Yalay

There's a third option which is to allow the tier 6 divisions to temporarily vary in size in the event of a net gain/loss. For example, the rule could be that if the WoSFL loses a club on net, then it's still three down from the Premier Division and next season it simply runs with 15 clubs. Then the following season the Premier Division could be restored to 16 clubs by only relegating two in each division. This way every club would know exactly where they have to finish in order to stay up. The Highland League does something similar to this in the sense that they have no mechanism to adjust the number of relegations in the event of a net gain/loss. The league would simply play with 17 or 19 clubs in subsequent seasons. The EoSFL would also allow its Premier Division to grow to 18 clubs in the event of a net gain of two clubs. I'm not saying the WoSFL should do this. But it's an option.

Are any North Region clubs working towards a license this year?

Yes, the finalists of the qualifying cup qualify for this cup. This coming season, with three SPFL entrants, it will presumably be just the champion who qualifies. Winning this cup earns you nothing but some silverware.

I was curious so I looked into this. The last time Fort achieved this was 2016-17, when they defeated Strathspey Thistle twice (4-1 at home and 1-0 away).

Unlike Vale of Leithen, Fort have a decent chance to win promotion back up. They are perhaps the strongest club in the NCL, and there is a good chance the North/Midlands won't provide a licensed champion. The biggest hurdle would be winning the play-off against the worst Highland League club, but this is certainly not outside the realm of possibility.

East and West clubs are disadvantaged by the South being Tier 6 because the South champion could actually win the playoff. It's much easier for a weaker team to win one or two football matches against a stronger team than to perform better than the stronger team over the course of an entire season. In order for the playoff to be fair, the East/West/South would need to all be of equal strength, which is simply not the case. What if instead of awarding the title of "Scottish Champions" to the winners of the Premiership, you awarded it to the winner of a play-off between the Premiership and the Championship? If Kilmarnock managed to win against Celtic, would you think they had rightfully earned the title, or would you recognize the win as a fluke and the playoff as inherently unfair? And yes, as others have mentioned a two legged playoff between the East and West champions would result in the stronger club winning more often than in the current three-way playoff format. You could say that the three clubs could just play home-and-away, but that would require four matches over six matchdays. It's understandable why clubs don't want to add that much to the end of the season, and if they were willing to do so, then having the East and West champions play each other four times would be even better. Next, the situation with the South of Scotland league and the North Caledonian league are similar, but the situation with the South is much more extreme. Both leagues are smaller and weaker than the other tier 6 leagues in their region, but the North Caledonian league is much closer to the North Juniors/Midlands league, in terms of both playing strength and number of member clubs, than the South is to the East/West. Plus the NCL covers a huge geographical area and there is no obvious way to rearrange leagues to make them more fair. Conversely, the South covers a much smaller area than either East/West and could simply be integrated into the WoSFL. Finally, I do not understand why the South clubs and fans would want to play in a league where they have very little chance to actually move up. And if a South club does get promoted, it would likely be quickly relegated. Wouldn't it be much more interesting to have a legitimate chance of promotion, and to have that promotion be to a league where you are actually competitive?

Out of curiosity, do you know if the draw was open or seeded?

Still three less than the SSFL. And at least all of those cups are among different groups of clubs (except the league cup and north region cup, but only the league cup has a group stage). Contrast this with the SSFL which last year had three knockout cups with exactly the same 13 clubs.

3 Does that mean it's 6 down from the Third Division? Or possibly as many as 8 in the event of a net gain of two clubs?

How many will be promoted from the Fourth Division?

I would love to see the Junior Cup become a truly national competition once again. Whether that takes the form of tier 5 and below or tier 6 and below, I don't much care. But if the SJFA has all this money to throw around you would think they would be able to make it happen.

The draw for the first two rounds has been posted. This cup is for all East of Scotland Football League members below the Premier Division.

The draw for the first two rounds has been posted. This cup is for all members of the East of Scotland FA outwith the SPFL. This includes all members of the East of Scotland Football League plus former league members who currently play in the Lowland League but have maintained their membership. It is expected that the champion will qualify for the East of Scotland Cup along with three EoSFA members competing in the SPFL (Bonnyrigg Rose Athletic, Edinburgh City, and Kelty Hearts)

It isn’t being continued in its current form. Harthill Royal are moving to the EoSFL leaving the other seven clubs eligible for full membership in the league. There are also seven other new clubs applying, for a total of 14, all of which have been found to meet the league’s minimum standards. It is expected all 14 will be admitted to the league. The league has two options for next year: a third division of the 18 existing clubs plus a fourth division of the 14 new clubs (but with promotion/relegation, unlike last year). Or option two is two equal conferences of 16 at the third division level, transitioning into linear divisions for 23-24.

Is there any reason why they wouldn't be accepted?

Last season there was just one preliminary round, and 15 clubs were given byes. So long as this year’s tournament has 15 or fewer additional entrants, the format can remain the same. Right now there are 12 additional entrants: 9 newly licensed clubs plus 3 qualifiers.

Apologies if this has already been answered upthread, but after the fight Brechin put up to try to be relegated to the Lowland League, and given that if the club had been relegated this year it would have had its way, has there been any discussion of Brechin applying to join the LL for the future?

St Cuthbert Wanderers will play 51 competitive fixtures this season. That seems like too many. Wouldn't it be better to have a more consistent number of matches by lengthening the league (say, by playing each opponent 3x) and eliminating some of the cups?

In 15 years when the Auchinleck Talbots, etc. have all been promoted to the LL/SPFL, and Gretna/Dalbeattie have been relegated, the top South sides will still not be competitive with the top East/West sides. So even though they aren't blocking better teams from being promoted, they're still forcing us to have two meaningless games in the LL play-offs every year (plus two meaningless games in the Cup Winners Shield) and depriving us of having two-legged play-offs between the East and West champions which would be more fair and do a better job of distinguishing the stronger of the two clubs. Also, as has been discussed elsewhere, if the SSFL were out of the picture, it seems more likely that the LL would agree to two-down with the East and West champions earning automatic promotion each year.

By my count, a SSFL club will play in a minimum of 8 cups: Scottish Cup or Alba Cup (+ Cup Winners Shield for Alba Cup winner) South Region Challenge Cup SCFA Potts Cup (13 league members + Queen of the South) SCFA Challenge Cup (same as above but also with Dalbeattie Star) SCFA J Haig Gordon Memorial Trophy, WDFA Tweedie Cup, and WDFA Cree Lodge Cup (knockout league cups) SSFL League Cup (league cup with group stage) Why does the league need so many cups with identical or nearly identical formats and competitors? Is this normal, or have they added more in recent years due to declining membership?

My guess is that in that situation the league would just have a 17 club First Division for 22-23. Otherwise the Second Division would have to go to 19 clubs, or the runner-up of Conference X would have to be denied promotion, both of which seem worse than the alternative.

Assuming BOD wins promotion and Fort opts for the NCL, what will the North Juniors do about the vacant Superleague spot?

Thanks for posting! This handbook doesn't lay out exactly how the tier 6 play-off would work. I assume it's the same as the Lowland play-off (i.e. home-and-away if only 2 teams, home OR away if three), but it might work differently. In the Lowland League play-off the the rules are set forth in the agreement and can't be changed without all the leagues agreeing. Here the Highland League can change how the tier 6 play-off works unilaterally. One part I found interesting - if there are 0 or 1 eligible tier 6 champions then all three champions will compete in a play-off anyway to determine the "Highland League Tier 6 Champion."

Unless I'm misunderstanding the format of the Highland play-off, this doesn't appear to be the case. The play-off takes place every year so long as there's an eligible tier 6 champion. So it does nothing to offset any net change the HL has in membership size due to promotion/relegation with the SPFL.

If I were a Fort William supporter I would welcome the pyramid. Now the club has an objective it might actually achieve (i.e. avoiding relegation). And if the club is relegated, it would finally be at a level where it can be competitive.