bendan

But what you're saying is that when the pyramid was established, the SFA accepted that the SoSL did not cover western lowland Scotland, but in fact only the very south west (as the SoSL had to commit to the pyramid) and thus the SFA accepted at that time that teams in the west had nowhere to play. I don't think that was the case. The SoSL accepted Bonnyton, EK (though they never took up the place) and Edusport because they had to.

The pictures show that if the two are joined, they cover the whole of the western part of lowland Scotland, which is precisely what is required. The juniors don't seem to understand that if they all (or just a significant number) joined the SoS, the essentially amateur teams of D&G would be nowhere near level 6, and in fact probably a regional sub-division of the west area at level 8 or 9. It's comical to read people saying you'd be off to D&G every second week.

It wasn't really a vote, though. It was just a survey, and some might say an poorly thought out one at that.

There effectively is a West league already. It's called the South of Scotland League.

Not going to happen, and quite rightly so. And the juniors haven't committed to the pyramid. Saying you want in at level 5 isn't committing to the pyramid.

All it means is the SJFA will probably have a meeting with the SFA. SJFA ask to join at level 5, SFA piss themselves laughing, meeting over.

I agree, but only when the teams are actually there. As things stand, the HL is the strongest league below tier 4 in the pyramid, despite the lack of anything beneath it.

I think the problem in the north can be solved fairly easily, it's just that the urgent need to do so hasn't arisen yet. I don't think there's a huge issue with some areas having more tiers than others, though the population imbalance is something that would need to be looked at if the juniors came on board.

You're right, the SFA aren't going to give up the HL/LL split. I think it's just a question of whether there can be an agreement for the Junior setup to slot in under that. I know that's unacceptable to a lot of juniors (below Selkirk!), but it feels like there could be some movement towards that happening. As the LL strengthens, it becomes more plausible.

I'd be quite surprised if Bonnyrigg decided to join the EoS any time soon. They've always seemed to me more hardcore Juniors. Their EGM might help put pressure on the SJFA to come to some kind of agreement with the SFA. That would be the best solution, obviously.

It would be funny if the Juniors introduce truly radical change like summer football in order to avoid taking part in the pyramid. I'm also surprised by this idea of needing to "distinguish the grade". It's just football. Some junior teams are better than many senior teams on and off the park, so the pretence of "grade" seems to be part of the problem. The Juniors had the perfect structure to slot in under the SPFL, but the non league seniors wouldn't have wanted to join due to the backward admin. They still have the chance to slot in under the Lowland League, but it looks like even that may be slipping away.

Food stamps? Candy bars? Have I been away too long?

Hopefully it will go ahead at Saughton. I hate clubs moving games around.

I agree with this, but to me what seems likely to happen is that H/L establishes itself as the level below SPFL and the SJFA ends up plugged in below, when a better approach could have resulted in the better solution of E/W/H at tier 5. It's ironic to me that Kelty are moving to EoS when they would have been certs for a direct LL place just a year ago.

That comment seems particularly ridiculous. It was a Westminster election, where the SNP have never had any real influence, even after getting 56 out of 59 seats in 2015. And yet they still won a comfortable majority of Scottish seats. I think it's amazing that Scottish politics have been turned on their head over the last decade. Labour and the Tories are over the moon because they won a handful of seats in Scotland and reduced the SNP to 'just' 35 out of 59 seats. It's fantastic the way they have been marginalised to this extent in Scotland.

I'm not sure EK going up encourages change in terms of automatic relegation. People will say there's no need to change, as the system allows capable teams to come up. I'd say there's more likely to be change if the likes of EK and East Stirlingshire fail in the play-off and nobody gets relegated.

I think it would have been good to have a national stadium shared between rugby and football, but to put it in some small town would have been ridiculous. Unfortunately neither sport is likely to agree to a move to the other's base city. We are where we are. I think we should just look at improving Hampden at some point by building new E, W and N stands close to the (realigned closer to the south stand) pitch. There's too much expensively fitted out space below the south stand to knock it down.

It was interesting, though I can't say it was always enjoyable. It was before the days of smartphones or decent mass market digital cameras, but I have some scans of regular photos.

I worked in North Korea for about a year around the turn of the century, and I was able to freely go around Pyongyang, though for other areas I needed to be with a guide/minder. One of the funny things about reading tourist blogs is that they sometimes think everything - absolutely everything - is choreographed just for them. It isn't. It's also implausible that they devote huge resources and scarce skills to listening to and translating inane foreigner chat. Of course, if foreigners make a planned trip to the 'Children's Palace' or somewhere like that it will all be arranged in advance, but if you are just passing somewhere in a bus or arriving on a train, it is just normal life you see. And yes, normal life there is a bit weird. I think some of these ideas come from the fact that they did actually attempt stuff like that back in the days of Kim Il Sung and the Cold War. That last photo of the first set looks totally normal, and at least some of the people in it are not North Koreans. A couple of the subway stations are stunning - those are the two they take tourists to. Most of the rest, including the one at Kim Il Sung Square, are very ordinary.

I'm all for kicking out Celtic and Rangers, but I don't see why regionalisation has to mean being kicked out. A regional third tier could still be part of the SPFL.

I think the OP's idea is that jumping from regional to national has to add something. Playing full time teams like Dunfermline, St Mirren :-( and Ayr would be a step up and with their travelling support there would be some financial support to going national. Why go national just so you can play Berwick, Elgin and Annan? Any 'north' region will have to be big, but at least an east-west split of the rest provides more realistic balance given the population numbers. Most people live in the central belt. The current situation where the Highland League is half of tier five won't work if the juniors come on board.

I don't think there's any system that will tick all the boxes, but Mr Bairn's is a decent suggestion. I'd love to see regionalisation at the third or fourth tiers, and I think three regions works much better than two. I think the biggest problem would be the big gap in quality and money between tier 1 and tier 2.

This is what I thought the result would be when we did the prediction months ago. I still think it's possible, but it is right at the bottom of what I think is possible now. It's all doing my head in now, I don't know how I'm going to get any work done next week.

I largely agree. It is always going to be incredibly difficult to achieve independence given the strength of the forces ranged against us, but the last few days have been unbelievable. Unfortunately, getting so close now means a No would be extremely painful, especially given how it may be achieved. If we do it this time, it will need the most incredible degree of defiance of power.

There has to be some scope to convert a few. Make it a vote of confidence in their grandchildren or something like that. We also need to highlight how low the state pension is here compared to places like Eire and the Netherlands.