Hedgecutter

I guess it's easier now due to Sky / Freeview boxes these days, but how were TV ratings worked out before everything went digital? Can radio estimate the audience too - i.e. how would the Beeb work out that hardly anyone listened to Traynor anymore and give him the boot?

Just me or is that document just for applying for a national club licence? If so, clubs don't need one to play in the SFL, Brechin being one example (correct me if I'm thinking about another kind of licence though). The SFA would be as well giving Sevco a licence to do whatever the f*** they like based on what we've seen so far.

I don't think that's the case although it's certainly the case that you can't be a die-hard or be 'loyal' (remove any Ranjurs connotations if you can) if you're not at every one. Some people are happy to go to every game and let that dictate their lives for them but I prefer to mix it up a bit more. I probably go to half the games (both home and away, possibly more away than home ) and spend the second weekend heading away somewhere, usually either caving up NW Scotland or Yorkshire or hillwalking somewhere out west, both of which are pretty tricky to cram into a Sunday. You know the guy at the start of sportscene who dances about the hills checking the scores on his mobile? That'll be me a lot of the time! Used to be the case that the perfect weekend would be a game on the Saturday and a walk somewhere relatively local on the Sunday but you soon run out of options before the same thing just becomes a bit boring. Some Brechin fans probably think that they're more of a fan than me but would they still go if they were in the same shoes as me? I've got an extra four hours travelling each match day, the extra £20 to get to Brechin in the first place (the same as their transport and match entry) while they can roll out of bed at 10:15 for an away day. Some who go to most games would, others wouldn't. Doesn't mean that matches mean more to them than me though.

Mouth

It's not a punishment. It's a new team with no league to play in applying for a place in the SFL.

I think only parts the whole Burley column have been posted so far so for the benefit of those without yersterday's Sunday Mail, here it is... Warning: ensure that all sharp objects are hidden away. HAS it really come to this? The future of Scottish football placed in the hands of a few nonentities from the lower divisions. Muppets in charge of clubs that draw embarrassing crowds of 200 people suddenly standing as judge and jury over a decision that could cost the country millions of pounds in lost revenue. Chairmen of part-time teams who are nothing more than afterthoughts in the psyche of our national obsession, yet suddenly they have been handed the most important decision in the history of Scottish football. Does the SFL do the sensible thing and accept the Rangers newco into the First Division or cut off their nose to spite everyone else's face by condemning them to starting again from the Third Division? That they even have to think twice about this decision chills me to the core because it's a clear sign that the knuckle-draggers – always the ones who make the most noise – have succeeded in making their voice heard. And I'm not just talking about supporters, there are plenty of backward idiots in board rooms too and their petty witch hunt dressed up as "sporting integrity" could cost us all. What price your integrity if there's no sport left after you've slaughtered its biggest cash cow? Those opposing Rangers being parachuted into the First Division cannot see the wood for the trees. I've heard comments from clubs like Cowdenbeath, Peterhead insisting they must start from scratch in the Third – who are these people and how are they qualified to make a decision that will affect clubs 10 times their size? Let's be honest here, if their clubs were to go missing nobody would bat an eyelid but if they abuse their newfound power to banish Rangers then the whole game is gone. It is THAT serious because without the revenue they generate through TV deals and travelling supporters, many other clubs will shut. I know SFA chief executive Stewart Regan was criticised for warning that Scottish football faces a slow painful death if the Ibrox club are tossed to the bottom, but I agree. There is no point telling people everything's hunky dory when it is clearly not. People must wake up to Regan's alarming message before it's too late. Most of all the SPL because the time is now to take decisive action. You may have read Raith Rovers' vice chairman Turnbull Hutton accusing the SPL of bullying and railroading the lower league clubs to vote Rangers into the First. There's long been veiled threats to set up a breakaway SPL 2, including Rangers, if the top flight don't get what they want, leaving those who defy them well and truly out in the cold. Well my feeling is why rely on a veiled threat when you can turn it into a concrete promise that can be used as a foundation to rebuild our game on a more stable platform? Just do it, guys. This is the time where SPL chief executive Neil Doncaster must stand strong and make the big decisions and grab the power back for the big clubs who know how to handle it. Start the breakaway now, give us a fresh product of two top divisions with promotion and relegation play-offs and sell the package to Sky and ESPN as a fresh exciting new dawn for our game. TV will buy into it, fans will be re-energised and hopefully start clicking through the turnstiles again. Hey, maybe even the punters who blackmailed their clubs to vote Rangers out of the SPL in the first place might actually start attending games – because I don't believe for a second that they were all loyal season ticket holders. You just need to look at Dunfermline closing a stand last season and matches at Pittodrie resembling a closed-doors friendly any time the Old Firm weren't visiting as evidence that these fans who protested so loudly must now put their money where mouths are. So what of the rest you may ask. What about the clubs left behind by the new set-up? No doubt some of them will fold while others continue plodding along as they are just now – part-time community clubs with very little relevance beyond the borders of their town. It might sound brutal but there are too many teams in our senior game who are going nowhere. So better to trim the dead wood than give them the power to kill off one of the two clubs that matters most. In short, it's better them than Rangers when it comes down to a stark choice of who should go. I can almost hear the outraged screams from Forfar to Annan already but hard nosed as it sounds the alternative, which is football Armageddon, is too much for the rest of us to bear. Maybe the Neanderthals who are only interested in revenge and petty points scoring after decades of Old Firm dominance will stop and think about the consequences before they call for more punishment. The time has come to end this sorry episode and start fresh with a positive new beginning for all of Scottish football. We can't stand by and allow small clubs with their ridiculous tiny supports to gather on Friday the 13th and chase millions of pounds out of our game. The time for action has come and Doncaster and his SPL member clubs cannot afford to hesitate a moment longer. Hang the c*** out to dry for this one alone. Let's let the cheating, vile, bigoted team that was Rangers live on while all of the other rule abiding community sides should be killed off?! Only an idiotic Neanderthal muppet could come out with such a statement.

Rangers Football Club is getting liquidated, i.e. not just the company but the whole f***ing club. Orcs have been living in denial for years though so I doubt this will change any time soon.

I unfortunately just read that column in the SM - Absolutely shocking and jawdroppingly stupid. "If their clubs were to go missing nobody would bat an eyelid", Pittodrie resembling closed door friendlies, part time community clubs with very little relevance beyond the borders of their town. Maybe it's my fault for reading the SM in general but please just **** off Burley. "You can hear the outraged screams from Forfar to Annan..." - is that the furthest place from Annan this muppet could think of? Craig: You just singlehandedly caused what you call 'football argmageddon'. Congratulations.

Fantastic ripping the piss out of Traynor's armageddon quote on OTB there just now! Brilliant.

If Traynor happens to get a Saturday afternoon off, is he ever seen at any ground which Airdrie are playing at??

How could you have the runners up of the Second and Third divisions going up after all this but the runner up of the First staying down? Get Dundee up. It's a simple decision.

Should have added that because the Glebe pitch doesn't meet this ground criteria, Brechin get fined each season until we get it sorted. Think we get it reduced though seeing as planning permission has been applied for and it requires the hedgeside terracing to be removed for the space and all the floodlights to be moved back. With these extra current costs to the club, it worries me that we might do a Stenny as everything's hush-hush so far.

We're one of them - can't get one as the pitch at the Glebe as it's too narrow by three yards. Need to fix it before we start our future big European adventure.

I had to work at work today. Not impressed. :-(

Pretty bold of them to come out with this first. Stupid, but bold.

FFS. Well, there's two less away games for me next season.

IMHO it wouldn't surprise me if they got that. Basis for that is that these guys are there to see their team win on a weekly basis and that they feel they'll have a cause to keep the club afloat. I doubt they'd get the supporters buses down from Wick / Stornoway / Elgin etc but there's plenty of others around Glasgow that'll turn up for just £10-15 ... for a short while anyway.

Best so far imo.

It's The End of their World And They Know It ... and we feel fine.

What are they up to these days anyway?! They've probably not been mentioned for about 100 pages or so!

If Sevco get punted for good then it will be Christmas! As someone said earlier in the thread; at least we'll get to see how Summer football works!

So by the time they have the SFL1 vote and then organise a separate vote for SFL admission, how long will that leave? A week or two?!

More likely to be the old Rangers cretins heading over to Linfield. ...which is in Belfast, I know

Believe it or not, I'd much rather go down to Stranraer from Aberdeen rather than Airdrie. Queens, Stranraer and most likely Ayr will be happy with that. Pars, Falkirk and Raith fans will be happy. The Dundee derby returns... there's eight teams across the 1st and 2nd getting bigger gates already - what's bad about it?! I thought Stranraer's problem was that everything's going to go through Cairnryan soon so very few need to head south into Stranraer now with all the buses running north directly from the terminal rather than heading down to the train station?

Woah, woah, woah! Proper consideration to not just whether it'll be SFL1 or SFL3 but either expulsion or suspension? Could this be down to clubs realising it's possibly too late to give them a place not knowing if they'll be able to fulfil fixtures? Who came behind Annan in the last application round? (edit - it was Cove 'no new ground' Rangers, probably Spartans behind them) Somebody send them a nice letter now. Edit: Question: If Rangers got suspended from the SFL, would they stick a non-league senior side in to fill in the fixtures and then say "cheers, now back you go..." the season afterwards? Surely not, hence SFL1 SFL3 or full expulsion are the only options surely? Sevco Also just using his classic "[insert name], can I say something? Can I say something? Can I say something..." repeated until the other person finishes whatever they were saying which he hasn't listened to at all.