dwl123
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Posts posted by dwl123
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21 hours ago, Burnieclub78 said:
Agree everyone on spectators side of barrier should be counted in headcount.
Burnie, i used to do the turnstiles at one of the HFL clubs and if anyone is in the ground be they spectator, committee, helper or free concession they go towards the licenced ground capacity limit so have to be recorded. As for safe capacities at grounds dont get me started, Health and safety gone daft.......
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29 minutes ago, Pyramidic said:
Over the moon with the restructuring of the EoSL.
I would suggest that the 3 Conferences (13 teams in each) are formed by first establishing 13 pools each with 3 teams based on current league positions. This seeding will give us the following:
Pool 1
Hawick Royal Albert, Lothian Thistle Hutchison Vale, Preston Athletic
Pool 2
Leith Athletic, Tynecastle, Heriot-Watt University
Pool 3
Peebles Rovers, Burntisland Shipyard, University of Stirling reserves
Pool 4
Coldstream, Eyemouth United, Ormiston
Pool 5
Tweedmouth Rangers, Dunipace Juniors, Inverkeithing Hillfield Swifts
Pool 6
Bonnyrigg Rose Athletic, Linlithgow Rose, Penicuik Athletic
Pool 7
Dundonald Bluebell, Broxburn Athletic, Hill of Beath Hawthorn
Pool 8
Bo'ness United, Camelon Juniors, Newtongrange Star
Pool 9
Sauchie Juniors, Jeanfield Swifts, Musselburgh Athletic
Pool 10
Haddington Athletic, Blackburn United, Dunbar United
Pool 11
Tranent Juniors, St Andrews United, Arniston Rangers
Pool 12
Dalkeith Thistle, Edinburgh United, Oakley United
Pool 13
Crossgates Primrose, Craigroyston, Easthouses Lily Miners Welfare
A draw should then be made in front of the member clubs to determine which teams from Pool 1 go in Conference A, Conference B and Conference C; which teams from Pool 2 go in Conference A, Conference B and Conference C etc. etc. This process will enable the constitution of each conference to be fairly determined by a draw while at the same time using realistic seeding. (Pool 5 - Tweedmouth Rangers, Dunipace Juniors, Inverkeithing Hillfield Swifts - is the difficult one to seed and basically incorporates those teams that are left over).
The provision of a 3 team Championship Play-off League at the end of the season is an awkward process but must be fairly addressed.
Again I would suggest a seeding process - with the Conference champions with the most points (or better goal difference) being seeded No. 1. The next best No. 2. The team with the lowest number of points being No.3
We will then have 6 matches (4 games for each team) in a mini-league (home and away)
1 v 3
3 v 2
2 v 1
3 v 1
2 v 3
1 v 2
If the seeding is correct then everything will depend on the last match 1 v 2 (with 1 having home advantage).
It is a bit messy but I cannot think of a fairer process. It will probably mean that the Championship Play-off League will take 3 weeks to complete. I suppose the other option would be to play a single round of games perhaps using neutral grounds.
The EoSL Championship winners will meet the winners of the SoSL in a 2 leg Lowland Promotion Playoff to determine the promoted team.
The teams finishing 1 to 5 in each of the 3 Conferences will enter the EoSL Premier (Tier 6) in 2019/20 (with the probable exception of the Champions who will be replaced by the last placed team in the Lowland League).
There is then the issue of how to determine Club No.16 for the EoSL Premier in 2019/20.
It could be one of four:
1. The EoSL championship winners are not promoted as they lose the Lowland Promotion Playoff with the winners of the SoSL.
2. An additional club relegated from the Lowland League because of a relegated club from SPFL2; OR
3. Clydebank - if the WoSL is a non-starter; OR
4. The winners of a Promotion Playoff between the 3 teams finishing sixth in the 3 Conferences (similar format to the Championship Play-off League?)
All the remaining teams in the 3 Conferences drop to Tier 7 in 2019/20 - possibly Division 1 North and Division 1 South.
It is a little more complicated than it first seems. Is my logic correct?
The weak area in my view is the delay created by a 3 week Championship Play-off League before the EoSL Championship winners can meet the winners of the SoSL in a 2 leg Lowland Promotion Playoff.All sounds very fair and logical but id advocate just 3 games intotal to decide the overall champion of the EOS league considering midweek games will probs be a non starter. Id also suggest that once the league structure is sorted for 19/20 (premier at T6, 2 equal leagues at T7) any new teams joining do so at T7, and i bet there will be a few!
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On 22/05/2018 at 19:30, cmontheloknow said:
So when the pyramid develops, Highland region will get a flood of Perthshire and Angus teams into it? That'll be popular among the more rural types who think Aberdeen is not Highland enough!
True! However The north and midlands district leagues work fine in rugby so theres no reason football couldnt adopt the same at this level.
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1 hour ago, Cumbo said:
My club Jeanfield are keen to join pyramid and had planned to apply for start of 2019/2020 season.
We are currently south of the line (just) but rumours that the line may be moving further south.
Ideally we would be in EOS as road links from Perth southbound are better than those going North.
Has anyone else heard this about the boundary line?Its fake news. The boundary between lowland and highland leagues isnt changing.
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29 minutes ago, garrellburn said:
For a club that played in front of one man and two dugs for many years it is not bad considering Motherwell were playing in a semi final today. Hopefully a god few will follow them through to Hurlford next week as with only one goal in it they must still have a good chance.
I wouldnt quote the motherwell semi today if i were u. Only 18750 at lanarkshires doorstep this aft. Pretty poor tbh
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38 minutes ago, BS7 said:
Are the juniors an interested party?
If the SFA had engaged with them at the right time then i think they would have come on board. After all theres more to be gained within the pyramid than outwith. I just feel the SFA have gone about this in the wrong way.
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Ive always beeen in favour of a pyramid system for football below the SPFL and being involved with a highland league club that wants to go as far as is possible, will always support the concept. However i have always felt that the SFA have not thought through the structure of the pyramid below league 2 with all the interested parties - EOSFL, SOSFL HL and the juniors. Scottish football should have followed the structure of scottish rugby and created a west, east and North/midlands league on equal parity with the north champions playing off with the midlands champions to then move forward to a semi finals with the west league winners, east league winners and SPFL bottom club for a place in the top draw the next season. 4 non leagues on equal parity with each top division licenced or near licenced. Eligibility to scottish cup at level 5 eligibility to junior cup at level 6 and below regardless of current senior junior or amateur status.
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1 hour ago, Goalie Hamish said:
Och my wee mediocre pal, if only you'd wake up and smell the heather.
There's no Money, Money, Money in the Juniors anymore, so when the East of Scotland League comes calling asking clubs to Take a Chance on Me, they dinnae have much hesitation. It's the Name of the Game these days, and if you don't follow suit it will eventually be your Waterloo.
If the divide between the juniors and joining the seniors pyramid doesnt get sorted itll be knowing me, knowing you a-ha Souper trouper, sorry i mean't Goalie Hamish:-)
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11 minutes ago, Sergeant Wilson said:
Yes, but HL aren't having it. It will need to be ordered from above.
The HL will always welcome new member clubs. The problem it has i the fact that at 18 clubs currently there is no route to allow just one club in. The league is at its limit as a single division. All cjrrent member clubs have floodlights enclosed grounds and a host of facilities which has resulted in a lot of spend. A good example is Strathspey Th a few years back a north junior club with a picket fence rou d the pitch. Now a fully enclosed ground eith stand and floodlights. My point is that expansion in the north requires a number of clubs to commit to make a HL2 viable and they will have to spend money upgrading facilities at a basic level. Theyre just isnt th support or money in this area to make it happen in the short term. So no the HL is not a closed shop.
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3 hours ago, Sergeant Wilson said:
Fine, if we were starting from scratch now, but we're not. Present league one and two clubs won't go for regional football and the pro clubs at level 2 would want a national feeder to fall into.
Fair point SW but i was looking at how the smaller clubs could save on the travel costs. Perhaps have regional leagues below league 1? Just a thought.
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Im a massive fan of non-league football in all its forms - senior, junior, amateur, welfare - you name it but the times they are a changing to quote a certain musician poet. Im sure this has been mentioned in some form or other but i would like to see the Scottish football system re-organised to suit the geography of the country. Don't forget we only have 20+ full time clubs in operation with the vast majority playing part time football and being asked to commit to long mid week journeys in all sorts of weathers. Im suggesting we re-organise the leagues into a more regional system to accommodate the level of football we are currently playing as follows:
Level 1 - Premiership - 12 clubs/split after 33/38 games total/relegation playoffs as at present
Level 2 - Championship - 12 clubs/split after 22 or 33 games/32 or 38 games total/promotion and relegation play offs as at present - relegation to L1N or L1S
Level 3 - National League 1 North - 12 clubs/split after 22 games/32 games total/promotion and relegation to LLE, LLW or HL as appropriate
Level 3 - National League 1 South - 12 clubs/split after 22 games/32 games total/promotion and relegation to LLE, LLW or HL as appropriate
Level 4 - Lowland League West - 12 clubs/split after 22 games/32 games total or 16 clubs playing 30 games depending on uptake
Level 4 - Lowland League East - 12 clubs/split after 22 games/32 games total or 16 clubs playing 30 games depending on uptake
Level 4 - Highland League - 12 clubs/split after 22 games/32 games total or 16 clubs playing 30 games depending on uptake
winners of LLW, LLE, HL plus bottom clubs in L1N and L1S fight it out for 2 places in national leagues at national 3 level.
Level 5 - Feeder Leagues to LLW and LLE - EoSL/SoSL/West and East juniors as appropriate
Level 5 - Feeder Leagues to HL - North Caley and North Juniors as appropriate
The above proposal increases the current SPFL membership to 48 by including 3 clubs each from current LL and HL. By adding a new lowland League west it gives opportunity for junior clubs to join pyramid on an equal footing with current senior 'non-league' clubs.
League Cup limited to clubs in levels 1,2 and 3. Challenge cup limited to levels 2, 3 and 4 plus invited extras.
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1 hour ago, RabidAl said:
Given those timescales, it'd probably be too much to expect a complete, objective overhaul of the national non-league, but several steps could be taken for it to evolve in the right direction.
I'd be hopeful that, as a minimum, it could be agreed that:
- the heavily populated west-central area should have a feasible local route into the national pyramid;
- the Highland League should provide a route in for licenced north junior winners/licenced NCL winners, as there is no 'local' route into the pyramid in the north at present; and,
- the Tay should be replaced by the Angus-Aberdeenshire border as the highland/lowland divide, for geographical reasons (too extensive travel involved in a HL with both Tay and Moray/North teams).
(I wonder if this summer would be too early for the Lowland League to split into west and east regions, which could also help with establishing a WoSFL.
As I understand it, there has to be a tier of licenced clubs below the SPFL to provide a decent standard for any relegated SPFL club to drop into. There would seem to be enough in the east, with 10 members of the current LL being from that region, plus others from the EoSFL and East Superleague who could apply if there was to be a 16-team East Lowlands League; the east juniors could then plug in below this.
In the west, there'd be BSC Glasgow, East Kilbride, Cumbernauld, Gretna, Dalbeattie and Edusport from the LL; Glasgow Uni., Girvan and possibly Threave (having already played over a wider area when in the LL) are licenced and might be interested; I don't know if any others from the SoSFL would be interested, but I wonder if any current west juniors would be able to gain licences by this summer and so apply to join a 16-team West LL for season 2018-19 (they would have to be licenced in the event that Clyde were relegated from the SPFL to a West LL); the west junior leagues and SoSFL could then plug in below this (together being called the West of Scotland Football League), only being promoted if they won the top division and were licenced.
Pure speculation, but it would seem to be a fairly straight-forward step towards a more balanced and more national pyramid.)
https://www.scottishfa.co.uk/media/2913/201217cl-current-status.pdf
I do think that due to the population/football club density in the central belt an East/West lowland league split on an equal par with the Highland League makes complete sense for those clubs wishing to progress. As has been posted previously adding the league 2 bottom club results in a nice 4 way play off for the SPFL place.
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I think the fact that there are several Lowland League clubs without floodlights precludes midweek playoffs. All the Highland League clubs are capable of playing midweek as they have the necessary fllodlights
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Wait a mo.......that's a shinty park.
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Pyramid 2019/2020
in East of Scotland Football League
Posted
My only concern bout eventually setting up a LL2 is that when the whole non league arrangement is sorted LL2 would be on the same tier 6 as the Tayside league and the North juniors. As the lowland catchment covers twice as many clubs as the highland catchment I would like to see three equal leagues at tier 5 - HL 'LL west and 'LL east then regional leagues below that. The big caveat 're play offs is that SPFL club 42 gets automatic relegation and the 3 tier 5 champs fight it out for promotion.