LongTimeLurker

Professional exemption kicks in again on moving back to tiers?

Getting to half games played for a ppg outcome shouldn't be mission impossible for the LL so we will likely see more games this season. If the SPFL's reconstruction plan goes through and two LL clubs get added to League Two next season there will need to be a competitive basis for doing so.

If the LL had agreed to the Club 42 boundary shift that Brechin City and co wanted at their last AGM there would have been no more paradox. There was a post from a Kelty Hearts poster that suggested the only reason it didn't happen was the LL asked for financial compensation from the SPFL to cover the cost of extra travel but the SPFL refused to provide it. If that's accurate then the EoS can't rely on the LL to keep the Club 42 boundary where it is now and need to treat Tayside as a potential future addition to their catchment.

As things stand they would qualify for promotion because there is nothing in the playoff rules about geography limiting who can be promoted. The EoS could unilaterally set their northern boundary at the Tay Bridge line of latitude easily enough. That they haven't done so suggests they expect the LL eventually to give way on the Tayside issue on Club 42 relegation in exchange for some other concession and want to be the only east feeder if/when that happens.

Doubt it. EoS entry right now for FWE probably means being in tier 8 conferences assuming they can achieve a ppg outcome after Nicola finally relents on moving back to tiers. A Midlands League would be aiming for tier 6 entry and would probably be a single division. So there's no SoS style shortcut to tier 6 status available by doing this. They are accepting a lower entry point because they know it's the only viable way in right now after Luncarty did it last year.

...or maybe Forfar WE are simply the Dundee/Angus version of Kelty, Dalkeith Thistle or Kilwinning Rangers who finally stopped listening to the self-serving narratives of SJFA blazers and raised their head above the parapet to announce they were applying to join the pyramid? The "Midland League" has as much chance of joining the LL portion of the pyramid as an extra tier 6 feeder as the east region did, i.e. basically none despite Ian Maxwell's last gasp efforts with Option Z. Continuing to follow a prominent junior grade blazer from Lochee who provided very bad advise to clubs on pyramid matters in an east region context over the past three years is not the rational move right now.

SFA are also involved and could it have even got to a vote at the LL AGM last year if the SFA and HL were not OK with a change?

Think Lokomotiva Zagreb were playing in the prva liga as Dinamo's thinly disguised B team at one point so B teams no higher than the druga liga is slightly less messed up than what was happening prior to that. Good to see the glass ceiling would be League One in a Scottish context, but suspect that won't be enough to get it voted through. The article mentions the existing playoff being kept for Club 46 but says nothing explicit about the Tay Bridge boundary. A finer detail worth keeping an eye on.

Something to bear in mind before getting too bogged down over Tay Bridge line of latitude issues is that the SPFL, HL and LL are actively negotiating changes to the existing structure: https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/56412970

There is no fixed boundary between HL and LL zones. The only thing that has ever been agreed is where Club 42 gets relegated to and most of the parties involved want that modified.

Checked and they are: http://slfl.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Lower-Pyramid-play-off-rules-version-1.1.pdf

How well did pressure from the SPFL applied to the LL to shift the line of latitude boundary work? The promotion playoff rules are clear enough that any licensed champion from one of the three tier 6 leagues gets automatic promotion to the LL if they win the playoff. There is no mention of geographical limits in that context. There also is no mention of a Midland league, so all of the SFA, LL, EoS, WoS and SoS would have to sign off on it before a fourth tier 6 feeder would be added which is exceedingly unlikely.

Agree with everything else you wrote verbatim but this is where things get a wee bit dodgy. There was one BBC (?) interview with an EoS officeholder that wasn't an official statement from the league that did make it sound like the line of latitude applied, which wasn't retracted like the misleading tweets last week were. That's water under the bridge now though. There was never anything in the EoS rulebook blocking applications on the basis of geography and nobody applied other than Luncarty last year. Lochee United need to get over the idea that they are owed a path straight into tier 6 in the LL catchment through a Midland League because they are Lochee United godammit. At least two clubs (Tayport and Forfar WE) now appear to grasp that tier 8 conferences are the only realistic entry point at this point, if the existing EoS members approve the applications.

One of the retweets is from the East of Scotland official twitter.

You definitely did your best to try to get what was really happening through to people on here, but many simply didn't want to listen. Will be interesting to see what happens with this application and whether it proves to be the first of many dominos to fall over the next two weeks. The east region north is close to a tipping point in terms of viable numbers if a few more clubs follow Tayport and Forfar WE by making similar announcements over the next few days.

If the WoS had elected SJFA-orientated officeholders there was scope for all kinds of fun and games given the lack of fixed boundaries for leagues but the statement about using county boundaries with the EoS shows that isn't happening.

The LL membership rejected it, but some SFA and SJFA people appeared to have been expecting that option to go ahead so there must have been somebody prominent from the LL involved who was at the very least receptive to the concept (was told who that was by PM at the time but won't name names). In the post above I was suggesting an LL 2 east and an LL 2 west at tier 6 rather than having the split at tier 5 (same sort of concept as the Nationwide Conference then Nationwide North and South in England), so it's mainly about finding a way to move the SoS down a tier. That way you have only two divisions feeding into the top LL division at tier 5 rather than three so it is easier to have the two champions from the east and west automatically promoted into tier 5.

Think a Lowland League 2 but with east and west sections would be ideal to get rid of pro/rel bottlenecks. It won't be long until enough west clubs would be licensed for that to be realistic and it would help to get all the clubs that operate with six figure budgets at the professional game board level where they belong. A way needs to be found to move the SoS down the pecking order a bit to a level where its clubs are keen to move up when the opportunity arises and an LL2 west might be a better fit on that than the LL.

No problem whatsoever with the idea of the SJFA being wound up at this point but discarding a cup competition that can still draw 5000+ to finals and garner significant national media attention because of petty blazer politics would be extremely foolish in marketing terms.

Ideally there would only be two rather than three feeders so it would happen automatically. With SoS as part of the equation it's more a case of the latter of it will be because 19 times out of 20 (or whatever) the WoS champion would beat the SoS champion over two legs.

Another issue that really should be looked at eventually is whether the SoS should feed into the WoS at a lower level if it adds a regional tier rather than the LL. This might also be the way to integrate Argyll clubs into the pyramid so they can pursue licensing and a Scottish Cup place.

It has been clarified that South Lanarkshire is WoS territory: https://www.eosfl.com/ The EoSFL and WoSFL have agreed a boundary for new member applications which is based upon local authority areas. Clubs in Stirling, Falkirk and West Lothian Council areas who wish to join the pyramid will be directed to apply to the EoSFL while clubs in North and South Lanarkshire and East Dunbartonshire will be directed to apply to the WoSFL.

Top of the agenda should be opening up relegation from the LL to two automatic clubs dropping to tier 6. The WoS champion should be promoted every season.