FairWeatherFan
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Posts posted by FairWeatherFan
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It's all pure speculation with only titbits of public facts.
There's a SPFL Working Group not for the pyramid, but for the introduction of colt teams as a means of youth development. All of the quotes mention possibly starting in the Highland/Lowland League. Funnily enough neither league is within the SPFL and both are at capacity.
There's a SJFA Pyramid Working Group. While they do whatever it is they do, the West & East Regions will go about restructuring their leagues for next season.
There's BSC Glasgow doing their own thing, although no one here has been able to replicate the wording of the email & someone here has said Pollok hasn't received it.
It'd be nice if they could all get in a room together and thrash things out. Maybe they are out of the public eye, which is why all we've got is speculation.
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1 hour ago, LongTimeLurker said:
Think the powerbrokers would have two major problems. Firstly persuading the HL to move away from its current 18 team format and potentially include colt teams from Perth and Dundee, and secondly persuading the smaller full-time clubs in the west of Scotland that the SoS league is where their U-20 development side belongs. The moves by BSC Glasgow would help to address the second issue with potential entry into the new League 3 being their true unstated motivation.
It's quite possible that the SPFL just present their League Three vision as a fait accompli. Then ask certain clubs to resign their existing league memberships and take up these new shiny SPFL ones. I doubt any club asked to join would say no given the opportunity, and they'd just leave their current leagues to deal with the mess. This has never been a problem in the past with clubs moving to the SFL, so it would come down to the agreement over promotion/relegation between the SPFL, Highland & Lowland to provide a stumbling block.
For those SPFL clubs also wanting to run a colt team in the pyramid there would be 4x vacancies in the inaugral League Three, plus 6x possible vacancies in the Highland/Lowland depending on how they organise themselves. With those 10x vacancies to go for initially i doubt any colt team minded SPFL side would even think of the SoSFL.
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6 hours ago, LongTimeLurker said:
There was a newspaper article a few months back that I am currently unable to find that claimed there was a plan to start a new ten club League 3 with four colt teams and that the top HL and LL clubs that would have automtic pro/rel to League 2 and that the bottom club in that new division would have the playoff game with the HL and LL champions. Find it hard to believe that a club like BSC Glasgow are doing something on a WoS League in isolation that is not tied into other moves that are already underway at the moment on league restructuring given they would stand to benefit from that type of restructure of tier 5 of the senior grade's pyramid.
I'm sure i've seen something similar. It's a horrible idea as far as i'm concerned and worryingly one that I could see happen. The SPFL powerbrokers only care about getting the Colt teams in the set up and the smaller clubs want to retain their status as National League clubs.
Year One would be an abomination but the obvious hope by those pursuing this is that the Colt teams would rise up the divisions. So League Three could look like Berwick Rangers, Clyde, Edinburgh City, Cowdenbeath, Cove Rangers, Inverurie Loco Works, Fraserburgh, BSC Glasgow, Spartans & East Kilbride one day. That's not too different from current League Two.
I think there's enough votes in the SPFL for that to happen. Full time sides are likely to be unaffected and benefit from Colt teams, Smaller sides get to stay as SPFL members rather than face a drop in to the Regional Leagues and relative obscurity.
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4 hours ago, clash city rocker said:
The SoSFL is a complete load of shite even BSC understand that they don't ever want to even contemplate being relegated into it. If the juniors are to be involved in any way it won't be through joining the set up as is now. The West Junior Super League is well superior to SoSFL ,.. they should tag onto bottom of West Region juniors , the fifth division.
Of the current 16 Lowland League clubs there's only really 6 that would ever have to play in the SoSFL = East Kilbride, Cumbernauld Colts, BSC, Dalbeattie Star, Gretna 2008 & Edusport.
Only 3 of them (East Kilbride, Cumbernauld Colts & BSC) have to worry about playing in the SoSFL while hailing from what is considered the West of Scotland.
The status quo could therefore be argued to suit 13/16 clubs and any vote would be in their hands. Status quo being "Clubs are more than happy to join the pyramid in the form of our West of Scotland & East of Scotland feeders, the SoSFL & EoSFL.
EDIT: Just remembered the bit about Juniors not being involved in the current pyramid as it stands. With Kelty Hearts having joined the EoSFL the dam has already been broken, and any Junior club looking to get their SFA Club Licence will have to join up to the pyramid. Juniors are now involved in the pyramid. Again speaking for self interest, existing Senior clubs might well prefer the current set up instead of wholesale change that would be to their detriment.
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10 minutes ago, RabidAl said:
Really? It's a little surprising that clubs in the LL would have the final say, but that needn't scupper a WoSFL proposal I suppose.
As most of the LL clubs aren't going anywhere (with so limited an opportunity to be promoted), it'd seem to be in the rational self-interest of their clubs to vote through any proposal that would bring them more revenue in the form of clubs with larger fan bases coming into the league and the greater sponsorship revenue that goes along with a stronger league; it would certainly be in the interests of LL west clubs to have a WoSFL with well-supported local clubs to be relegated into.
I would think that the stronger the lowland league, the higher chance there is of SPFL clubs being relaxed about greater promotion and relegation between league and non-league.
I am of the thinking any viable WoSFL that could be put together would be added on, but you mention self interest. The argument from many of the Lowland League's detractors is that it was rushed through for the benefit of the traditional Senior clubs and I was always disappointed that the EoSFL & SoSFL were simply tacked on without consideration of the geographic inadequacy of it.
It can easily be argued that the Lowland League has its West of Scotland feeder in the form of the SoSFL, of which clubs are free to join. Why would they need another one?
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Maybe double check their Junk Email.
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23 minutes ago, RabidAl said:
So there's no technical issue that would be a barrier to a WoSFL being established at tier 6 (and below)?
It would just be a case of BSC obtaining the signatures of interested clubs/stakeholders from the LL and juniors, then taking them to the SFA and saying that they want a division/league at tier 6 of the pyramid that they can be promoted from/relegated to that is closer to them in terms of geography and quality of football than the SoSFL, which is too distant and is all-but-amateur?
Hope it happens before any of the big boys' colt teams or any non-club clubs emerge to fill the lacuna.
I'd say that's how it would go about getting started, but it would go through the Lowland League rather than the SFA. Admittedly they're kind of them same thing but I think it would come down to the 16 member clubs in the league that year to get the vote passed.
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37 minutes ago, RabidAl said:
What i'm driving at is whether there is any obstacle, in the form of licencing, to the west juniors divisions (of unlicenced clubs) slotting into the pyramid under the LL as a West of Scotland League?
There shouldn't be. Licencing only comes in to play for SoSFL/EoSFL clubs if they win their respective league and want promotion to the Lowland League.
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9 hours ago, LongTimeLurker said:
Not sure it really ripped up where TFA was heading, if you had no preconceived ideas from the extended universe. On Rey's parents, for example, people tied themselves in knots in youtube clips for two years over it, but in the final analysis what kind of parents other than a pair of total wasters would leave their sprog in the care of a character like Unkar Plutt? That was a good fit for what happened previously and I suspect it's heading for a reincarnation of the special one reveal from Yoda's force ghost in the last installment of the trilogy now Luke's out the way because a "Rey I'm your son" moment would have been too weird.
On Snoke, is the lack of back story any different from the way the Emperor character was handled in the original trilogy and was the death not somewhat similar? Nothing hugely untoward there. The character was very much in the way of the ultimate Rey vs Kylo showdown that will round it all off, so had run his course as a plot device, if Kylo wasn't going to be redeemed.
Agree on Rey's parentage.
As for the interest in Snoke's back story I think that makes sense. Going in to the original trilogy you had an Emperor at the head of an existing Empire. It didn't really require any explanation. For Snoke we know the Empire fell and he has now taken on its cause under the First Order, but where did this all powerful, scarred Force user come from? Where was he during the original trilogy when the Emperor? What kind of alien is he? The overall story arc he has is perfectly fine, but his existence is something of an anomaly that draws questions.
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13 minutes ago, Craig the Hunter said:
Yeah, I thought that the SFA affiliation would stop them entering. It's such a strange, anomalistic league in so many respects.
I have wondered if the SFA might eventually offer a Scottish Cup prelim entry to the winner, similar to the places granted to the Junior champions and Amateur Cup winners, as it seems like the only non welfare league that has no access (again barring Golspie)
I'd like to see that as well. If the NCL hadn't fallen to just 6 clubs when a lot of the Scottish Cup restructuring took place they might of got a spot for their champions like the SoSFL & EoSFL did. If the league can get to double digits and stay there for a couple of years it'd probably happen.
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38 minutes ago, Craig the Hunter said:
This may be more for the infowire section, but I don't want to start a new thread in there if it's an easy answer.
With the NCL being an SFA affiliated league rather than SAFA, I assume the clubs aren't eligible to enter the Amateur Cup? But unless they're licensed, there's also no route into the Scottish Cup. And with the NCL not being part of the pyramid, does that mean that any of the clubs who could potentially want to become licensed would be precluded from doing so?
It just seems a bit odd to me that teams from an SFA affiliated league, with the exception of Golspie, seem to be isolated from any type of national cup participationI've wondered this in the past, but never thought to ask the question. I don't have a definitive answer but I had a look around to have a guess.
Queen's Park were barred in 2010 for not playing in an Amateur League. I think the SFA registration of NCL clubs would therefore preclude them from entry. The League's standing as a Reserve League for so long, as well as the small scale and geography is probably why it doesn't have stronger links to any National Cup competition.
Below's the article i found about Queen's Park being barred.
https://spfl.co.uk/news/article/queens-park-finally-barred-from-amateur-cup/
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21 minutes ago, Hillonearth said:
Ultimately it's not in his gift - any application would have to be voted in at the AGM.
Having said that, I'm not sure what this application would bring to the table...I can see the logic of a Gartcairn or Rossvale being admitted- they both had plans in place for home grounds although it took the latter longer than anticipated to come to fruition, and while it hasn't happened to any great extent yet they both have potential fanbases.
They're both viable entities.
In this case there's neither - no home ground in sight, and given the nunbers pulled by the first team playing in either Glasgow or Alloa, one can only imagine what a second string would attract in terms of crowds.
With the precedent of Spartans running a Junior side in recent memory, only the ground issue could be seen as a real reason to reject an application out of hand.
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If this all emanates from BSC trying to start up a Junior side, it leaves me wondering if BSC Reserves might be the first addition to any West of Scotland League started by them. Certainly seems possible if they have to pad the numbers to start.
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By the way, does anyone know exactly what was said in this round robin email?
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4 minutes ago, Goalie Hamish said:
It is rather puzzling as to why BSC appear to be driving this, but welcome all the same. I don't think there would be too much difficulty in finding 12-14 clubs to get this off the ground. Who out of the big West clubs would want to be left behind. Once it gets off the ground there's no going back.
Utter wishful thinking, but it'd be the first step in splitting the Lowland League West/East. In which case they might see this as a way to provide a better long term circumstance for themselves.
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37 minutes ago, edinabear said:
Could this potentially be in place for next season? Great news if true and very long overdue
I'd like to think it could be, but it would likely have to be a breakaway group. With the West Region moving to 4 region wide leagues enough might be swayed. Take Glasgow Uni, Girvan, Bonnyton Thistle move over from the SoS. Then it'd maybe take another 9 from either Juniors or SPFL colts to make it viable.
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27 minutes ago, gogsy said:
Considering the amount of criticism BSC gets on this sub forum, its pretty decent of them to be honest.
It is, but the fact they've resorted to trying to organise something shows how inept the SFA & SJFA are.
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Anyone else find it weird that top of Tier 5 BSC Glasgow are the ones trying to organise a Tier 6 West of Scotland League?
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16 hours ago, Ginaro said:
How would that work with the promotion playoff to League Two?
When this gets mentioned it's usually bottom of League Two and the 3 Regional Champions in a blind draw, semis then finals. If you can fit in the Premiership, Championship & League One Playoffs at the end of the season, you can certainly do the same for League Two.
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Until Admiral Ackbar was namechecked, i thought it was just a random character of the same species filling out the background.
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Were we supposed to know who the new test driver is? I've not followed the revamped Top Gear, so i thought it was Sabine Schmitz (having been hired & fired by Top Gear post Chris Evans). That's why there wasn't a proper introduction for her or a nickname, turns out its someone called Abbie Eaton.
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On 05/12/2017 at 11:58, RiG said:Spoiler
I watched a promo for the new season and he was featured in costume interacting with the show's presenter. Since he's filming Taken most of the year, i'm not sure he'll be playing a big part though.
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I'm not fussed about creating more full time clubs, it's more about sustaining what we've got. As far as i'm concerned the longer a club spends out of the top flight the rot starts to set in. The lack of profile in the lower leagues makes it harder for clubs to attract the next generation of fans/directors/sponsors.
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I think that's why i preferred the SFL(?)'s 16-10-16 approach when talks of reconstruction was on the cards. The 2nd tier would be tight and compact so you would hope it would them sustain themselves. Bit like when you see full time clubs drop in to League One at the moment.
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Junior football, what is the future?
in Junior Football
Posted
There's a bit in the Sundat Mail about the BSC proposal. Quotes from the Chairmen of both BSC & Kilwinning Rangers, with Tam Johnston as well. Kilwinning sound like their listening and make a complaint over the fixture list, Kilbirnie Ladeside are stated as being a no, Johnston mentions the meeting on Jan 5th.