bairn88

From the Sun so big pinch of salt, but would this be possible? Not sure how Champ clubs could vote against relegation just because our league has decided they need to shorten the season to finish in time.

https://twitter.com/dulwichhamletfc/status/1359226823465394179?s=21 Elsewhere, the English National league farce puts our current situation into a bit of perspective. Now THAT is a shambles

Ahhh gotcha, I thought VT meant specifically that we were defined as a “part time league” rather than just some clubs within it that were part time.

Re read my post. I’m agreeing with you. I also don’t know where VT has got this idea that the leagues have been shutdown because of this part time / full time definition. I haven’t seen that communicated anywhere. But he may be #itk

“You have invented in your own mind”, whilst you’ve manufactured some definition of full time league on some arbitrary amount of part time/full time clubs in that league. Bizarre.

Given case rates are lower and decreasing than when he made this statement, is it fair to ask if the SFA are lying?

Mulraney getting exactly what he wanted. A slight cull of all teams unfortunate enough to be in leagues below his. Meanwhile his team play, get 500k free money, incomes from live streaming games v Hearts, Dunfermline etc. Oh, a wee minor hiccup the last few weeks where all teams banded together and said they'd put in place the exact same procedures that his club have? No problem, Government have come along from nowhere, despite it not being them to shut us down, to say we can't restart. He must be absolutely p1ssing himself. Corrupt to their core.

Or indeed, a correlation with those in favour of not restarting, and with those who aren’t comfortable in their league positioning. The thing that will be lost, however, is that they aren’t equivalent. Those in favour of restarting are *football clubs* wanting to *play football*. If clubs/fans of clubs wanted to null and void, when a season could be finished, I think that would be appalling. It would be like having a vote, every season, on whether to have relegation or not. Acht, there’s a few clubs scrapping it out at the bottom this season, let’s get rid of relegation. That’s not how competition works. Therefore, voting to finish a season and voting to null and void when the opportunity to play exists is not the same.

Got to laugh at the idea that playing each team once, home and away, with half of those games being played knowing that the season is only 18 games, is somehow more unfair than playing a random assortment of games, some home, some away, some v teams directly in promotion places, some v teams in relegation places, with all games played under the false belief that a season is 36 games total...

Winter isn’t over as well. Might put a little *remind me*, and go with the early prediction that case rates may actually be higher come 1 March

What barbers and bartenders are committing to organised weekly testing for their entire workforce? How many bartenders and barbers work outdoors, and only come into contact with an easily traceable group of individuals for an hour and a half once a week? Numerous studies done, mainly in America, about the safety of matches (Nfl, “soccer” etc) due to the fact that the outdoors is simply an atrocious place for the virus to be able to spread.

Seems like a pretty gigantic clanger by the gov this one. 2 main issues 1) rates are lower (and falling) across the country than when we were playing (untested). 2) clubs are willing to put in place the same testing and safety measures premiership and championship clubs have, who are still playing. Thats 2 fairly colossal f**k ups. Moreover, if that SFA statement is all we’re getting, this could get ugly. About 5 sentences, with zero reason or explanation why the decision has been made by gov. It’s like being told “you’re not allowed to do your job, just sit at home for another 3 weeks - don’t ask why”. Mental!

Think they said on or before the 10th in the last update. Hopefully that means clubs and spfl/sfa will have been in constant dialogue since then, and an agreement r.e starting again and when season finishes has been made, not that they’ve been fannying about doing nothing for weeks, not talked since then and talks can now begin on how to restart. I predict being extremely disappointed.

Some of our team claim to be “footballers” but haven’t seen much evidence of it yet.

Don’t think I agree with that. A very average raith look like coasting into the playoffs this season (looks like they’ve recruited pretty well Tbf). The idea that a Partick, falkirk, East fife etc wouldn’t at the very least be competitive is harsh. There isn’t a huge amount between the leagues

Not a surprising decision. Only ray of light was the confirmation that the next communication would be on or before 10 Feb. Still think an 18 game season with promotion and relegation would be more fair than just null and voiding (definitely not ideal), but agreed that any more delays and think they should just pack the whole thing in and go again in July/aug for next season (please, please don’t wait til the middle of October again)

Yeah 27 would be a farce. Any covid call off (would be inevitable given every league has faced them) would mean 2 weeks or so wiped out, meaning you’d have to play 3 times a week at best. Non starter. 7 or 8 games in 2 months give you some leeway

An 18 game season wouldn’t be everyone starting from 0, you know? It would be from where we are now (10/11 games), so only 7 to go - would only need to play on Saturdays, not midweek as well. 2 March - end of April is around 8 weekends.

This is delightful stuff. Had no idea he was at yous.

This may be flawed logic, but haven’t seen it mentioned - could an attributing factor to clubs being able to afford the testing be helped by the fact the entire playing and management staff will have been on furlough at every club since 11 Jan (til mid Feb it seems) - around 5 weeks. Thats 5 weeks where clubs would have otherwise been paying their players, and if they’re aiming to finish the season where it would have finished anyway (possibly a shortened season in number of games), that’s basically just a free 5 weeks for clubs? £15k per month would be easily covered by that furlough time?

2 March, apologies*

That’s 30/40k for rest of the season, and the government grant was 150k, as well as the James Anderson money at the start of the season. Definitely a whack more than I expected but think clubs will be fine with it.

Looks like we’ll be playing again from 2 March. So thats around 8/9 weeks to fit in 16 games or so if they want to do the full 27 games. Wonder if they’ll shorten it to just 18.

Anyone know the rules on transfer window extensions? It’s clear most clubs have (rightly) shut up shop and not done any business. Say it is agreed players can train from mid feb and games from March, is it as easy as SFA/Spfl saying ok you have another month, and that’s that? Or will it be a very contentious issue?

This is why I’m so conflicted in my own mind. I think it’s JUST too soon to think of sacking them - they are after all top of the league, after being about 8 points behind cove at one point. However, draw or defeat v montrose, and that just seems like absolute confirmation that these guys can’t cut it when the chips are down. Can the difference between managers being “ok for the job” and “must be sacked“ be really just 1 game? As Mark Corrigan says, it’s not a no-brainer - it’s a real brainer