Khufu2

So they were scheduled to play their last league match on 17 March with the play-offs starting on 5 May. LOL!!!!!

Since there are already teams which choose to play outside the pyramid and which have been licensed one really needs to ask why the SFA chose to be vindictive and call a halt to it. Maybe it was something to do with the whipping the juniors were handing out the non-league seniors in the Scottish Cup and the danger of even more whippings being handed out if more juniors were licensed. Licensing is about facilities, management etc. If a team chooses to play in a subsection of the SFA - ie SJFA it should have no bearing on whether or not it is licensed. Thankfully it looks as if the SFA is realising this.

FWE 5 games in 11 days - from a 30 game league season LTHV 14/4 Leith Ath 16/4 Burntisland P-P 18/4 Eyemouth 19/4 Burntisland 21/4 Kelty 23/4 Tynecastle 25/4 Tynecastle 28/4 Kelty 7 games in 15 days from a 24 game league season

I see nothing strange about it. Were the SFA to shelve its unreasonable requirement that licensing be dependent on commitment to joining a pyramid there would be no attraction in joining the EOSFL for the vast majority of East Juniors. When you look at LTHV's fixture list your realise that a fixture list published at the start of the season is very much a work of fiction.

?????????

You mean results like Bonnyrigg 14-0 Burntisland

A pyramid has the strongest teams at the top and the weakest teams at the bottom. That's how it works. Didn't you know? The system the likes of you are advocating will have not just a single club but dozens of clubs lower down the pyramid than their ability warrants and several clubs far higher up the pyramid than their abilities and resources merit. Get your calculator out and work out how many years it would take for 30 teams to rise to an appropriate level (2 tiers higher than they are currently placed) if two teams are promoted from any one division in one year.

Oh dear what? Why else would you want to ensure that duff teams are a couple of tiers higher than many far better clubs.? How does it make the least bit of sense?

I suppose it depends if you want a pyramid with the better clubs higher up the pyramid or if you want a pyramid which punishes the better clubs and protects the duff clubs and turns the whole notion of a pyramid on its head and makes Scottish football a laughing stock.

Absolutely. Kelty and LTHV are different class in the EOSFL. It's a bit like Talbot and Glenafton being placed in the Ayrshire District League.

There is a simple rational argument - since these "good clubs" haven't been in the same league as the "duff" ones you have no way of knowing in a 100% accurate, sporting context if those clubs are "better" or "worse". If leagues were decided on which clubs people thought belonged where, Ross County and Hamilton wouldn't be in the Premiership, Dundee Utd wouldn't be stinking out the Championship and Newco Rangers would have been parachuted straight into the SPL as it was at the time. If these clubs are as fantastic as you say they are, they'll fire up to their natural level in no time at all. Lots of Junior fans seem to have it in their head that clubs could and should be placed according to where they perceive the clubs fit in a senior football context. Sport doesn't (or at least shouldn't) work like that. Well we do have some evidence from competitive matches ...like Bonnyrigg 14, Burntisland 0. We have the evidence of Kelty who have run up a mass of goals against the duff teams. They're so duff that Kelty have had to arrange friendly matches to actually get some competitive football!!!

I'm not sure what the relevance of just making a handful of posts is, but your club isn't up at the top, and it isn't down with the dross. It's in the middle. Mediocre. Unless there is a massive transformation it seems unlikely they will progress beyond level 6. What you will lose is a programme of largely competitive matches, better crowds, the Scottish Junior Cup ... you won't be entering the Scottish Cup, with now, because of the numbers that will be involved, a minimal chance of getting as far as meeting giants like Albion Rovers, until you're licensed. A lot of the benefits of joining the senior pyramid are illusory. I'm not critical of the pyramid, and I'm not blind to the imperfections in the Junior game but the assorted East defectors haven't half messed up the potential for a rational East pyramid,

I would place Blackburn United amongst the "mediocre clubs" I was mentioning. What tangible benefits do you think the club hopes to derive next season by switching from East Juniors to the EOSL? I can see why Bonnyrigg would move over, because like Kelty they probably have their sights on higher things, but why Blackburn or Dalkeith? Had there not been this mass defection the chances of the East Juniors negotiating a level 6 status parallel to the EOSL would have been far greater than they are now.

I agree with those who think it highly unlikely that the West Region will administer any new WOSL which comes to pass. We don;t know for a fact that there will be an equivalent to the EOSL in the west, but it is a crazy idea that any west team which wants to join the pyramid must join the EOSL! At least in the west there is an empty canvas. By 2019-20, unless the SJFA pulls a rabbit out of the hat, I think all the top west clubs will be wanting to join the pyramid. I think the licensed SOSL teams should be guaranteed a place in a new WOSL (I can't see Glasgow Uni wanting to take up their place) but thereafter I think there would be sufficient clubs to form level 6 and 7 divisions (with SOSL as an additional level 7 feeder). The east is a mess because of the likely junior defections who have completely undermined the rest of the east juniors. (Maybe TJ will prevail at the last minute!). We now have the prospect of a few good teams, several mediocre teams and quite a few duff teams clogging up levels 6 and 7 by the start of 2019-20. It's hard to see how the likes of Bo'ness and Linlithgow can hope to start at any level in the east above level 7. I can see why it might be attractive for them to change allegiance to the west if there are no hard and fast boundaries.

Punishment isn't really a very good rationale for constructing a pyramid which supposedly meant to place the better teams above the poorer ones.

I can't think of a single rational argument for placing good clubs at tier 7 or 8 and leaving a lot of duff clubs at tier 6. Can you? It would make the pyramid a laughing stock.

I did my allocation without referring to yours and came out with almost the same - the only difference being Leith and Heriot-Watt swapping divisions. If teams finished where they currently are and are seeded accordingly (HRA seeded S1 since they are ex-Lowland League) you can create divisions of fairly similar standard: North Division J2 Dundonald Bluebell S2 LTHV J3 Camelon, J4 Hill of Beath, S5 Heriot-Watt, J7 Blackburn Utd S7 Tynecastle, S8 Stirling Uni Res S9 Burntisland, J10 Edinburgh Utd, J11 Crossgates Primrose, J13 Dunipace, A1 Inverkeithing HS, A1 St.Bernards, South Division J1 Bonnyrigg Rose, S1 Hawick RA, S3 Leith Ath, S4 Preston Ath, J5 Musselburgh Ath J6 Haddington Ath, S6 Peebles Rovers, J8 Tranent, J9 Dalkeith Th, S10 Coldstream, S11 Eyemouth Utd, J12 Easthouses Lily, S12 Ormiston, S13 Tweedmouth Rangers

Several of the current EoS teams are going to be on the wrong side of many double figure humpings in the league.

No current EoS team is penalised in Option 1.

If you are developing a pyramid then the better clubs should be higher up the pyramid. If there's a better team than LTHV worthy of joining the Lowland League then that's the team that should join.

I'm struggling to think why Easthouses would have been "seeded" anywhere other than in the bottom East Junior division, where they have remained. It would be an utter nonsense to have an EoS League with the rubbish teams in the top division and the strongest teams in the lower division. It would make far more sense to have two regional divisions in 2018-19 with the top half going into the 2019-20 Premier Division and the rest into Division One (although of course there might be a mass influx in that season).