PastyMan

100% this plus to go through this not even to complete a season but limp to 50% of fixtures, and start another season a couple of weeks later?

"bitterly" ..... and quite correctly as it has turned out

Former East Region Juniors have welcomed proposals for a new county of East Lanarkshire and have sent applications to join the WoSL OK, I know but we've got to have something for 1 April

Bizarrely Douglas Adams had the Answer to this thread years ago The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything is 42 42 SPFL clubs ..... just saying

Agreed, especially as it is a statement all about Brora as their champions, there was no real need to add the bit I quoted. In full here http://www.highlandfootballleague.com/News/Item/2016_Highland_League_-_Season_2020-2021.aspx

See that Brora Rangers have been announced as champions from the Highland League to take part in the play offs. The intersting point to note here is in their statement the Highland League state the following "The SHFL is a committed member league of the SFA Pyramid for Scottish Football. This commitment brings with it an obligation to produce a champion club to take part in the annual Pyramid Play-offs and, once the appropriate arrangements are in place at Pyramid Level 6, to ensure that play-offs between Level 5 and Level 6 in the North/North-East of Scotland are established." Sounds like the door is wide open for Level 6 feeder leagues in the Highland League

I think that Harthill are using the opportunity of the move into the pyramid as an opportunity to re-invent themselves. They are a Lanarkshire town, albeit at the border, and the travel distances are probably just a toss up between East & West, particularly given their location on the M8. The W Lothian clubs were a quite diferent issue. I stay in Fauldhouse. We are in West Lothian council, we are in Lothian Health board for all Covid restictions, we are in Lothians for MSPs, Livingston for Westminster and Almond Valley for Holyrood (it might be the other way round ) , First Scotland East buses for transport, the West Lothian Courier for local news and sport. If I put my postcode into online delivery it invariably comes back with Bathgate even leaving out Fauldhouse altogether sometimes!.Everything I can think of in civil society in Fauldhouse points Lothians. Fauldhouse going into WoSL was for all the wrong reasons and would have been a mess to unravel a couple of years down the line. Not so for Harthill. Let it go, I hope it works out well for them.

It's a lesson for all clubs in this position to make sure any contract they sign only comes into effect when the referee blows the whistle to kick off the game that marks the opening of the new park.

Fauldhouse United confirm they have applied to EoS

Dev Harthill confirmed this on their Facebook last week

Gordon That one third of Harthill you've got as West Lothian is actually Greenrigg not Harthill. It's a separate village with its own school and road sign as you approach from Whitburn. I think there are only a couple of houses over the road from the Harthill ground which might be within West Lothian but would probably have Harthill as their address.

Agreed and that's the paradox being argued here if they are accepted. FWE can be PROMOTED into the Lowland League because there IS NO geographical barrier. FWE cannot be RELEGATED into the Lowland Legaue because there IS a geographical barrier.

Blackburn

Rebrand themselves as Greenrigg Royal and appy to the EoS

Harthill confirm on FB their application to WoSL.Seems fair enough. You may have heard various comments with regards to the East Region SJFA, our current league, and the changes that various teams are making for the new season, 2021/22. For those that are not aware of the changes, many teams have decided to move to East of Scotland, which of course has massive implications for the remaining teams. Therefore, after deep consideration, the Committee decided the way forward for our Club, to help us progress further for Licensing and entry into the SFA Pyramid System, is to apply to the West of Scotland League. The application process has begun and we will keep you up to date on the next steps of this exciting new adventure for the Club and support. Meanwhile, the Management and players have been busy working hard throughout lockdown, keeping their fitness in check and really looking forward to getting back to playing again for Harthill!

Harthill confirm on FB they are applying to West of Scotland league. Fair enough. You may have heard various comments with regards to the East Region SJFA, our current league, and the changes that various teams are making for the new season, 2021/22. For those that are not aware of the changes, many teams have decided to move to East of Scotland, which of course has massive implications for the remaining teams. Therefore, after deep consideration, the Committee decided the way forward for our Club, to help us progress further for Licensing and entry into the SFA Pyramid System, is to apply to the West of Scotland League. The application process has begun and we will keep you up to date on the next steps of this exciting new adventure for the Club and support. Meanwhile, the Management and players have been busy working hard throughout lockdown, keeping their fitness in check and really looking forward to getting back to playing again for Harthill!

I'll only believe it IF Alan denies it (That should cover all bases)

Whitburn announced they were applying to go senior but were coy about whether it would be East of Scotland or West of Scotland leagues. With the clarification on geography that came out yesterday that means Whitburn will apply EoS.

West Calder statement on FB CLUB ANNOUNCEMENT The club are happy to announce that we have applied for membership of the East Of Scotland Football League starting from season 2021/2022 to move the club forward into the Senior ranks of the SFA pyramid system ,we have played in the Scottish Junior Football Association since 1950 with this decision not taken lightly ,we will keep everyone updated on our application.

Finally! The Wisdom of Solomon. Let's chop this baby in half!!! Good news for Armadale, Whitburn, Stoneyburn, Bathgate and West Calder. Turns out they have always been correctly in the East Region by several km. Good news too for Harthill who can add "4.2 km closer to Glasgow" along with their ML postcode to their application pack. Good news too for Fauldhouse who will become the only West Lothian team in the WoS, by 34.47 km stroll into Glasgow versus a disappearing into the distance 34.85 trek to Edinburgh. If they want to stay in the East they'll need a ground swap with the cricket club

Ha , Snap! .... from bitter experience working in a Government department producing stats based on all manners of administrative building blocks

Post code lettters count for nothing though. The Greenrigg addresses also have a ML postcode and they are in West Lothian. The postcode letters would be unchanged even if enw administrative boundaries were to be introduced. If they were ony to rename themselves Greenrigg Royal ....

Thanks for this summary. Firstly I think it would b a HUGE mistake if the West Lothian teams join the WoS. Not simply as yet another act of self harm by those particular clubs but a harm to the West Lothian clubs in the EoS who will be denied local rivalries for no reasons other than petty (and very short term) misplaced imagined sleights. Secondly I don't think the fixed/flexible is quite as binary as suggested. There is room for sensible flexibility at the boundary of strongly indicative regions. Luncarty were one example, Harthill is another. Thirdly, I don't have any magic solution either for the North of Tay clubs but my gut feeling is the Highland/Lowland split is so overwhelmingly unbalanced at the moment it is time for the Highland Lague to step up and encourage a satisfactory answer for their potential feeder leagues.

Out of interest, how did the SJFA regions define their geography?

Surely that would be committing the the sin of "delusions of grandeur"?