LongTimeLurker

Don't remember any provision for that in the rule that was drafted, can you show us where it is? It appeared to me to be whoever is bottom vs tier 6 playoff winner for a place in the following season's HL with no extra caveats. Unlike the LL, the HL hasn't operated with a fixed number of members.

Relieved to see there are a couple of subs this time:

Agree about that being the probable mentality but the thing is that the heavy reliance on Russian fossil fuels was a choice arrived at for political expediency rather than out of any real necessity so there's no guarantee they are going to come creeping back now. I would be amazed if Nord Stream II does anything other than rust in the years ahead. If the Germans had simply kept their nuclear plants operating to the end of their intended operational life and built a few more in recent years they could have easily avoided the mess they are now in where staying warm next winter is concerned. The only reason for using gas to the extent that they do was to appease the Greens by using it to back up all their wind farms. Even with gas if the EU had simply followed through with the Nabucco pipeline it would have been a lot easier to impose a gas embargo on Russia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nabucco_pipeline The only real problem the EU faces is how to get through next winter if Vlad turns off the taps but even then FSRU ships can help make additional LNG supplies from the US, Qatar and maybe even Australia doable. In the medium to long term there are plenty of alternatives on energy supply that can and almost certainly will happen now

For the benefit of people who don't follow this stuff closely Rod Petrie is currently the president of the SFA. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_Petrie

Certain people on here used to assure anyone who would listen that the LL would open up relegation once most of the east superleague clubs had defected to the EoS. It's naive to ever assume that most clubs will do the right thing out of generosity rather than vote for what's in their selfish self-interest.

They could have had all 41 clubs below the premier in the conferences this season to speed things along on having all of the clubs reach their natural level. The member clubs chose not to do that when it came to a vote and went instead with a plan that even gives Hawick Royal Albert an extra season outside the bottom tier. Personally far from heartbroken over what that does to Bo'ness Athletic but setting that aside it's another prime example along with the tier 6 promotion bottleneck of why it would probably be better if the SFA board had the power to shape the pyramid like the FA does in England.

^^^he was singing a different tune at the time it was happening:

Was about Able Archer with events shown from an East German perspective. Well worth a watch.

Deutschland 83 was based very loosely on something that actually happened.

Not a surprising revelation after what happened with the Kursk.

An intervention in 2014 to keep Viktor Yanukovych in power and seal the deal on his move to align with Russia economically rather than the EU was the time to do what he's doing now because a large portion of the state apparatus was aligned with the pro-Russian Party of the Regions at that point and would probably have been on his side. He would have been able to claim with some justification that he was protecting the constitutional order against a coup. Vlad gets portrayed as some kind of strategic genius but when you look more closely it's not so obvious why. By instead removing Donetsk, Luhansk and Crimea from Ukrainian elections he tilted the balance of Ukrainian politics towards a solidly pro-EU and pro-NATO stance creating a Ukrainian state that was going to be much more difficult for him to invade down the road. He also seems to have been seriously out to lunch on how EU leaders would react to him going all 1930s over the very existence of a sovereign state right on their doorstep, because if the EU phase out Russian fossil fuel purchases then the entire system he has built will collapse. The violent overthrow of the Ukrainian state was never likely to instill confidence in Russia as a reliable business partner, so how he thought it could be business as usual in the aftermath is beyond me.

Not sure if I qualify as truly ITK given I didn't think the invasion was going to happen and probably would have ignored the advise to get out of Ukraine ASAP if I had been there but have been in Russia a few times and know plenty of Russians and Ukrainians well so will give this a go. Although it has its own language as well, Ukraine is still very much part of the Russian speaking cultural sphere. Having a large functional pro-NATO and pro-EU democracy in the Russian speaking Slavic portion of the post-Soviet cultural space that is ruled from Kyiv was a threat to Putin's power vertical model of governance because it shows people in Russia that there is a viable alternative that could also happen in the post-Soviet state that is ruled from Moscow. In Putin's world view Ukraine (or a very large portion of it, maybe not Galicia around Lviv) is part of what really should constitute Russia so he doesn't have total control over what he views as Russia if he isn't pulling the strings of his power vertical there as well.

Think the Ukrainians may well have attacked the Belgorod oil depot. It's fair game under the circumstances and fits with what they are trying to do prevent resupply of the Izium bridgehead.

Wonder if the Americans were winding up the Russians by saying the Moscow (why are media outlets suddenly using Moskva but only in this context?) was making its way back to Sevastopol under its own steam. The morse code message from the ship said it was sinking and it wasn't just the Ukrainians saying it had sunk not long after the explosion. The Romanians and Turks were as well apparently who presumably would be monitoring closely as Black Sea states. Think this story although very symbolic may be distracting attention from an even bigger development yesterday: NATO nations seem to always say what they are thinking about sending first probably as a way to see how Putin responds.

^^^blindingly obvious that that the intent of whoever drafted the rule was that the games involving the guest clubs do count in determining point totals and goal difference but that the OF clubs' final totals have no relevance in issues related to position such as determining the overall champion, relegation issues and who qualified for the League Cup. This is more map of Luncarty with a line through it level stuff. ^^^hard to believe how naive some people can be sometimes. It's been obvious for years that the clique that founded the LL had a self-interest agenda but some people became completely obsessed with a very tribalistic juniors bad and backward vs nonleague seniors good and progressive narrative so the motives of that clique had to be portrayed as being as pure as the driven snow. The most shrill posters on here even wound up bitterly opposing a plan from the SFA to split the LL into east and west tier 5 divisions that would have been in the long term interests of clubs from the east like Camelon and Blackburn. Twenty years from now Tom Johnston will have been long since consigned to the rubbish bin of Scottish football history and tier 5 will in all likelihood be skewed in membership terms towards clubs from the west and north with the east under-represented because of there only being two rather than three feeders.

They are supposed to have sophisticated anti-missile systems though. From what's being said on twitter, the radar system only covered 180 degrees so the Ukrainians sent out a TB2 drone and then hit the Moskva from its radar blind spot.

Don't claim to be a huge expert on this but if they couldn't take Kiev with the element of surprise it's difficult to believe that a blitzkrieg all the way through to Lviv is happening now. If the Ukrainians can get their economy to be somewhat functional again think that means this could potentially drag on for years. At that point a lot probably depends on how quickly Germany & co can be persuaded to stop buying Russian fossil fuels.

I'll see if I can find Rab McGlinchey.

Doubt it will happen but as things stand there is near zero probability of an SoS club ever being promoted and when there was more of a chance a few seasons back rumour has it that Wigtown deliberately avoided being champion one season because they wouldn't have been able to cope with promotion to the LL. As a feeder to the WoS they would at least have something realistic to play for each season in terms of progression involving promotion into a division they have reasonably good transport links with.

Did they not used to claim the same thing about Allan McGonigal on here? Seems a bit farfetched.

They had 8 years to fortify the place. What was odd about how the invasion started is that the Ukrainians didn't do a better job with the Crimean border because getting attacked from the west as well as the east was what ultimately made control of a supply line to Mariupol untenable.

Think the way to do it would be to only have 32 or 48 clubs in the WoS (think 32 is better but no strong opinion) and move the rest to two more local leagues that would run in parallel with the SoS at tier 8 or 9. That way you should avoid fixtures like Campbeltown vs Newtown Stewart and would have the SoS champion being automatically promoted each season into a more appropriate level with managable travel. Think we are stuck with what's there now though.

Don't think they would have to be at Newtown Park in a U-20 context. Requirements are not the same as for EoS and LL level.

It's times like this that having a U-20 team would really help.