Marten

They take in all members they are allowed to take in. The only applications they can't accept are ones from above the Tay boundary. That's not their decision, that's the boundary which has been agreed by multiple parties (including the SPFL) and not up to the EOS to change. As they feed into the LL they can only accept teams that are allowed to go into the LL. It's not exactly rocket science and has already been pointed out a few times so why do you keep blaming the EOS of "not accepting everyone" when they clearly accept everyone they can accept? And I'd class Arbroath as North-East, not East. I agree a proper solution for the Tayside teams north of the boundary is needed. I live just north of the Tay in Dundee myself so the local football teams around where I live are affected by it and clarity is badly needed. But as things stand now there isn't much the EOS can do for the teams over here. If the boundary does get changed (like the SJFA clearly wants to) it would be a different matter, but as said, that depends on various parties, including the SPFL.

The only fixed boundary in the Scottish pyramid is the river Tay (as in the centre of the Tay Bridge and then a straight line on that longtitude), meaning the likes of Broughty are in the HL area and as a result can't play in a LL feeder like EOS, while yourselves and Jeanfield Swifts are (just) south of that and fall in LL territory, meaning the EOS accepted Jeanfield and would accept Tayport if you apply. A boundary change isn't really in the hands of the EOS, it has to be agreed by multiple parties, including HL, LL and SPFL. The latter have a vote as the boundary decides where relegated League Two clubs end up. South of the Tay there isn't really a fixed boundary. Currently there is no west league, so either the SOS or the EOS would be the league for Clydebank. They are outside the area for both, but nothing is stopping either league from accepting them if Clydebank apply and the league wants them.

Part of developing a proper pyramid should be that finally the different structures get united under 1, so 1 league for the East of Scotland. This artificial divide in non-league football should go. There is no difference between junior & senior non-league if all clubs are in the pyramid, so why have different leagues for the same area?

No, I didn't. But it was obviously very busy, so I can easily have missed that. The atmosphere was intimidating, but that's what you expect for a game as big as that.

Schalke '04 1-2 Borussia Dortmund I managed to get tickets for the biggest derby in German football. Amazing atmosphere and experience. The Veltins Arena doesn't look impressive from the outside but inside its a great stadium. BVB showed why they were top of the league. They were the better team and took an early lead. Schalke got a penalty via VAR in the second half which made it exciting, but the winner for BVB was deserved. It was a great trip to Germany and definitely worth the effort.

Werder Bremen 3-1 Fortuna Düsseldorf last night Sell out crowd as usual for Werder. They were the better team by far but poor in finishing. Second half Fortuna equalised from a penalty given after VAR. Werder struggled for a bit but scored another 2 and deserved their win. Great stadium and a great atmosphere.

Nothing new there, they've played it outside of Italy quite a few times now. I agree that it's a disgrace though.

German football weekend coming up for me. I'm going to Werder Bremen v Fortuna Düsseldorf on Friday and Schalke '04 v Borussia Dortmund on Saturday. Looking forward to it, especially the Revierderby on Saturday.

It's especially a farce that it's another tournament with a group stage. If there is going to be a 3rd tournament, then make a full knock-out tournament with all teams missing out on EL / CL with the carrot of a CL spot at the end. That would at least generate a decent amount of interest in "diddy countries".

Semi final draw: Portugal v Switzerland England v The Netherlands

The SPFL, LL, HL, EOS, SOS and NCL are all senior leagues.

It's only a matter of time before UEFA takes access to CL/EL fully away for smaller countries and then they can use the UEFA Diddy League between each other to maybe fight for a handful CL/EL spots for the next season...

Seconded, I was quite impressed when I went there. Very friendly people at the club too.

Kilmarnock 3-0 Hibs Really good game from Killie, quite impressed with them. Hibs were poor. Two power cuts in the second half meant the game finished much later than expected. At some point I thought the game would be abandoned and the fans around were quite anxious. The Hibs fans were clearly not happy with the game resuming!

The whole point is that there is now an artificial divide in football. There is no real difference in identity/culture between senior and junior non-league football. It's simply non-league football, whatever label you put on it. It's pointless to continue having different "grades" covering (roughly) the same area. In my opinion, an important aspect of a pyramid is to bring all non-league clubs together in the same system so the best teams play in the LL (or HL) and the next best in the appropriate league for their geographical area.

To be fair, I can see the Lowland League improving greatly within a few years with top (ex-)juniors coming through.

I'm originally from The Netherlands, where there are colt teams. This is probably why I'm so passionate about stopping it in Scotland as it's been an absolute shambles there. There is no clear advantage at all, no evidence this helps player development more than without colt teams in the league structure, yet it's proven to be very unpopular for many reasons. It's pretty much exclusively negative for lower league football in the country.

Ah, you want to do what is best for the game? Good, that's the colt teams idea binned then.

Also been to Fort William v Rothes today! Even just for the views it was worth it. Great day out.

The only way how the approach like in England would work is 2 tier 5 leagues in the south (i.e. LL East / LL West) and 1 in the north. Then Dundee would likely fall in LL East, making it easier to manage. But even then, the "English" approach could mean a team like Cove Rangers ending up in the same league as clubs in the Borders due to the thinly populated area between Dundee and Aberdeen as you already highlighted.

Agreed, let's also not forget that the population in Scotland isn't exactly nicely divided over the land area. The vast majority of people are on a relatively small strip of land. If there is going to be a flexible border, it's only a matter of time before central belt clubs end up in the Highland League, just like Hearts were in the north section of the League Cup this year, while Edinburgh City were in south.

If we qualify automatically, we won't be in the play-offs. Our spot will instead go to the next team in the C division that isn't qualified yet.

Adding colt teams to the league structure greatly undermines the whole league structure. Yet there isn't one single benefit. Other countries show there is not a shred of evidence that this benefits youth development. The plan is completely and utterly stupid.

Just had a look on German news sites and can't find anything, so I'm not sure tbh.

To think I predicted that the Dutch team would have to aim to be amongst the 2 best 3rd placed teams to at least be top seeds for the Euro 2020 qualifiers