anything away. It encourages top end part time teams to have ambition and grow. The Juniors keep a lot of their tradition going with a boost in membership and access to the Senior Scottish Cup for all. The 3 regions I think has a more natural fit and balance than highland and lowland. Would like to see transition between each level fairly gentle so less chance of teams running away with leagues or falling way behind. It needs to be difficult to reach the top tier its part of the challenge. A good solid mostly full time 2nd tier means more training time and opportunities for young players but boosting it a bit maybe makes it more feesable for some clubs to move towards full time. Enough for evolution and gradual change that can get people on side. Anyone know much about politics of old SFL and now SPFL. Why has it been 3 leagues of 10 below the top tier for over 20 years, I can't even think of any motions or talk to reconstruct within. All talk seems to be the top tier as if everything else is stuck unless they change. Just about every team in championship except maybe 2 or 3 have been or very nearly ended up in 3rd tier in fairly recent times you think they wouldn't mind going to say 12.

Able bodied and healthy bus pass holders who act entitled and think they can just push ahead in queues. Always seems to be the rich looking ones as well.