FairWeatherFan

SosFL now have a team in Ayrshire and Lanarkshire. You can probably fit their combined average attendance on a double Decker bus with room to spare. But theyre there. Nothing stopping a west of Scotland club signing up. As for the Highland area I'm conflicted over the idea of Brechin getting relegated. Would BoD see that as an excuse not to apply again with the HL back at 18.

They do. Can't remember the figures.

The big drops in Scottish football are from the first and second tier - especially from the second as very few can maintain full-time football below that. Each year that goes by, the difference between L2 and the LL gets smaller. I'm not saying I think L2 *should* have 1.5 relegation spots, but it should definitely have at least 1. I'd say it's pretty significant financially with knock on effects to the way a club operates. Think of Linlithgow and how they might make little changes here and there if they were guaranteed an extra 40-50k a year. Maybe even something as simple as a small overdraft that gets dipped into over the course of the season without having to dip hands into pockets.

That's what we have in the Championship and L1 right now. But there's a clear difference in dropping from SPFL divisions to either the HL/LL. No different to the EFL having 3/4 promotion/relegation spots and only 2 between the National League.

The seeded conferences with inter-conference games wasn't a format anyone really predicted a year ago. It leaves me wondering how split the clubs are over what the future looks like working with the current membership.

Tier 8 is nothing but conjecture at this point as well.

It might not on the forum, but I think the EoS have shown themselves to be. So far they haven't stipulated what format they will run beneath the Premier in 2020-21. Until that's been decided I'm sure they will be open to just about anything so long as it doesn't include Tayside.

It's early doors but Glenrothes and Kinnoull are having bright starts and there are still a few South of Tay clubs that have been more successful them left. That's why a SSL:EOS1 and SPL:EOS2 comparison might be a way to look at a fictional merger.

Yet this isn't the first time it's been mentioned. The reason it usually gets shot down is because it's pure criticism with no suggestion of how to change it.

EoS First Division Conference B Hawick Royal Albert United 0-2 Edinburgh United

Yet your only participation in the thread is the endless tit for tat with Burnie and having a dig at the performances of Junior clubs that don't meet your lofty standards.

It's a tad more complicated than that

A bus? We're talking private jets and 5* hotels. Got to be a professional about these things.

Key difference in accepting the premise where the Tayside clubs join the pyramid under the HL, the HL/LL boundary changes to allow Scone & Tayport stay Tayside, Inter-league play between divisions and everyone signing up to the pyramid. You think the SJFA and ERJFA still exist after all those moves.

EoS First Division Conference B Preston Athletic 0-1 Arniston Rangers I would say so Arniston haven't had the greatest of starts this season.

The PWG is potentially starting up again soon and the EoS deadline for applications is at the end of March. A proposal that sees the South Super and South Premier sit alongside a EoS First and Second division keeps the promotion and relegation races in both set ups intact for the 2019-20. It also gives the EoS First Division clubs the target of finishing in the top half of their conference. In 2020-21 you can even arrange inter-league games between EoS First v. South Super and EoS Second v. South Premier to pad out the league games. Then do a proper merger for 2021-22.

I don't see that as the ERJFA coming in alongside the EoS. I see it more as a year one on a fictionalised pyramid where everyone's managed to agree to sign up for it. Who knows what year two would look like. Right now and for the forseeable nobody knows what a South of Tay Junior club is signing up for if they were to apply for the EoSFL. Which differs from last year when it was at least known you would be below a 16 team EoS Premier Division.

Since Kinnoull moved to the EoS the problem of lowering the boundary a bit to keep the leftover Tayside teams together is no longer a problem.

That's basically how I would have the initial set up. Nice graphic by the way, as it's certainly a lot better than what I can do!

People seem to be suggesting flexibility over a handful of clubs. You tend to talk about an entire region being reclassified. That's the difference.

Dalbeattie were not a EoSFL club when they joined the LL. You might be thinking of Gretna and it has already been confirmed they would be relegated to SoSFL despite membership to the EoSFA.

OWE are setting up a UK version of their promotion. This is the Chinese company with CIMA as a trainer and ties to AEW.

Supposedly there will be this deadline of 31st December for any LL pyramid playoff changes, so we'll see how things go over the next 4 months. While the Junior leagues retain Scottish Cup qualification, I don't have a problem with the NCL champion gaining qualification as well. Especially as I don't believe the NCL clubs enter the Amateur Cup due to their quasi-Senior status. So they have no qualification opportunity while other non-licenced clubs have two.

https://www.whitehillwelfare.co.uk/teams/207515/match-centre/0-4586633/report Their injured back up GK was named on the bench.

For National League level there are quotes of the TV deal they had being £300k p/a from 2013 and the subsequent extensions haven't trumpeted increases. While the National League have additional sponsors and probably get a payment from the EFL I doubt they're rolling in money. Yet you had a club like Barrow (av. 1,375) going down to the South coast of England multiple times last year: Dover (av. 1,123), Havant & Waterlooville (av. 1,277) and Eastleigh (av. 1,849). With those clubs having to head up to the Northwest once a year for the return legs. The National League North can also be pretty bad for travel as well and they would have lesser resources to do it on. Maybe Dunfermline flying down helped them win the tie, but they didn't have to. It was their choice to take a loss.