LongTimeLurker

Problem is the "at the end of the immediately preceding season" bit in C12.4. COVID19 has made that impossible and the season has now been ended outright.

The top clubs couldn't care less about the welfare and national league status of Cowdenbeath or Brechin. 14-14-14 to save Hearts from the drop was the opportunity for some mischief, but at least 6 premiership clubs didn't have any interest in tampering with the status quo even under those circumstances.

Those clubs can be in an HL feeder with nothing much really changing. It's only if they first get licensed and then win the north region title that there's any danger of moving up to the HL level. That's unlikely for the ex-Moray Junior League outfits. The way things are heading elsewhere though junior football has 5 years tops as anything even vaguely resembling a national grade and that's probably being generous, so odds on the pyramid is happening for the north region one way or another. Beyond that I think if you checked out the state of some of the grounds of clubs that have been licensed in recent years you would realise that Burghead doing it isn't as much of a stretch as you may have been led to believe. Jeanfield Swifts, for example: http://nonleaguescotland.org.uk/jeanfield.htm or Wigtown & Bladnoch http://nonleaguescotland.org.uk/wigtown.htm

There is still the fig leaf of ongoing SJC entry but no word on how the voting went on that unless I missed something?

Enclosed with lights and cover and a pavilion inside the boundary fencing that has dedicated access to the pitch. That ticks most of the boxes on entry level.

Others that can't be too far away are Montrose Roselea (play at Links Park), Bridge of Don Thistle (Aberdeen Sports Village), Deveronside, Aberdeen Uni and Burghead Thistle. When the secretary of the north region talks about it being some kind of mission impossible it sounds like a case of wanting no change so he can keep his blazer.

Sufficiently irked by this that I'll add to my response from yesterday. Check out this link and the clip contained: https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/footage-emerges-rangers-new-pr-21705124?utm_source=linkCopy&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sharebar and see if you can still sensibly adopt the posture that high profile moments in 20th century Ulster history are likely to be a total irrelevance at Ibrox when PR is being handled.

The big boys were willing to relegate Hearts to avoid reconstruction on League 2's selfish 14-14-14 terms, so looks like the League 2 clubs have very little leverage now under the new SPFL's voting system. The 11-1 top tier requirement will be very difficult to unlock. That should keep the pyramid intact well into the future through the admittedly less than ideal Club 42 playoff.

The NCL was dominated for decades by HL reserve teams: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Caledonian_Football_Association My understanding is that its at times tenuous senior status has been derived from it previously having been an HL reserve league.

No, in the absence of wider reconstruction everything stays as is, so no change to what happens to Club 42 in future without SFA, HL and LL consent. This season the relegation playoffs for all four divisions didn't happen because the season didn't finish.

Promoting Kelty and Brora for one season of a 14-10-10-10 with three SPFL deadwood clubs being relegated in the aftermath would have been ideal, but the League Two clubs other than Cove and Edinburgh City were never going to agree to it unfortunately. Turkeys don't vote etc etc

What happens if the League 2 clubs said OK we will agree to save Hearts for you but only if our preferred14-14-14 format ends or severely restricts the Club 42 playoff? The lower division SPFL diddies enforced a cartel system for decades when they had the leverage to do that sort of thing. Not good that the playoff didn't happen this year but it's important to bear in mind that relegation playoffs were cancelled in the other three divisions as well.

Main thing is that Club 42 is still in the firing line in 2020-21 under the status quo. Reconstruction potentially opened the door to mischief on that.

Cynicism in your eyes is suggesting they might want in ASAP rather than staying quiet until next year? Aye, OK whatever you say.

Think they are angling for AGM entry similar to what Kinnoull got last year. If the BUs get promoted there will be an odd number of teams left in the tier 7 conferences and that arguably creates a vacancy.

If Brora go up the HL is left with 16 clubs, which is a number they would probably be more than happy to have from a scheduling standpoint. They are more likely to want an extra team, if they still have 17 clubs. Beyond that there is no indication that the HL have any interest in having clubs from Tayside on board. They only ever mention the NCL and north region as future tier 6 feeders.

Think a lot will depend on whether the pandemic is really over completely by that point or as herd immunity builds over time is still rumbling along at what is viewed by the powers that be as an acceptably low rate of deaths.

Yes, we all know that Rangers have never been linked in any way with Ulster Loyalism. Don't think I'm the one that needs to get a grip.

Luncarty are the precedent that the HL:LL boundary rule is not being rigidly applied throughout the pyramid. According to patriot1 Orkney FC were cited at the recent EoS EGM as an example of a club that could apply to the EoS and be put to a members vote. The playoff rules for entry into the LL from below make no mention of a geographical limit and the winner gets promoted.

Ronnie MacDonald and Les Gray are both Rangers fans so as suggested above Hamilton Accies are likely to be on Rangers side. Hearts are also a no brainer given how pleased they are to be relegated when null and void was definitely a viable option. In days gone by Jan Stepek leaned the other way in a big way, so hasn't always been that way with Hamilton Accies.

To paraphrase Bill Craig of Ulster Vanguard they will have built the dossiers on the men and women who are a menace to their club, because one day ladies and gentlemen, if the blazer apparatchiks fail, it may be their job to liquidate the enemy. Doubt this is their Fergus McCann Jim Farry moment as it's probably mainly about playing to the gallery over nine in a row but we'll see what happens.

There is nothing in the LL constitution that specifies that. The only rule that exists covers what happens when club 42 gets relegated and only that.

What's more pertinent is that AFAIR a couple of years back Carnoustie talked about being in limbo in pyramid terms because they couldn't apply to the EoS and Larry Duncan seems to also emphasise the idea that there was a Tayside has to go north posture from the EoS during meetings in the podcast posted above. The reason the EoS might be keen for Luncarty not to be viewed as a precedent breaking away from previous practice is that it would be very difficult to justify a tier 8 entry point if most Tayside clubs had previously been blocked because of the Tay bridge boundary and Brechin City were suddenly able to get that boundary shifted. Larry Duncan's talk of there being a need for a Midlands League covering Dundee, Angus, Perthshire and parts of Fife is all about Lochee United getting into a new fourth LL feeder at tier 6 instead.

Haven't made anything up and the real issue is that you badly need to show more tolerance for other people's opinions and perspectives when they diverge from your own. In recent days I have posted on another subforum about which senior club I used to go and see regularly and if you haven't figured out who my favourite former east region club is you must have an IQ comparable to a mollusc. Hint: Formerly in West Lothian and could be described as Whitburn-on-sea. Over and out for this thread unless something interesting and on-topic gets posted.

Disagreeing with Burnieman and trolling are two very different concepts and I know exactly who Hamish the Goalie was because in a quickly deleted post somebody forgot to change usernames and used that account to respond as somebody else. Should have taken screen shots but didn't, unfortunately.