Marten

If all the remaining south of Tay juniors move over, there will be 59 clubs. That can then be split into a 16 team Premier, 16 team First Division and 2 regionalised Second Divisions, meaning there are 5 spots left for amateurs to make it to a 64 team structure. Once that's been achieved, I think it does make sense to link up with the amateur leagues, possibly in the same way as promotion/relegation is done between tiers 10 and 11 in England (tier 11 is effectively a collection of amateur leagues that have at some point been put at tier 11 in the pyramid). Down there, tier 11 clubs have to indicate by a certain date whether or not they want to make the step up to tier 10. The teams that want to get promoted will (providing they match the requirements) fill the promotion spots in the order of how high they finished. If there are fewer eligible teams wanting to get promoted than relegated teams from tier 10, one or more relegated teams will get reprieved. There is no reason why something like that can't work in the East of Scotland.

I don't see why not. Plenty of nations that are now good (and with good I mean at least regularly qualifying for tournaments) were completely rubbish in the past. Obviously, major reforms are needed and it might take a long time, but one day Scotland should at least be at the "good" level again.

Wales seem to be on their way to the bottom 4 in the rankings, which would mean that their champions will play in the Champions League preliminary tournament...

Be careful, I'll be heading to Blackburn that day...

Decent following I think for a PSF, especially considering there might be something else English football fans will have on their mind at the moment... Your first goal was pure class, that's really what made the difference. Hibs didn't really seem like coming back after. I haven't been impressed with them in the 2 friendlies I have seen them play (last weekend I saw them at Linlithgow Rose, I'm not a Hibs fan but just a groundhopper and happened to get to 2 Hibs games in a short period due to fixtures). They'll have to improve quickly for the European games, even though the opponents are only a Faroese team, they still have to play a bit better.

That's the best I have.

Hibs v Blackburn Rovers, Easter Road

Been at Telstar a few times, it's a nice wee ground. Nice to see the stand behind the goal on a photo as it wasn't there the last time I went.

Clyde 2 Hamilton Accies 0

It's IJmuijden.

No reason for him to worry tbh. Even if the juniors disappear, the same clubs will still exist, probably offering the same conditions to players, but just in different leagues.

Tre Fiori beat Bala Town 3-1 on aggregate and they have become the first ever club from San Marino to survive a round in a European competition.

Linlithgow Rose v Hibs, Saturday 30/6

Structure there is quite good, there are major issues in the pyramid system though, at the top of non league as many very conservative clubs don't want to get promoted and refuse to play on Sundays. However, other than that, Dutch non-league is quite well set up. Each town generally has their own club with a youth set-up, often working together in a regional youth programme. It's a system that seems to work. The likes of Arjen Robben, Dirk Kuijt & Ruud van Nistelrooij came through a local non-league club and such a regional youth set-up, only to be picked up by a professional team fairly late. Coaching is often of a good standard at fairly low level teams as well. There is no reason why Scotland, or even just starting in the east, can learn from this model. Non-league here is generally better supported than over there as well (relative to the size of the country obviously).

Once the set-up is properly in place, I don't think a west/east dividing line is needed. Instead, they can shift clubs from west to east or vice versa like they do in England with National League North/South. That's not realistic for HL/LL for previously discussed reasons, but for east/west that should be no problem.

There is one game at exactly the same time (4pm local time) as England's match: LSVV (tier 7) v AZ Alkmaar. You need to take a train from Amsterdam Centraal to Alkmaar and then a short bus ride. Address of LSVV's ground: Sportlaan 55, 1722 XK Zuid-Scharwoude, Netherlands

2200 Thanks!

What was the attendance yesterday?

I really enjoyed today. Linlithgow is a nice town with some good pubs, the ground is lovely, I think Linlithgow Rose played well and it was great meeting @Auld Heid before the game. Good luck for the season ahead!

Groundhopping tip in case anyone happens to be in The Netherlands on Friday 13th July. Ajax play a PSF against Anderlecht at the historic Amsterdam Olympic Stadium. The ground was opened for the 1928 Olympics and has a rich footballing history, but is only rarely used for football nowadays. This is a rare chance to see football in this great stadium. I have nothing at all with either side, dislike both, but I'd probably pop along if I still lived in The Netherlands.

How long in advance do they announce the days/times for 1.Bundesliga fixtures later in the season? I'm looking for the weekend of 8th December, when I'm near the Dutch/German border and would like to pop across the border for a game.

True, the official response will likely have been a decline. But we don't know whether or not there have been more talks about what happens in the north (and if the EoSFL could assist in any way if there is any demand?).

The EoSFL have confirmed that (at least) one club north of the Tay approached them, so who knows what might have been / is being discussed with them...

That's even worse than the "Gouden Gids Divisie" (Yellow Pages Division)...