LongTimeLurker

Guess the SJFA's way of working has changed since Tom Johnston retired as he always insisted it all had to go through him where the pyramid was concerned.

That's where clubs get relegated to or promoted from not who agrees to rule changes.

^^^probably actually HL-SJFA-NCL on the latter bit judging from the press releases at the time. Worth a double check on who gets to agree to rule changes.

As things stand at the moment one of the LL feeders is on the hook to accept any club that is relegated from the LL and who goes where gets agreed between the leagues involved well ahead of time. There's no scope for them to go to an HL feeder in terms of the rules that are in place.

...but do the people who run Brechin City feel a similar level of enthusiasm over the prospect of playing Lochee United in a league fixture when as recently as 2018 they were playing Dundee United in the Championship? https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/42481452 Hope that derby happens in the not too distant future but think there's a fair to middling chance that Brechin City will be in the LL next season courtesy of the boundary removal and will use the ability to do that as a way to still feel superior to Midlands League clubs who have to progress to the HL.

Think you answered your own question with that but you could have said much the same about Broughty Athletic not so long ago so nothing is impossible in the long run.

Hasn't been definitively ruled out yet by anyone who is in the loop on what is happening, but difficult to see how you can insert that into the LL constitution based on a change to the Club 42 playoff rule that only addresses relegation from tier 4 down to tier 5.

Things may have changed over the last couple of decades but that definitely used to make a big difference. My relatives used to have to carefully explain who I was related to and how before the other locals would give me the time of day. Then you get into awkward social situations like running into your granny's best friend from childhood who is very pleased to meet you but is speaking broad Shetland sans wallies...

Need to accept.

Think Brechin have trained in Grangemouth in recent years so are not really an Angus team in terms of coaching and players. The fear seems to be what would happen if they moved away from that model. Think the effective boundary is more likely to drift south than north at the tier 6 feeder league level because there would be more enthusiasm for doing that amongst Midlands League members than with the EoS. Would it be hugely surprising if Luncarty, Jeanfield and Kinnoull moved leagues at this point? Newburgh and St Andrews would be the next set of dominoes after that. Burnieman is claiming elsewhere that there is a signed agreement on the boundary between the two leagues but not sure that was ever publicly announced like the one with the WoS was and if it would actually amont to anything more than a gentleman's agreement in legal terms if it exists.

SFA and SPFL blazers were not happy about Brechin City being relegated into the HL when they wanted to be in the LL and the SFA were still trying to strongarm the LL into accepting them even after the playoffs against Kelty. HL also reported to have wanted to get rid of the boundary leaving the LL as the only holdout.

...and may explain why the SoS appear to be talking internally about becoming a tier 7 feeder in future if a recent post in their subforum is to be believed.

To a significant extent but after Trump announced he was pulling American troops out it was the Syrian Army and the Russians that came to the rescue where the Kurds were concerned when they were facing a full scale invasion by Turkey: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Turkish_offensive_into_north-eastern_Syria After that Turkey had to use its drones against the Syrian Army when it looked like Idlib might fall: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Spring_Shield and that was when their devastating potential became clear for all to see. Not just selling drones to Ukraine but allowing them to build a factory could tip the balance in Donbas in a big way in a similar manner to what happened in Nagorno-Karabakh:

They could run at 16 again by getting shot of the Colts and use the rule that was inserted about the board having the discretion to have up to 18 to accomodate any unexpected extras, but that under most circumstances only delays the problem of extra relegation to the following season. If all that winds up happening as a worst case scenario is taking Brechin by application to keep the Hampden blazers happy the effect is relatively minor because it could be a while before another Angus club gets relegated. I doubt there would be much of an appetitite elsewhere for crossing the former boundary. I was surprised the OfficialCathchup twitter account holder did not shoot down the idea that a tier 6 playoff champion could pick and choose where to wind up and would characterize it is as a question that needs to be answered. The north tier 6 feeders playoff is likely to be won by the Midlands League champion more often than not over the next 5 years or so by clubs that I suspect would prefer the LL to the HL if given a choice so that would be problematic for the LL. Seriously doubt that could be inserted into the LL constitution by diktat from the SFA on the basis of changes to the Club 42 playoff rule but we'll see what unfolds.

The LL were always likely to cave on this eventually if the SFA were persistent enough and made a strong enough threat or provided a large enough inducement. Looks like making themselves dependent on SFA approval of a rushed set of rules changes to facilitate colt team entry gave the SFA the leverage required to make a sufficiently dire threat. It was pleasantly surprising that everything slid neatly into place on having a fully functional pyramid before the LL caved on this. The whole colt team saga shows how easily a majority of LL clubs can be influenced with a depressingly small financial carrot. Having Brechin City as Club 42 for a cancelled set of playoffs may have helped shore up the level of resolve. As Invergowrie Arab suggests above if it only winds up being a single Angus club as the anomaly it isn't the end of the world. We still haven't seen all the gory details though.

As stated in an earlier post hope the guy stays. Was only wondering what was going on and was trying to rationalise why it might have been a necessary step if it turns out to be what happens. Thought the sensible thing was done by hanging in there with the manager. If you have a guy that you know from past experience can build a strong squad when nobody is pumping crazy money in you give him time to get the job done with a rebuild even if the first iteration doesn't work out as planned.

If it's all clubs getting to choose the Midlands League (SJFA east region) effectively becomes an LL feeder whether the EoS likes it or not. Would be very surprised if it went that far because the EoS, WoS and SoS have a say on changes to the playoff format into the LL and that's probably legally binding. On the Club 42 playoff my understanding is that all the other parties (SFA, HL and SPFL) wanted the change and the LL was the only holdout. Once clubs are established in tier 5 though I guess any transfer between leagues would be a matter for only the HL and LL at that point but how do you deal with keeping the leagues at their optimal number of 16 or 18?

Assuming the question isn't rhetorical it's probably mainly related to Ken Ferguson having been on the SPFL board.

The reality was always that the boundary only ever applied to Club 42 in terms of the rules so there was never any problem with Luncarty being north of it or Letham and Scone being south of it as long as the other feeder league members involved were fine with letting them in. The line of latitude was only the boundary if feeder leagues chose to make it the boundary not because they actually had to. Now the Tay Bridge boundary is completely gone the LL and HL would have no basis for complaint if either the EoS or Midlands league pushed significantly further north or south of where their teams are based now. Think in practical terms though that it's unlikely to happen in the case of the EoS when the entry point is tier 9 and there is no geographical split in the lower tiers unlike what happened in the east region. That in turn means it is probably only really Brechin City that are a potential issue right now in LL terms.

It's easy to come up with highly unlikely hypotheticals on this but the four PGB level Angus clubs appear to be the key and its difficult to see why this would be such a huge issue right now if it doesn't revolve primarily around Brechin City and what Ken Ferguson was trying to do earlier this year around the time of the playoff against Kelty Hearts.

^^^Colin Boyd is a WoS officeholder.

Could you expand on what you meant by this? Are you implying that Fort William will be able to do a flit to the LL if they avoid getting relegated this season? That's a bit more than Club 42 getting to choose.

When the WoS was formed a split was avoided in the west by allowing WoS clubs to stay in the SJFA and compete in the junior cup. The SJFA wants to open the cup up to all clubs in the pyramid from tier 5 down from next season. The WoS exec have proposed a similar concept but run by the seniors. Hopefully common sense prevails and there will be a single national cup for all the pyramid clubs in future.

Just as well for those that don't like to drive north of the Tay that the Tay Bridge line of latitude boundary was removed from the Club 42 playoff rules after rather than before Tayside pyramid entry. The SFA and other parties to the agreement were always likely to find a way to persuade the LL to acquiese to that change eventually so the sequence of events on that was no sure thing. As things stand now though I doubt there will be any huge appetite for tier 9 EoS entry and trips to Staneyburn as opposed to Midlands League entry from new clubs anywhere north of the Ochils. The EoS still hold an effective veto over any new LL feeder ever emerging through the LL entry playoff rules, so the Midlands League will almost certainly remain an HL feeder even if a future north of the Tay Club 42 (or possibly even Brechin City?) may theoretically have to be accomodated at some future point by the EoS after a subsequent relegation.

You would like to think so but difficult to see why they would be pushing for it so hard otherwise. They were still trying to strongarm Brechin into the LL after Kelty had won the playoff.