LongTimeLurker

If they were played more than once I'll guess that points to the old east region rather than a Fife team. How about Polkemmet?

...and pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.

^^^bizarre stuff given it's no secret that the SFA's proposal for the rejigged LL playoff that was required to get the ERSJFA and WRSJFA in at tier 6 for this season was knocked back at a meeting involving both EoS and LL clubs. Do these guys really not grasp something as simple as the difference between the SJFA as a collective entity becoming part of the pyramid and junior clubs doing it by leaving the SJFA? Maybe they are not even bothering to read my posts at this point. Whatever, I'll leave this alone for now until something new gets posted.

Do you think the use of bold face and underlining strengthens your argument in some way? The willingness to accept the entry of former junior clubs like Glenrothes or Kinnoull, whether into the EoS or the mythical WoS, if they leave the SJFA cannot sensibly be used as an argument to pretend that the EoS and LL did not block the collective entry of the SJFA as an intact association last season. I don't know why you guys can't just be honest about what's happening and state openly that you want to see the SJFA disband as part of junior clubs becoming part of the pyramid? The whole PWG process is a complete waste of time if an association is being asked by the SFA to negotiate entry on behalf of its members that the other stakeholders at tier 5 and below simply will not tolerate as a partner in the pyramid moving forwards.

Already there, for what it's worth: https://www.eosfl.com/

...one of their officeholders has even stated quite recently that most of what they are doing off the field is in preparation for pyramid entry. What would be interesting to have clarified on here is whether Cumnock and Petershill had their licensing applications passed onto the licensing committee with a view to entry into SFA membership at next year's AGM, if they tick all the boxes at the audit stage. If they were, I suspect Auchinleck will be keen to keep up with the Joneses.

Nothing at all to do with blame as stated many times previously.

Not in any country with a written constitution where government actions and legislation can be overturned as unconstitutional.

The SFA don't seem to think so. The only place it is mentioned in any rule currently is where team 42 gets relegated to.

Viagra being on the list is also amusing from that standpoint.

How does any of that negate the point I made? The EoS blocked the SJFA from entering last season through the 'all-in' approach. That is fact. I am not saying that they blocked the WRSJFA from getting in unilaterally. Do you really not grasp that nuance? It's far from clear what the scenario is with the North Region. As long as the HL has more potential vacancies than there are licensed clubs with floodlights available to fill them there is no obvious need for promotion and relegation.

It is the SJFA who are negotiating entry in PWG meetings not the WRSJA. As stated the EoS did block SJFA entry. That is 100% factual

If the WRSJFA and ERSJFA had entered this season, the SJFA would definitely have turned into an irrelevance as the years passed and a relic from another era in a Forfarshire FA sort of way but that's clearly not enough for some people, so you have to question whether lurking underneath it all there could be an "it's ma baw and you're no playing" self-interest agenda, especially where some of the founding LL clubs are concerned. Clubs like Spartans can pretty much forget ever playing in the SPFL if the likes of Clydebank, Auchinleck Talbot, Beith and Pollok ever entered the LL stage right. Many of the people who tend to drone on about excluding the juniors from the Scottish Cup probably viewed the introduction of pyramid as a senior grade only thing rather than the first step to a continental style league structure.

Think it's more a case of the SFA Board having issued a directive to the PWG to facilitate SJFA entry pronto. Hence why certain posters on here naively thought that meant they were definitely in for this season. The EoS were able to block progress towards SJFA entry on the technicality that they have to approve changes to the LL entry playoff format. It appears to be a lot more important to the people involved with the nonleague seniors in the LL catchment that the SJFA be brought to a definitive end than it is that an all-encompassing pyramid be formed on the shortest possible timeline.

Probably the only way Spartans will get into the SPFL now the LL has strengthened considerably.

The natural party of power in the RoI is Fianna Fail (Solders of Destiny), who represent more the rural western Gaelic strand of Irish nationalism. The other main party, Fine Gael (Family of the Gael), are more the urban Anglo-Irish Catholics from the Pale strand of Irish nationalism and they tend to see UI as a way to team up with Ulster Unionists to change the electoral arithmetic in their favour. FF have tended to be happier with a 26 county state and less keen on UI over the years than FG for that reason but that's not something they share with the plebs. In an STV PR system the Unionists might continue to do OK for a few decades representing an Ulster regional interest by joining coalitions to bring back the bacon in pork barrel terms. The RoI of today isn't what it was like under de Valera, so they are unlikely to be treated as complete pariahs for sectarian reasons. Think Detournement is right though that the practicalities of moving to UI make it a long shot straight away even in the doomsday scenario of a no deal Brexit.

It's also abundantly obvious that a 16 team ERSJFA tier 6 league as opposed to the current south:north split would have a geography that would skew heavily towards Tayside and that the geographical overlap issue would hence almost certainly sort itself out over time in the EoS's favour as teams south of the Forth and in the southern portions of Fife would not see that as the answer for them long term, so the vehemence of some of the EoS opposition looks completely out of proportion in a making a mountain out of a molehill sort of way. The ERSJFA would not be a significant threat to them now they have the east superleague format most of the top Fife & Lothians clubs would always have preferred.

Which then begs the question of how he normalised his sample to fit NI's demography and ensure it was truly representative. If you want plenty of media attention a narrow UI lead is the way to go and a lot of Leave types would love to be able to get rid of the RoI:NI border issue once and for all so they can easily pursue separate trade deals. Don't doubt it's much closer than it's ever been in numbers terms courtesy of the antics of Arlene and co, but I'll wait until I see multiple polls from different polling organisations reporting these trends before putting too much faith in it really being the lie of the land.

That's mentioned in the text you are quoting and also in my earlier post. The key point is that things continued as is after Isthmian League entry on the geographies of the leagues involved for many seasons, so having overlapping ERSJFA and EoS tier 6 leagues as a starting point to an all-encompassing pyramid at the semi-pro level would be nothing drastically unusual. If you want something genuinely bizarre, in Holland Protestant and Catholic teams still play in separate leagues with overlapping regional geographies in the same overall pyramid but on Saturdays and Sundays, respectively.

The Southern and Isthmian leagues in England were very much a case of the latter. You should know the geography involved on that having followed Wimbledon in the past: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984–85_Isthmian_League https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984–85_Southern_Football_League It's easier to get things going on an all-encompassing genuine pyramid by incorporating existing leagues as is and fine-tuning things later on once it has bedded in rather than trying to force mergers and deliberately engineering scenarios that leave a lot of clubs continuing on the outside.

They are not being asked to change. They are being asked to agree to a playoff format change to accommodate the entry as is of two extra existing leagues and are blocking it. It's not at all clear that's a logical rather than a selfish posture. In England, the Southern League were in first and the Isthmian League joined later with an overlapping geography that got fixed considerably later. Pretty sure our other nearest neighbour, NI, still has overlapping tier 4 leagues as well because all the top existing intermediate leagues were simply tacked on as is beneath the three national divisions.

How does he neatly identify people into Unionist and Nationalist when a significant percentage rejects both labels? Think the methodology needs to be looked at carefully. Don't doubt hard Brexit with no backstop leads to UI within a generation, but it happening tomorrow looks like a hardcore Brexiter's fantasy about how to jettison NI ASAP to get a clean break.

Think it was more that a lot of working class ex-kippers voted Labour when Corbyn deliberately avoided adopting a Remain posture. What the 13% or so that are polling as Brexit right now do will determine the outcome.

Dusting off an obscure old quote from Big Ian about the people being British but the cows being Irish was done for a reason. Boris needs to win an election first though.

Macron was saying the same thing last time around and then nothing happened.