Marten

I highly doubt that as I've read my information elsewhere. But the rest of my post still stands anyway, B-teams have not proven to benefit player development and the really talented players more often than not go straight into the first team or go on loan. Introducing them in Scotland would be absolutely stupid and would have a vastly negative effect on the Scottish lower divisions. You can support lower league football or you can support the introduction of B-teams. It's absolutely impossible to support both.

Let's be very clear: I'm not against change, and I've actually argued for change in Scottish football and elsewhere. Both on P&B and other places, it's safe to say that not everything I say what should change is popular. It's just issues like B-teams I can't stand. That's an example of change that's not for the better. I partly come to that conclusion due to experience in following football on the continent (I used to live in The Netherlands and regularly traveled to Germany, I still follow football in both countries closely). And when people argue it's worked for Germany (for example): their entire 2014 World Cup winning squad had exactly 1 B-team appearance between them. The real talents generally either get loaned out or get thrown straight in the first team. That's not just how it's used in Germany, but in most other countries with B-teams as well. B-teams often stop young players who are just outside the very top to go to smaller teams, which is neither great for them, nor for the smaller teams.

The bold one is already not true, in Germany the last B team got relegated from the 3rd tier last season. They are absolutely despised by lower league fans, who generally feel they don't add anything to the divisions and bring no fans. There are various people in the German game trying to get rid of them. The same goes for The Netherlands, where their introduction in the lower tiers has been extremely unpopular and terrible for the leagues, meaning the clubs are now trying to get rid of them. But from your post it's quite clear: you don't give a sh!t about the lower divisions, the Premiership is all that counts for you...

He is definitely under big pressure in Germany now. I wouldn't be surprised if they get rid of them after the nations league finishes, especially if they get relegated to league B.

They have nothing to add to the competition, bring low crowds and are just used as development of players. A senior competition shouldn't be used for that, they should just stick with playing each other. Plus, I fear this is being used as a way to introduce colt teams in the lower divisions, which would kill lower division football. I can see no proper argument at all for these teams being in the competition in the first place. As I care about lower league football, I'd never go to a game involving any of them and I hope colt teams will be removed from this competition.

I know it's not Motherwell's fault, but it's a disgrace that they are allowed in the competition and the colt teams ruin the competition. So for the competition it would be great if they were dumped out.

Lets hope Motherwell Colts get the hardest possible draw and get dumped out of the competition. They shouldn't have been in there at all, but a colts team going as far as the semi finals would really be a terrible thing.

The Netherlands 3-0 Germany has to be the biggest shock of the round, I never saw that coming!

Dunfermline Athletic 2-2 Alloa Athletic, Alloa win 4-5 on penalties. Good game for a neutral, very enjoyable.

To be fair, with Cowdenbeath's recent history against Cove I can't blame any of their fans for having a pop at Cove.

Yes, they don't add anything to the division, they play for nothing and don't attract crowds. The division would be much better off without them. Introducing them was an absolutely stupid idea.

No, nothing known yet, except that the horrible & useless colt teams would stay.

I don't disagree with what you say about plastic pitches, but this is just one point in a wider plan for change, with most other points not helping smaller teams. They are claiming they care so much about the "diddies". But let's be very clear, the attitude/arrogance that Ajax, Feyenoord & PSV show towards the diddies is just as bad or even worse than what Celtic and Rangers show in Scotland.

I don't see it as helping, they are not charities, they are professional football clubs. It's effectively a bribe to start culling the smaller teams from the division. Reducing the league to introduce play-offs is a stupid idea. Another part of it is that they want to keep their "colt teams" in the 2nd tier, which makes things even worse for the teams who do drop out due to this. These teams ruin the 2nd tier and that's why clubs are trying to get rid of them. I'm not a fan of plastic pitches, but that's not the main issue here. The main issue is that the 3 big teams ultimately have the aim to f*ck over the smaller teams. I hate all 3 of them even more due to this... Let's hope this plan ends up in the bin, where it belongs.

Absolutely awful and I hope it gets binned, smaller clubs like mine (Excelsior) are being disregarded here. F*ck playoffs. Thankfully it's apparently still far from being approved as various smaller clubs say they haven't even been consulted and are unlikely to agree to it.

The bar at Wimbledon is good, the view from some parts of the ground less so, lol. Slightly off-topic, but on Saturday I went from Dundee to Plymouth to watch Plymouth Argyle v AFC Wimbledon. Then it turned out I was sitting next to a Dundee fan. Either you lot just are everywhere, or he wanted to be as far away from Dens Park as possible within the UK...

Ventured just south of the border this time. Home Park for Plymouth Argyle v AFC Wimbledon.

I've been to a Spakenburg derby before (it's IJsselmeervogels btw, IJ is seen as 1 letter in Dutch and thus both the I and J are capitalised). Absolutely massive derby for a town with less than a 10K population. Even though it's "only" 3rd tier, I'd say it's the biggest derby in The Netherlands.

St Mirren 0-1 Hibs today. Now done 28 of the 42.

i used to love a day out in stranraer. will need to visit again soon I enjoyed my trip, nice day out altogether, not just because of the football!

Today I visited the last ground in League 1 I haven't visited before. Stair Park for Stranraer v East Fife, finished 0-2.

The SFA should also look at some of the requirements. If clubs aren't allowed to turn down promotion, it could create problems for the likes of Orkney FC. If they'd end up in the HL the travel expenses would be huge, especially if Tayside teams like Lochee United would also end up there. They'd need to get some sort of subsidy to help out with travel costs, otherwise they should be allowed to turn down promotion.

Celtic 1-0 Rosenborg tonight. My 26th ground out of the 42.

Maybe you can send most of your squad on loan to the LL champions just for their play-off against Cove (providing you're already safe at that stage of the season & with no chance of reaching promotion play-offs)? Just to ensure Cove don't win...

Yeah, the winners of the 3 superleagues will play off each season with the winner of that one getting promoted straight into League 2. They are then guaranteed 2 away trips to Elgin on Tuesday nights each season.