LongTimeLurker

What's really inappropriate is the SFA leaving clubs in Tayside in limbo where club licensing and progression is concerned, because they know full well that the Highland League have no intention of agreeing to promotion and relegation any time soon and are likely to view the possible future inclusion of ambitious Tayside clubs as being as welcome as a piranha in a jacuzzi. If any club that is based only a few miles north of Jeanfield Swift felt so inclined where's the harm in testing out if there is any flexibility on this? The EoS already has Tweedmouth on board that are a few miles over another line is jurisdictional terms.

So the only inaccuracy in FairWeatherFan's graphic is St Andrews United at this point along with jumping the gun a bit with Newtongrange Star? The seven in orange are the ones known or believed to be having some sort of meeting before the 31st.

If the LL is going to have EoS, WoS and SoS directly beneath it then three tier 6 feeders for the HL seems reasonable enough. Pyramids are supposed to be about keeping things local at the lower tiers not bankrupting clubs with exhorbitant bus hires to play in front of a crofter called Calum and a couple of sheep.

Even some of the ones in the top ten are likely to have something to say given anything beyond Shotts and Cumbernauld seems to be a blank space on the map with terra incognita on it that's too far to drive to for a league game (see post immediately above) any time an east-west merger has been attempted in that past and that goes back at least as far as when the superleagues were being negotiated and the top West Lothian teams really wanted to be in with the central league teams like Pollok, Arthurlie and Petershill rather than Lochee United and Tayport.

Maybe what they had in mind is the money that goes with being a licensed club? That can add up to 15k or so with Scottish Cup money factored in.

It will vary from club to club, so not easy to put a figure on it. A lot depends on the existing spectator cover and dressing room facilities that you have.

The first clubs did it mainly to do licensing and get into the Scottish cup every season and then things reached a tipping point where what was going to be left started to look significantly weaker than what was going to be in the EoS moving forward.

The way to test it is for a Tayside club from north of the midpoint of the Tay Road bridge to put in an application. The worst that could happen is that it gets turned down, so there's nothing to lose in trying.

Can understand why he's upset after being on a high about gaining automatic promotion yesterday. A season's hard work rendered meaningless with no reward of playing the top east region teams from south of the Tay next season as they are all scrambling for the exit. It was on record in the the Evening News how many applications had been received by March 31st and they were all accepted.

Think they would need to have 3 rather than 2 regionalised sections and the logistics of that are really not that difficult. Once they reached 30 on Thursday they could have said that's enough for this year if they were concerned about numbers, and nobody would have had grounds to complain about it as they had already extended the deadline once. So looks like they are trying to drive a stake through the heart of the east region south of the Tay once and for all at this point.

No obvious reason why the Tayside clubs couldn't simply be a second feeder for the Dundee area with a playoff with the north superleague winner for the Aberdeen/Inverness area similar to the EoS vs SoS one at the moment, if clubs start to get licensed. The HL feeders should be the easy bit as nothing much will probably happen on licensing any time soon. The fun and games to come will be in the west.

So far we have the following: Bonnyrigg, Camelon, Hill of Beath, Musselburgh, Haddington, Blackburn, Tranent, Dalkeith, Edinburgh United, Easthouses, Crossgates [+Dunipace from west region] applied and accepted at the initial deadline along with a youth club from Inverkeithing Dunbar, Craigroyston, Arniston and Penicuik accepted on Thursday at an EoS meeting at Easter Road St Andrews, Newtongrange have held meetings on Friday and Saturday and have decided to go Dundonald, Bo'ness, Lithgae, Broxburn and Thornton holding meetings and now expected to do the same At this point they will probably need Pumpherston and Dundee North End from the south and north divisions in the superleague to reach 16 next season, if all those clubs leave.

Latest on what happened with Bo'ness:

so to sum up the last few days: Dunbar, Craigroyston, Penicuik and Arniston accepted into the EoS on Thursday at Easter Road EoS unexpectdly extends deadline to May 31st and places a link to the application form on the homepage of their website Dundonald reported in the Courier yesterday to be holding a meeting and now expected to do a "reverse ferret" on their deferred application Newtongrange, St Andrews hold meetings yesterday evening and today and decide to move as well Lithgae, Bo'ness and Broxburn have held or are having meetings between now and Tuesday and could do the same subject to later AGM ratification if all this happens and they all get accepted, a north or south division team (Pumpherston or Dundee North End) will be needed to be able to reach 16 teams with the east superleague next season and that assumes no other clubs are flying under the radar at this point where applications are concerned like Arniston just did

They can always go to three sections. It isn't an insurmountable problem in logistical terms, if their top priority is delivering the coup de grace to the east region south of the Tay and it almost certainly is or they wouldn't still have a link to the application form featuring prominently on the homepage of their website again almost two months after what was alleged to be the deadline. A sign of the impending apocalypse will be EoS related tweets emerging from the Whitburn, Armadale, Fauldhouse and Harthill portion of West Lothian at this point.

Latest from the threads on the two clubs in question is stuff like this: Been a few false dawns on this, so I'll believe it when I see the official announcements.

To paraphrase Ramsay Bolton, if you think that's how this is going to end, you haven't been paying attention.

Think it's actually up to 33 with Dundonald?

And who would have thought Liberace was gay, I never saw that one coming!

In a way it would serve them right obviously, but would the deadline have been extended with this message placed on the official EoS website, if all they wanted to do was to move from 30 to 32 clubs? The Members of the East of Scotland Football League have decided to extend the last date for the submission of membership applications to 31 May 2018. The application form can be accessed here. Doubt it somehow.

Definitely very much on the west side of the ken line as well.

Don't remember who posted the comment "mutually assured decline" recently, but if they don't stop worrying about doing something radical for fear of losing the derby and get together and go for it, it's probably going to be accurate, unfortunately. If they had been bold back when the LL had been formed there's a good chance one of them would be in the SPFL by now.

Because that's the only way for the SJFA to maintain its relevance in the years ahead. If the west region do it unilaterally as a separate block of clubs, Tom Johnston would soon be out of a job. If the SJFA had engaged with the process five years ago odds on they could have controlled everything below tier 5, but they didn't and if/when their relevance in the east LL feeder zone has been lost as is looking increasingly likely, the obvious next step is that the north region and the Tayside clubs hook up with the HL and the west region hooks up with the LL leaving nothing for the SJFA to do.

There's probably a tipping point on this where most of the rest would quickly throw in the towel because they see the game's up even if they would still strongly prefer that it's not the case and it's probably quite close now. Will be interesting to see what the prospect of having no Penicuik and Newtongrange in addition to no Kelty, Bonnyrigg. Camelon, Hill of Beath and Musselburgh does to perceptions of more traditionally-minded Bo'ness and Lithgae members as they are probably the key to whether there is a quick resolution within the next couple of seasons.

The EoS obviously see it as the coup de grace to the east region ever getting in at tier 6. Doubt they would be doing it otherwise.