LongTimeLurker

The north region juniors should be in the pyramid next season and will probably be known as the Grampian League at that point. Brechin City are now likely to soon be only one more relegation away from a local derby against Brechin Vics. What remains of the east region (all the clubs in this season's east region north) should also be an HL feeder from next season onwards as the Midland League.

...and you need to actually have some fans in the first place to be able to sustain a thread like the Bo'ness United one.

To save others the effort: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_McCormack Was at Wigan Athletic as a youth player when they were in the Premiership.

They are not members of the EoSFA: https://www.eosfl.com/clubdirlist/1040 so that is far from clear.

...given they were Linlithgow Thistle at the outset of all this maybe they should have just got on with it in Linlithgow?

...probably also significantly less animosity I would have thought if they had been up front about their true intentions. Not sure how doable that scenario would have been though. Think it's obvious now that some people didnt grasp that the east region was already in terminal decline in West Lothian terms by the time BUJFC emerged and had zero chance of pyramid entry as an LL feeder so they genuinely thought they could pull a fast one with the player pathway stuff and use the junior legacy to usurp the real Bo'ness United as the main Bo'ness club in interest terms moving forward. Bo'ness Athletic is very much the second prize compared to that scenario.

...nothing so far. It was a WoS officeholder that let the info about BSC cutting them loose out of the bag on the WoS subforum when he listed the 9 clubs that have been approved for the WoS development division. The WoS had stated there would be no reserve teams the previous season so how the WoS BSC club related to the LL BSC club was inevitably going to have to be clarified at that point. A lot may depend now on who owns any BSC related trademarks.

If you see Linlithgow Rose under "My Team" it's best not to pay any attention to what is being said on any topic related to Bo'ness. The two towns have a longstanding rivalry and they are green with envy right now about being stuck in tier 6 while the BUs are in the Lowland League. There should be no concerns over the level of ambiton of Bo'ness United. The stated goal is the SPFL in the next 5 years and the BUs are well on the way to being in a position to achieve that while Linlithgow's club languishes at a lower level with promotion playoffs against the WoS champions making the path to the LL very challenging now if there are no rule changes (turkeys don't vote etc). The emergence of this second club will in all likelihood prove to be no more than a temporary irritant as they are not likely to draw fans away to any noticeable extent. If anything, there was a lot more danger of that happening previously when they were Bo'ness United JFC and were entering the junior cup and had derby games against a Linlithgow Rose branded "tribute act" because those had always been the main focal points of interest for the two or three games a season type fanbase. They did comically badly in the SJC getting knocked out by a north region team called Ellon United and the Linlithgow Rose "tribute act" were playing in a 3G cage so that never materialised. Key thing to bear in mind is that it's how Linlithgow Thistle went about barging their way into Newtown Park to ultimately become Bo'ness Athletic that is the main issue in all of this. If they were claiming to be a second Bo'ness club while playing their home games somewhere like Little Kerse, there would be a lot less animosity.

Think parkcircus has told us that they were approved but are delayed until next season now. Name is Blantyre Soccer Academy but they would play at the Jock Stein Centre in the Hillhouse scheme in Hamilton.

To save people the click: I had been aware anecdotally that Edwin Poots was unpopular but that confirms how bizarre a move it was for the DUP inner circle to vote him in.

You must have a very low IQ level if you think I have been pro-SJFA and anti-pyramid. In reality I thought Kelty Hearts moving to the EoS was a good move back when Burnieman was still arguing that they should stay in the SJFA and try to work for change through Tom Johnston and co. Hopefully they finish what they started against Brechin City tomorrow. Clearly the WoS got this one right. This whole episode is another example of why it would be better if the SFA could shape the league structure like the FA does with nonleague in England so that self interest agendas and petty blazer politics are kept to a minimum.

...if Alloa Athletic sign off on it being a permanent 50:50 groundshare and are happy for there to be a second Alloa branded club at the Recs then BSCG would have a permanent home at that point and an ability to slowly carve out their own fanbase.

...but we may now have moved to a scenario where there is no longer a consensus that they should always be backed up on that in Washington between Democrats and Republicans because being either pro- or anti-Zionist has become part of the wider American culture war. Netanyahu being so close to Trump may have backfired on them.

No problem with either of them, in my opinion, or the Clydebank/Yoker one if it is stable and permanent and both clubs are fine with it. What makes BSC Glasgow different is the Maryhill to Alloa move away from what was supposed to be their home area. That was supposed to be temporary until they got something sorted out in Glasgow. If there is no prospect of that happening on a clear timeline the SFA should be able to step in and say time's up in professional game board level licence terms you need to drop to a lower level.

They are ripe for the picking as a camouflaged colt team or a speedier way back in the next time a big club goes out of business so somebody could be onto a nice little earner in the years ahead. Ditto with Caledonian Braves.

...including it should be remembered the new committee of Livingston United that wanted in last season.

No reason why a club that has no home of its own and no identifiable support base now the youth club has severed ties should be allowed to play at the professional game board level indefinitely on the basis of a groundshare.

If you have nothing constructive to add maybe take your own advice.

The SFA need to have a long hard look at their licensing rules to find a way to stop farcical scenarios like this from unfolding. Get them punted from the PGB level and get a real club with a home of their own and a regular fanbase in the hundreds in.

It wouldn't have been. I was opposed to the concept of West Lothian clubs moving west, which is why I mentioned the worst of blazer politics being on display on both sides of that equation. Harthill is in Lanarkshire so that's a different scenario.

In 2022-23, if Harthill have met the ground requirements and been fully voted in OK they will be part of a large WoS third division probably split into two conferences. The trip to Campbelltown is amusing given the circumstances but year two and beyond is probably better than the EoS scenario would have been for them. They would have been dead certs for a prolonged stay in this pygmy bottom tier with Tweedmouth and similar arriving by 2023-24 to replace the best of the local games.

Seems that way, maybe could recruit some Colt teams to make up the numbers.... This is being done to get it right up certain West Lothian clubs that wanted to enter the pyramid through the east region and recently contemplated a move to the WoS before that escape route was blocked. Petty blazer politics at its worst on display on both sides of that equation. Would have been better to use the other option to wipe the slate clean and turn the page.

Setting aside any issues related to the parasitical ((c) buboy) entity from Linlithgow Bridge for now, it's Chewin the Fat bowling club meeting level stuff that they would go for 16-16-18-9 rather than 16-16-16-11 with the bottom clubs from Conferences A & B moving down. Bear in mind that a certain high profile poster has asserted that the new clubs thread has run its course now and there is no expectation of any further significant influx of new members from below. The way the Letham application was handled certainly points in that direction.