bluearmyfaction

Not been abandoned. That connotes the match starting. The EFL got itself in a pickle when Bolton didn't turn up to the Brentford match last year. As nothing hung on it, they just gave Brentford a 1-0 win, but that was by using a similar provision to this. I.e. abandonment. The real penalty for not turning up is points deduction and the match still to go ahead, and if it cannot, expulsion, but the EFL don't want to enforce that because it makes them look even more hideously incompetent than they are.

Celtic and Rangers are basically Man U/Man City in terms of crowds, then Hibs, Hearts, and Aberdeen are on a par with Swansea and Reading, and Kilmarnock are Wycombe Wanderers. Very sharp drop-off. And that's taking into account big crowds for a minimum of four Old Firm visits.

I think the big change is that the chances of someone doing a Kelty are probably fairly decent. It won't take much money to take someone from the WoS into the SPFL. E.g. Irvine, population 30,000 or so, easily big enough to host League football and already with a foundation level of fans on which to build. More of an incentive than just to dominate the Junior game.

From my more southerly perspective it looked more Caley because they'd had the success in recent years and both Clach and Thistle had been struggling. Thistle seem to have lost out to Ferranti in the seventies because so many HL teams pitched in that it split the vote several ways. By the time that had all been sorted out, there was momentum behind another team in Edinburgh. 20 years after they forced Leith out. Bizarre.

At the risk of opening everything up again...given that Ross County got into the Scottish League at the same time, from a smaller and more remote place, why did it need a new, combined, Inverness side to make an application? Could Caledonian, who seem to have been a lot bigger than the others at the time, have gone it alone and left Thistle behind in the Highland? Or would that have meant Thistle also applying and splitting the vote?

I think the reason the Netherlands voided their top league was that the top 2... Ajax and Feyernoord were on the same points.... totally different to our top league... perhaps more similar to our league 1 Ajax and AZ Alkmaar. There's also the thing that Dutch clubs do not have the same history as British clubs. The team denied an almost certain promotion to the Eredivisie, SC Cambuur, replaced the other team in the town of Leeuwarden in the Dutch League in 1965 when the latter went bust. Over a quarter of the current Eredivisie are clubs that emerged from mergers in the sixties and seventies. It would be as if the Scottish Premier had Strathclyde Academicals and Dundee City in it. And Edinburgh United wound up (as FC Amsterdam, a triple merger, were).

They could just have 14-14-16 and keep promoting clubs to make it 14-14-20. 38 games instead of 39, but not having to play Stranraer 3 times per season.

It's really a terminology thing, the Spanish league has 122 clubs in its professional system, but 80 of them are in regionalized third divisions, which include reserve outfits and those which are part-time. But the league numbering goes down to the Tercera, which brings the total to 462. Nothing wrong with a national league of 42 even if half the teams are part-time.

True - but the bigger sides have not been affected. Crowds are up at Celtic and Rangers, plus Hearts and Hibs, they're about the same at Aberdeen, Killie, and Motherwell. It's the struggling poor that have lost the little they had. The opening of the trapdoor could kill them off, they won't have that ability to bumble along surviving on prize money and League prestige. Would 22/22 help teams to develop? Take a risk at bringing on youth players in greater numbers because for a Hamilton the threat of relegation is reduced? It's not vanished, though, given the teams that have dropped/are dropping into the bottom half of the League. (Plus Arbroath and Alloa would have been top flight clubs, and that would have given hope to literally everyone of a similar size.)

I've been to a few English and Welsh islands as well, but of course they're nowhere near as remote or, even island-y. One of the unknown ones is Foulness, in Essex, which is one of the great secrets because it's hidden in plain sight. Take a look at a roadmap and the chances are you'll just see a road marked to a village called Churchend. What it won't tell you is that you can only drive on that road on the first Sunday from April-September, and you cannot drive off it anywhere, because the island is owned by the Army, which uses it for missile testing (shooting over sea rather than over land - they can retrieve the ballistics). The other way for people to get to St Kilda is on a round Britain cruise, but that's pretty expensive. But you are more or less guaranteed (norovirus/covid permitting) to get there. I did go onto Scalpay and Berneray, just for a drive around, and on the latter saw a great road sign...

I take it there's no momentum for a two division league again. On the basis that the likes of Motherwell want their guaranteed four Old Firm home games per year. On the other side of the coin I'm often surprised how anyone would turn up at (say) Cliftonhill to see Annan Athletic for the tenth time in three years. I can't help but think that 22/22 with four up and down might make things a lot more interesting, especially for the smaller clubs. If I go back to the Rothmans yearbook for the early seventies the crowds at places like East Fife and Ayr are two or three times what they are today. It's not as if those fans have been lost to other clubs, they've been lost in toto.

I've been to: Shetland (Mainland, Unst, Yell, Mousa) Orkney (Mainland, Lamb Holm) Lewis/Harris North Uist Benbecula South Uist Arran Bute Lismore Gigha Jura Islay Mull Iona Staffa St Kilda Skye I worked in Scotland for a year so basically explored as much as I could when Blues weren't at home. I'd love to re-visit most of these places, I didn't get to spend a lot of time on any of them, but I got in a few distilleries, stone circles, Neolithic villages, the usual. I got the best sunset I can recall on Harris. Got lucky with St Kilda. Went with Seumas on the SeaHarris bouncy boat. It had not been a good year weatherwise so most of his trips had been cancelled, but it was perfect the day I went.

Thing is, then, they dominated because they were two of the best clubs in Europe. I don't know how much extra income from European matches helped, but there was something of a stitch-up, like Clyde being barred from Europe despite qualifying because there were two Glasgow clubs already there. The fifties were a bit different...

So am I, albeit English law. But at least as far as the EFL goes, the clubs are contracting parties with the EFL, and as part of that contract there is an arbitration clause, which means disputes go to arbitration rather than straight to Court. I'm assuming (dangerous I know) that the SPFL is on the same basis. The contract breach is because, as you say, the contract would not have a clause covering this sort of affair (the EFL's regulations certainly don't). So the SPFL has had a vote to change the contract unilaterally. Do they have the power to do that and impose it on other contracting parties? I bet not. The biggest catch to legal action is FIFA. FIFA/UEFA are quick to threaten to expel entire FAs if they have clubs bringing Court actions. Ostensibly it's to keep results on the pitch, but in practice it means there is no public scrutiny of administrative behaviour.

A league is basically a contract between the clubs. There's an arbitration clause in there, which is why club disciplinary matters go to a panel of arbitrators.

Would it be a judicial review? Could be a simple breach of contract.

If I understand this correctly... -the SPFL called a vote on ending the season; -there was a supermajority needed to do that; -the deadline for votes was 5pm on Friday; -the SPFL did not get the votes required; -so the SPFL unilaterally waived the rules to get the required votes in. I'm not 100% sure that that would stand up in Court, were Partick or Stranraer or someone like Falkirk (who surely are the most aggrieved, 1 point behind Raith with a home game against them to come, with a much better goal difference) to take it further. That's leaving aside the implied breach of contract if there's no opportunity for Brora or Kelty to get a shot at promotion. Both could point to Cove or Edinburgh City and point out that they'd each be likely to swat Brechin aside. And all they would need to do is point out Brechin's presence on the SPFL committee. I think this one could run. Betting that the next step is the SPFL threatening to expel Partick if they take legal action.

The sign and balcony at Meadow Park that look as if they have been there since about 1937. Also the traffic cones up at Mosset Park are all Forres yellow. Attention to detail.

Why would a conspiracy affect Rangers though? Other than being ticked off that their option was dismissed out of hand, I'm not sure what's in it for them either way. It's not like they're Partick or Falkirk or Kelty with something serious on the line. Call me cynical, but it looks like they are seizing on any random opportunity to undermine the SPFL hierarchy.

Celtic started wearing hoops in 1903, but although St Anthony's claim a foundation date of 1902, this website suggests 1904. There's a newspaper article from 1933 which backs that up. Suggests they were nicknamed "the wee Celts". And the list of players going on to senior clubs here shows none going to Rangers...

December 1908: Newcastle 1-9 Sunderland. Was 1-1 at half-time. Newcastle won the League by seven points.

Even so surprised that the ref didn't make him put a bib on, as with warming-up subs. There have even been mascots removed because players saw a (say) blue shirt but not the giant furry rooster wearing it.

As a comparison, this is how it looked in May... ...you can see how quickly the weeds grew. Sad little paper sign still left there. The problem finding the ground is of course there is a very decent rugby ground in the way - both literally and metaphorically...

This may be a stupid question... ...but what does Cadora mean? Does it refer to the Ca'd'oro?