LongTimeLurker

Interesting things about the poll for me are that Alba being in the game in d'Hondt terms doesn't appear to be damaging the Greens and AFU are also close enough to the threshold to be a factor moving forward. To say that's bad news for the three traditional Westminster parties would be an understatement.

...which is why Berwick Rangers were able to survive after all that talk that they would be annihilated in the playoff and Cove Rangers are still in the Highland League.

What to do with an Argyll applicant that involves a bus journey of epic proportions could explain that. Would be hilarious to watch what unfolds if Harthill Royal find out they have an away game against Campbelltown Pupils next season after applying to the WoS to avoid a trip to Coldstream or Tweedmouth in the EoS.

https://keltyhearts.co.uk/kelty-hearts-fc-update/ As is now widely known the board of the SLFL have decided that the League season for 2020/21 be concluded due to ongoing Covid restrictions, with the Champion Club once again awarded on a PPG basis. The decision to declare a Champion on PPG rather than declare a null and void season was necessary to ensure a club from the SLFL would go forward to the Pyramid Play Off. This decision sees Kelty Hearts FC declared as SLFL Champion Club, we would like to place on record our appreciation of how difficult making this decision would be for the SLFL and its member clubs. We would also like to acknowledge the efforts all member clubs and the SLFL board had made to ensure the successful safe return to SLFL football earlier in the season. Having been declared as the SLFL Champion club we now face a two legged play-off against Highland League champions Brora Rangers, a fixture that has been approved and confirmed by the SFA as taking place at the end of this month. With current Covid restrictions only allowing non contact training for adult teams, and also travel restrictions remaining in place, we and the SLFL board are urgently seeking a professional sport exemption from the SFA which will allow the squad to return fully to training. This exemption is necessary to allow the squad to prepare fully for the biggest games in our clubs’ history. We are fully aware that a return to training will require full DPCR Covid testing, and we are currently in discussions to have this in place on the go ahead from the relevant authorities to return to training. With the scheduled SHFL v SLFL play-offs only 3 weeks away, Saturday 24th April and Saturday 1st May the urgency of receiving this exemption can’t be emphasised enough so our management team and squad can prepare as best they can.

There is a minimum of 29 applicants to the EoS and WoS right now. Even allowing for a few more Tayside applicants doing what Tayport did yesterday that could easily translate into 25 new senior clubs in the LL catchment.

The Roselea scenario outlined above is a non-starter but relegation into the NCL would be a very hard landing for one of the traditional HL clubs like Lossiemouth so I wouldn't be surprised if a split into two Highland League divisions gets talked about again so that tier 6 is an HL second division with the NCL & co bumped down a notch to tier 7. If Dundee area clubs are up for the travel involved, the HL catchment could soon have the numbers needed (significantly over 20 clubs as there may be HL members lost to the Club 42 playoff) to be able to do something like that based on licensing. Up to now that always looked a very far off prospect with just the NCL and north region as part of the equation because Golspie and BoD never put an application in after being licensed.

From Fitba North: http://fitbanorth.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=8773 Montrose Roselea will reevaulate their position and its something that we have had to do several times over the last decade. We are supporters of the Pyramid and glad to see that it is now taking shape (In a way which I have predicted would happen through evolution rather than by being directed, which has been messy to say the least). We have no inentions of joining Highland League as it stands mainly due to travel and the fact that there would be two teams in a town competing for money from the same well but you never say never. There could be a temptation to rejoin the Tayside Midland League for travel reasons if accepted back in however there is not much gain in travel between Dundee & Aberdeen bar the Angus teams to play. Roselea have also settled in the North Region and happy with their lot at the moment however as mentioned elsewhere here the decision may be taken out of hands due to Angus DD postcode. If that is what happens then you just accept it and get on with it. There is a massive opportunity here for people to get around the table and take the bull by the horns. Personal ideas are an all in North of Scotland Cup with the Tier 6 teams playing a couple of rounds before joining in against seeded Highland League teams and perhaps a split Highland League North and South with 14-16 teams each which would reduce travel. Two League winners would play off to then take part in the PlayOff with Lowland League. The South League would be bolstered mainly by Tayside Teams. and would make the Superleagues a thing of the past with the remaining regional Junior teams having something to compete for as a true Pyramid. I know that it could be argued that this would dilute the current Highland League and weaken it. These are only personal ideas so please go easy!! If all this goes ahead it would be nice for the first time in living history not to be on the edge of a Region having been so in both the Tayside, East and North Regions so we are delighted with the moves which are long over due and it could have been argued should possibly have come in 20 years ago

One more relegation after that and the City vs Vics local league derby could be born in the new Midlands League. On a more serious note think you still have a fair to middling chance of avoiding being Club 42, but Brechin now being firmly in the HL catchment in feeder league negotiations terms must have ended any notions about dropping into the Lowland League?

Violet, North End, Downfield, Lochee Harp, Kirriemuir, Brechin Vics and Coupar Angus can't be too far off on ticking the ground related boxes unless there are major issues with their dressing rooms and toilet blocks etc.

A 6-12 split (or whatever it is once amateur clubs are factored in and EoS applications are resolved) should create viable numbers for a second tier in the Dundee area for clubs that are used to only playing in the Dundee area and end the severe mismatches.

^^^obviously didn't get the memo about Tayport.

From what I remember and it's been a while that would take things back to what was initially supposed to be the format of the north superleague before it got rejigged so Tayside was in with the old East and Fife regions instead.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013–14_East_of_Scotland_Football_League

but gets trickier in Perthshire:

Then the following season would have no more than 30 league games as it should be. Sensible outcome at this point given how close things got to 50% games played.

Whatever bud. A real pyramid is finally here now and your club are on their slow steady way to their natural habitat of EoS tier 8 or 9.

And they are one of a surprising number of Tayside clubs that have both cover and lights and hence should have the inside track on licensing: https://nonleaguescotland.org.uk/couparangus.htm

...and on and on. It would have been easy enough to just ignore those posts if you weren't interested in it.

The role of Alan Macrae of Cove Rangers in opening up the national divisions to promotion from below should be highlighted as well even if junior clubs crashing the party via the EoS was not part of his agenda. Once one domino falls it can start a chain reaction.

In my original post I pointed out that if something as straightforward as Lerwick to Bressay can't be done in the prevailing political culture I seriously doubted it would ever happen. Over the course of the last 50 years or so the Faroese have been phasing out the need to use ferries by building increasingly ambitious tunnels but you have chosen to just ignore the info I provided you about that. Relying on ferries in the North Atlantic is a pain in the proverbial and very costly economically so there is nothing weird about using all the money that is poured into that which easily runs into tens of million over the couse of a few decades even for something like the relatively shortYell and Unst ferry links on fixed links instead. Scotland could do much the same as the Faroese and Norwegians have in recent decades on replacing ferries with fixed links but won't because only the central belt really matters in its political culture. Twenty years ago when I was posting about a fully integrated pyramid for Scottish football online it was waaay out there as well and I was often ridiculed. Now it appears to be on the verge of actually happening. Sometimes waaay out there stuff that only a few weirdos take seriously and advocate actually happens.

Probably not on the promotion thing as this looks like an excuse for Threave to avoid any danger of automatic promotion if the EoS subsequently null and void.

So that means Rothes, Lossie, Elgin City, Forres Mechanics, Nairn County and Strathspey Thistle are all in NCL territory in addition to Fort William, Clach, ICT, Ross County, Brora Rangers and Wick Academy. Makes sense in North of Scotland FA terms. In junior terms it would be Nairn St Ninian, Forres Thistle, New Elgin and Burghead Thistle but they would presumably get grandfathered in where they are. Think Spey Valley United might be on the other side of the Spey. Sounds like Tain St Duthus aren't too thrilled about Dundee and Angus suddenly being part of the equation because their chances of making it through a promotion playoff have just plummeted. Was always obvious that Tayside were assumed to be going elsewhere in that context.

Check out some of the tunnels that have been built or are planned in the not too distant future on the Faroe Islands with a population comparable to Orkney and Shetland combined: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tunnels_of_the_Faroe_Islands The latest one being planned would be 25 km long for an island of 4600 people: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suðuroyartunnilin https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suðuroy and would connect to another 10.8 km tunnel currently being built for an island of 1200: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandoyartunnilin https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandoy Then ask yourself why nothing like that ever happens in Scotland. The anti-tolls protests over the Skye fixed link might be a factor.