HibeeJibee

It's rare for any cup outside SPFL to not be "all in". Incidentally for about a decade SJFA Cup has exempted SFA member clubs & Scottish Cup qualifiers past R1, so it's not entirely all-in from off. (This season they were actually to be exempted past 2 rounds until a few withdrawals reduced the entry meaning there didn't need to be 2 rounds before Last 64).

Stranraer & Clyde achieve 3 entries in the 1 match:

Portugal won Euro 2016 from 3rd in group. Argentina reaching Final of WC in 1990; Italy in 1994; Mexico of Copa America in 1993, Uruguay in 1999, Paraguay in 2011, and Peru in 2019; plus Jordan of Asian Cup this year; are only other examples of making showpiece.

I noticed them mention during commentary last night the next edition in Morocco - which ludicrously is as soon as next year - will be June & July... This clashes with FIFA's new Club World Cup, so I'm sure that will be popular among European clubs with African players, and indeed also the African clubs which qualify... Al Ahly and Wydad have already done, so and had 10 and 1 players respectively in Ivory Coast i.e. you'd be depriving Al Ahly of most of their starting XI!

Saturday 10th February R5: Kennoway P-P Ashfield Tuesday 20th February R5: Ashfield v Kennoway (7:45pm) Ashfield vs Kennoway Star Hearts - South of Scotland Football League

Never happened before except for Rangers season. Indeed only from 2014-15 to 2016-17 then last season had more than half the division exceeded 500... just 2 did in 1998-99, 2005-06, 2008-09 and 2009-10.

Updated state of play across southerly tier 6: East of Scotland League (30 games) South of Scotland League (22 games) West of Scotland League (30 games)

Saturday 10th February R5: Dunipace 1-0 St Andrews (aet) SFs: Dunipace v Dundonald/Dunbar/Uni of Stirling/Musselburgh Tranent/Broxburn v Gala/Inverkeithing

Friday 1st March Burntisland Shipyard v Crossgates Primrose Hutchison Vale v Coldstream (7:45pm) Leith Athletic v Armadale Thistle (8pm) Saturday 2nd March Bo'ness Athletic v Oakley United Dunbar United v Inverkeithing Hillfield Swifts Easthouses Lily v Dunipace Edinburgh Community v Vale of Leithen Edinburgh United v Kennoway Star Hearts* Fauldhouse United v Whitehill Welfare Haddington Athletic v Luncarty Harthill Royal v Ormiston Primrose Hill of Beath Hawthorn v West Calder United Linton Hotspur v Blackburn United Livingston United v Hawick Royal Albert Lochgelly Albert v Musselburgh Athletic Lochore Welfare v Dalkeith Thistle Newburgh v Preston Athletic Newtongrange Star v Edinburgh College Peebles Rovers v Arniston Rangers Penicuik Athletic v Jeanfield Swifts Pumpherston v Camelon Sauchie v Dundonald Bluebell Stoneyburn v Kinnoull Thornton Hibs v Edinburgh South Tweedmouth Rangers v Kirkcaldy & Dysart Whitburn v Stirling University EOS

Saturday 10th February R1: Harthill 1-3 Thornton (aet, FT 1-1) R2: Arniston 3-2 Preston Blackburn 0-3 Lochore Burntisland v Stoneyburn Kirkcaldy & Dysart P-P Bo'ness Athletic Ormiston P-P Vale of Leithen Newtongrange 4-0 Coldstream Pumpherston P-P Newburgh West Calder 5-4 Oakley Saturday 9th March R2: Kirkcaldy & Dysart v Bo'ness Athletic Ormiston v Vale of Leithen Pumpherston v Newburgh R3: to be drawn

This is Broxburn's schedule through February-March... Sat 03 Feb Tranent 4-1 Broxburn (SCC R5) Sat 10 Feb Penicuik 0-1 Broxburn Sat 17 Feb Broxburn v Musselburgh Sat 24 Feb Broxburn v Luncarty Wed 28 Feb Tranent v Broxburn (EQC QF) Sat 02 Mar no game - odd team after bye in ELC R1 - Tranent have SCC QF Sat 09 Mar Broxburn v Inverkeithing Sat 16 Mar Glenrothes v Broxburn Sat 23 Mar for outstanding league games + EQC Sat 30 Mar Broxburn & tbc (ELC R2) ... literally a game every Saturday plus 1 midweek and it precedes 1 blank Saturday. (You also have 1 outstanding league game - at Dundonald - needing redated before mid-May).

Hibs v Rangers must be Sun afternoon due to EL tie presumably meaning Celtic v Livingston be Sat lunchtime, on Viaplay... with Morton v Airdrie/Hearts on Fri (or Mon?) and Aberdeen-Killie on Sun evening, on BBC. (Aberdeen have a league game the following Wednesday and BBC are showing Wales v France in Six Nations on Sunday afternoon).

Having checked in contemporary newspapers the game was down for White City immediately from the draw in January. It had been announced in July 1965 that England would play there and Wembley. HQ of the World Cup organising committee - and venue for in person London ticket sales - was actually White City not Wembley. Venues were selected in October 1963 - even then just 1 game at White City - and Middlesbrough was substituted for Newcastle in mid-1964 after dispute over leases. QPR tried to leave Loftus Road for White City during 1964-65. Of course it was originally suggested that WC 1966 should be a Home Nations bid not just England.

Led Zeppelin's lesser-known hit. There's now under 3 months left... Saturday 27th April 2024 Semi-Final 1st leg Saturday 4th May 2024 Semi-Final 2nd leg Saturday 11th May 2024 Final 1st leg Saturday 18th May 2024 Final 2nd leg SPFL2 ends May 4th and Clyde - homeless, hapless, increasingly helpless - are now 10pts adrift with a worse GD. Beached like some great whale on the sandbar of last place, it'll take enormous efforts to make-up 11pts in 13 games. Lowland finishes on April 20th and most contenders have 9 or 10 games left. East Kilbride are out in front - and it looks like only a collapse in their form plus perhaps a surge from Tranent could overturn that. They meet at K-Park on Tuesday. Disturbing situation exists in Highland - due to conclude April 13th but it'll surely go on another week - where Brechin narrowly lead Banks o'Dee, but Buckie + Brora haven't reached halfway yet with 18 + 19 left respectively. Difficult speculating who'll prevail.

... but top division clubs now join at Last 128 not Last 32. That would be like our Premiership clubs joining in R2 instead of R4. There are about 10 countries in Europe with League Cups, so more than 5 but clearly a minority. Tbh this is actually fairly irrelevant in the context of the discussion: nobody wanting a big Scottish Premiership will say they'd be happy with a small if we scrapped our League Cup!

Part of the issue are the unresolvable tensions in what people want. They don't want to play more than twice, as it's boring - but it means having to expand to 18 or 20, as otherwise you only get 26 or 30 games. (Different splits or new cups don't work as well - and anyway they're boring). Expanding to 18 or 20 then means a large mid-table and a weak Championship - which are boring.

Basically they claim it's stopped deaths rising more than they have (i.e. it hasn't improved the situation but otherwise matters would have got even worse) - and it needs to be higher to work better (i.e. it's not ineffective it's that we need more of it). Minister sets the level via 'statutory instrument' e.g.: The Alcohol (Minimum Price per Unit) (Scotland) Order 2018 (legislation.gov.uk)

Traditionally each group was based in 2 cities (with 1 of 4 nations usually only playing in 1 venue) which also saved fans on travel. Sadly it got dropped after Italia 90 and Euro 2012 respectively.

UEFA has jumped the shark with all these playoffs tbh... only 6 sides from 54 don't go up/down/to playoffs this edition: Worse still NL playoffs are 2-legged - but playoffs for WC/Euros are 1 tie !

11,589 (with 5,741 seated).

Novelty fact: rather than just miss a dozen days in 1 go like most nations - Sweden tried to move from Julian to Gregorian calendar gradually over 40yrs... by omitting all leap days from 1700 to 1740. However after 1700 the Great Northern War began and with local administration breaking-down it wasn't continued. To sort themselves out... in 1712 they observed Thursday 29th February and Friday 30th February.

Celtic + Rangers would still run away with big league. Hearts + Hibs + Aberdeen already drop more points v the rest than OF do. However as % it'll hit their income harder. Plus you've replaced split/relegation/promotion/etc. with "meaningless mid-table".

Pro clubs are multi-million £ businesses reliant on gate receipts and TV money (both at historic highs btw). Why would they make such gambles let alone for 10yrs? What is necessitating going "drastically different"? How?

Think tank highlights ‘concerning’ fall in hospital productivity in Scotland | STV News Scottish NHS "doing less with more" despite increases in funding and staffing The NHS in Scotland is treating fewer patients than it did pre-Covid, despite health spending and staffing levels rising, a new report has found. Research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) found that measured hospital activity “fell rapidly” during the pandemic and has “still failed to recover fully”. The think tank described this fall in NHS hospital productivity as being “particularly concerning given the challenging fiscal situation the Scottish Government continues to face”. A new report looking at health and the Scottish budget said the number of patients on the NHS elective waiting list in Scotland had grown by 87% since the start of the pandemic. Meanwhile, the number of patients who wait 18 weeks or less for hospital treatment, and the number of those in accident and emergency who are dealt with inside the four-hour target time has “fallen substantially since the start of the pandemic”. The report warned: “Until the NHS can deliver more hospital activity than pre-pandemic, it is likely waiting lists and waiting times will continue to rise.” It found that over April to June last year “the Scottish NHS treated 8% fewer elective day-case patients, handled 8% fewer emergency admissions and 8% fewer outpatient appointments and treated 21% fewer elective inpatient admissions than pre-pandemic”. However, staffing levels had “increased substantially” since the start of the pandemic, it said, saying by July to September 2023 NHS Scotland employed 11% more consultants, 16% more junior doctors and 8% more nurses than it did prior. Spending on health meanwhile was said to have “grown considerably”, going from £1,659 per person in 1999-2000, when the Scottish Parliament was established, to £3,073 per person in 2022-23. The first 10 years of devolution saw health spending increase “rapidly” and while rises slowed from an average of 5% a year over this period, to 0.4% over the following decade, they then “rose rapidly during the Covid-19 pandemic”. While the report added this had fallen since then, it noted: “Spending per person remained 10% higher in 2022–23 than in 2019–20.” It went on to state that the “apparent fall in hospital productivity in Scotland is similar in magnitude to that observed in the English NHS” – but the report noted England had “increased staff by more than Scotland, so the recovery in hospital activity has been much greater”. And while the Scottish Government plans to increase the health and social care workforce by 1% over the five years from 2022, the IFS noted that NHS England is planning for a 20% to 21% increase in staff over the same period.

Invasive alligator snapping turtle found in Cumbria - BBC News Invasive alligator snapping turtle found in Cumbria "would have eaten every living creature" An invasive alligator snapping turtle has been pulled from a Cumbrian tarn. A dog walker found the exotic creature, which is native to swamps and rivers in southern parts of the US, in Urswick Tarn, near Ulverston, on Monday. Parish councillor Denise Chamberlain fished it out of the water with a shopping basket and took it to a vet. Dr Dominic Moule said the turtle, which was named Fluffy, gives a "nasty bite" and would likely have eaten through everything if it had not been rescued.