LongTimeLurker

Bit more complicated than that. If there is a disagreement between the club and the leagues involved over the issue then the SFA board ultimately get to decide.

Lochee United and Tayport will probably be approved for rubber stamping at the SFA AGM but they are highly unlikely to win the Midlands League this season. Those two clubs plus Broughty Athletic and Carnoustie Panmure would be the prime candidates for HL entry over the next decade or so.

Something to keep an eye on: If Vlad turns off the gas pipelines, people are claiming on twitter that Norway is obligated to supply the EU before third parties which the UK became courtesy of Brexit.

Think the FT report is mainly a sign that Russia is fast running out of key armaments and that the unexpectedly harsh sanctions have seriously impacted their ability to resupply. China and Russia may have interests that coincide in any given time period but they have historically been rivals in terms of the Russian Far East and Mongolia so China will do whatever the CCP leadership thinks is pragmatically best for China. This isn't an Orthodox brothers sort of relationship like they have with Serbia.

If he loses outright, he is unlikely to be able to stay in power for too much longer. Think this has a few more weeks to run minimum as he has nothing to lose by keeping it going in the hope Ukrainian resistance starts to crumble but hopefully I am as wrong about that as I was about the invasion happening on the first page.

Think that can still go a long way in LL terms and that's something Max Christie instilled in abundance in the team that won promotion. The people closest to what's happening will know whether he's likely to be able to build something like that again. Swap Cowdenbeath for Bonnyrigg and have the EoS club win the playoff and next season's title race could be wide open. Still scope for a derby game if Stirling Uni can be dispatched and for further progress in the SCC against Petershill, who apparently are prioritising promotion and the SJC and fielded a lot of U-20 players against Cumbernauld in the last round. Beating Beith was no small accomplishment and means there may still be some life left to this season.

Do Civil Service Strollers have a Mr Big in the background or even much in the way of a regular home support? Agree with the bit about being a long way off from Bonnyrigg Rose and Kelty Hearts levels because of the absence of having somebody kicking lots of money in but think there's still scope to be significantly higher up the table if/when the process squad rebuilding is complete.

It's the clubs that will vote on this and the trashed reputation was arguably mainly about blundering into a position where they were forced to make the Club 42 playoff rule change. That angle is done and dusted now. It was depressing how little money per club it took to get the Old Firm colts in last time around so don't think a majority vote against based on principle is a safe assumption if the Old Firm sweeten the pot a bit more.

Largs goals

Yoker vs Petershill & Auchinleck Talbot vs Rob Roy are the semifinals

^^^By way of a fact check what was actually stated at the time can be gauged from this article in the Daily Record: https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/local-sport/celtic-rangers-colts-categorically-one-24053717 ...Some fear the Colt teams could become a regular fixture in the division, but Fraser has insisted that is not the case, with an earlier proposal for Colt teams to be accepted into the SPFL's League Two still under consideration... It was only a one year deal because the OF colts still wanted into League Two for 2022-23. That's not happening and the Club 42 rule has now been adjusted to be compatible with the presence of "guest teams" so we are where we are. This saga will repeat every year around this time until either the LL tell them to GTF or the SPFL invite them in.

Guessing there's a proposal to includes the Highlanders From what I've read the WoS have put together a proposal to that effect, i.e. expanding the SCC to make it national in scope for the entire pyramid. Hopefully this issue doesn't become derailed by the usual senior vs junior blazer politics.

Odds on the only reason it's done yearly is because SPFL entry is still the end game for Old Firm colt teams so they didn't want to be committed at tier 5 for any longer than that. That provides the opportunity to get rid of them but their presence probably did benefit most clubs financially so that's no sure thing. After what happened to the Tay Bridge boundary on Club 42 relegation, hopefully George Fraser also inadvertently opened the door to a playoff rule change on entry into the LL with this. Will be interesting to see if there's any movement on that angle at this general meeting. There have been rumours on here that it's on the agenda and that the SFA is pushing for changes.

...and certainly old enough to remember the breakup of Yugoslavia even if WWI and WWII is being viewed as ancient history at this point.

Probably a huge argument over whether recognising Donbas as Russian means the 2014 contact line or the entire oblasts. Putin probably wants/needs a face-saving exit but seeing will be believing at this point.

It has in the past.

Hard to believe now but before the Troubles plenty of Unionists lived in the Cityside rather than the Waterside and supported Derry City so few people would have seen anything strange about an IFA linked team playing there at the time.

Adidas withdrawing from the Russian market would probably have the biggest cultural impact.