FairWeatherFan

So did haddington and bonnyrigg have to fork out another couple grand to apply again this year?

Then why did Dalkeith and Blackburn only apply once they were officially accepted into the EoS?

£2,000 a year ago. Not sure if this year's prize money breakdown is available.

1-6 Nobody's scared 1&2 They'd rather their league season and cup competitions be the focus and not have to have it all boil down to the final couple of weeks in a play-off situation. If the EoS Premier doesn't have to schedule their season around end of season play-offs it gives them an extra week or two space out the league campaign and a cup final. 3. If a East Super League club can offer promotion to the Lowland League some players will choose it as an easier pathway. Especially if there is an equal financial offer from a EoS Premier team projected to be mid-table and the East Super League club is expected to win their league. 4. EoS has sponsors and the East Region has sponsors. Put it all in one big pot of money standards can be raised . 5. Casual fans will go to whatever game attracts their interest and the EoS want that interest to be in their league members not someone else's. 6. I don't think it gets proper attention, which is why I called it limited. Why lose that limited space when a non-league writer in a national newspaper decides to talk about something occuring in the East Region. Then I don't know the local papers well enough but there's going to be some that split coverage between East Region and EoS. Or East Region alone. In which case the EoS would rather have all those clubs under their banner so that the general awareness of their league is stronger. 7. Finite number of match officials and the EoS doesn't want split interests. That way they can get those that are considered to be the best officials assigned to their games.

Scared of, more like representing the best interests of their league and its membership. The fact you think it boils down to play-offs shows a certain short sightedness. Why negotiate a 4 team play-off when it can be 3? If it's 3 team they're a step closer to automatic promotion for the EoS Premier Champion. Why lose EoS calibre players to East Region Juniors? Why lose out on regional sponsors for competitions and clubs to East Region Juniors? Why lose out on casual fans when an EoS game is postponed who opt to go to a East Region Junior club game? Why lose out on an already limited media attention that gets paid to non-SPFL leagues? Why lose out on match officials to East Region Junior games? Get it all under one EoS roof and they maximise all the opportunities available to them.

The North Caledonian League could always continue their mixed Senior/Amateur existence outside the pyramid. There would be nothing to stop individual clubs moving into a pyramid league if they felt they had the wherewithal to compete at that level.

The yellow highlights are the only bit that really matters in terms of being an email from Ian Maxwell. Everything after is just a draft statement announcing something that hasn't actually happened. How do you know it's just a draft statement? Stuff like the underlined section mentioning "the most recent Pyramid Working Group" which was referencing a meeting that happened in either September or October, but has since been surpassed by the November 14th meeting.

As important as forming tiers 7-8 is long term. It shouldn't take away from the importance of how promotion/relegation will between the EoS Premier and below next year. With a 16 team league and possibly having to take into account knock on effects of the HL/LL playoff. I doubt they'd relegated more than 3 clubs from the Premier. If enough clubs come along for 3 conferences. It maybe wouldn't translate into exciting promotion campaigns. And doesn't seem to acceptable to regionalise in those circumstances.

Think he's talking about the likes of Scone and Tayport and the handful of other Tayside clubs that fall south of the Tay here.

In terms of next year if they only have enough teams for 2 divisions I think they'd opt for regionalised North/South Divisions. It's when you get to 3 divisions that I think the seeded conference approach might take place as rationalisation at that point might lead to lopsided divisions quality wise that are treated as equal.

Can understand a all in tier 7. Early on it was looking like there would be a couple of teams rooted to the bottom of each conference. Now 10-12 is looking fairly competitive so there might not be enough desire to split into 3 tiers.

I don't believe they've set out the criteria like this in previous years. When they would announce on their website that applications were open it was usually just the application form they would promote. The criteria documents maye being tucked away amongst other documents. While some might take the criteria as becoming more stringent, I take it as being more helpful. Last year there was the case of the Amatuer team being asked to withdraw an application so that it wouldn't be rejected. Having this guidance more publicly available should avoid things like that going forward.

The grace period is for being able to meet the entry criteria rather than applying.

https://www.eosfl.com/ EDIT: Some might look at that list of entry criteria and get scared off applying because they won't have everything in place for 31st March 2019. In which case the EoSFL has thought of that with their last criterion and looks like once again they aren't trying to scare clubs off from applying by offering a possible grace period for getting everything in place.

This is the spread of clubs across the SPFL, HL, LL, EoS, SoS, SJFA and NCL.

I believe they were actually placed in Division One West. Due to the quirk of being the most Southern by far, but still more Westerly than the teams that made up Division One East when it came to balancing the divisions.

Then it's not a fixed boundary and Dundee clubs should get the option to be under the Lowland league

Going by the current boundary the 36 East Region clubs fall as 20 South of the Tay and 16 North of the Tay.

This time last year how many clubs knew they'd be playing in EoS Conference A/B/C, or East Region Premier North/South?

2 or 3 tiers is going to largely depend on the types of clubs that come across, if any from the Juniors. Right now if all that's being added is Selkirk and Syngenta, I think 3 tiers might be the preferred option for a lot of clubs near the bottom. With that someone gets a Division Championship for their trophy cabinet, and one or two others get the joy of promotion at the end of the season. The regionalised alternative could see a lot of them mid table or battling to avoid bottom in their division.

Help set up does not equate to running the thing though, or getting enough applicants to branch off the SJFA. Had the EoS said they were establishing a West of Scotland League or Conference clubs would of started applying, If a LL2 West was announced ran by the Lowland League i'm sure they would have lots of applicants. The first public applications would probably be a mixed bag quality wise, but like with the EoS this summer all the bigger clubs would come running for fear of being left behind. Right now no one in the West seems willingly to be the first into an unknown situation. They want certainty.

Everyone thinks that/hopes that, me included. Still haven't seen anyone want the responsibility of running the west beyond the SJFA's all in together offer.

Under the current format Clydebank, Syngenta and now a returning Selkirk are expected to apply to the EoS next year.

The last couple of years they tend to start promoting applications on their website and the like around the turn of the year. Nice simple 2 pages of a4 account for the initial form at least, easily accessible and to fill out. Deadline is set for 31st March and last year the first batch of applicants were accepted soon after that. Don't see extensions this year as there's no need and the EoS need the time to start proposing league structures.

Do the LL/HL sit on the professional game board? They do as we've seen recently though there's a different set of vested interest amongst them. SPFL3 idea floated, LL2 working group and it's usually said how the HL want to be left alone.