Pareidolia

18-19*

For reference: https://www.eastdunbarton.gov.uk/technical-notes-2023-issue-159- kirkintilloch-community-sports-complex The Council has received an approach from a local junior football team, Rossvale FC, to host their upcoming Scottish Junior Cup match versus Darvel on the 7th October at the new Kirkintilloch Community Sports Complex (KCSC). The Club have been struggling to source suitable accommodation to host the tie and have identified the KCSC as the only realistic opportunity in the local area. Officers have negotiated terms for Rossvale to use the facility for training on the evening of the 5th October and thereafter for the match itself on the 7th October. Members should note this is a one off agreement in order to support the Club and will not prejudice negotiations with the preferred bidder, with whom officers continue to engage with a view to finalising the long term lease of the subjects. The Council will provide FM support to open, close and clean the building and stands, ensuring the facility remains in excellent condition prior to the new lease commencing. Outside of that - no update on the KCSC fiasco...

3x Cat 2 tickets. 700EUR but who's counting.

Though in KRR's announcement of Kevin McGoldrick being "promoted" to Head of Football Operations and Danny Ferry taking over as Manager, the club saying that Kevin "will align everyone with the Club's vision for the future as we move to a new phase in its history" makes me wonder what that's all about.

A subjective and minority opinion I suspect, but I'm not sure a social club (especially if seeking an alcohol licence) frequented by patrons daily is necessarily the best thing for a club to develop on the site, which might go against the ethos of providing access of the facility to a diverse range of stakeholders including children and vulnerable groups. Edit - "social club" in the very stereotypical/traditional sense at least; if KRR have a broader vision of how a facility may be constructed and used then it of course might be a more positive development.

It suggests to me that KCSC is useable on an ad hoc basis (and that the ground is fit for purpose), but the lease has not been agreed with a regular tenant. I guess technically KRR could also rent the facility out but clearly somethings going wrong with the lease negotiations and its hard to see who's to blame for this without more information. Could be that KRR are baulking at the fees that EDC are suggesting?

"The Chief Solicitor & Monitoring Officer advised that the terms of the original Report on this matter, including the identity of the preferred bidder remained confidential as per the decision of the Council. As part of her update to Council on 9th March, she had advised that Officers had offered a Licence to Occupy to expedite occupancy of the site. Officers had not sought and did not require to seek Council approval to enter into a Licence to Occupy and this was not sought at the meeting. Instead, she had updated Members as to progress with the transaction which included the offer of the Licence. For this reason, it was not included within the original Minute. She advised that subject to the agreement of Council, the Minute would be amended to reflect that Officers had offered the Licence to Occupy."

Now I wouldn't normally reference any political party literature (especially as it pretends to purport to be some sort of "newspaper") but there are some intriguing tidbits here. One is the concept of "football back in Kirkintilloch" and the other more relevant one relating to the lease not actually agreed...

Again in the context of an idiot like myself looking in from the outside, if I never looked at a map you'd think there'd be a certain lure of playing for Talbot given its history and its established success, but I guess now that its not a closed shop and full on capitalism is sweeping through the leagues, any team with aspirations and bigger "catchment areas" could easily overtake them and either maintain their status or go up the league system. It would suggest (pessimistically) that the only way is down for Talbot, though, in the long term, being demoted to a village team. But as I said, I'm an idiot.

Jumping in randomly as someone with next to no knowledge of the junior game - when were Auchinleck Talbot last relegated from the top tier of a league system?

Are both pages "live" in that they will automatically update with results?

Re Gala - you're right of course! I might be thinking of Gretna actually when it comes to SoS/EoS confusion, come to think of it. But yes the pyramid isn't in its final form but its going to take some incremental iterations before we get to a more permanent solution, notwithstanding any population or political overhauls. And lets not forget the business side of things, which tends to run counterintuitively of a meritocratic league system.

Great job! Cue arguments of whether Gala Fairydean should be in EoS or SoS... I've always imagined KRR yoyo-ing between WoS and Lowland leagues, though it might take about 25 years to get to that point! Interesting to see WoS 8 teams down, too. Edit - I like your attempt to create a functional league system given more North teams dropping down and South teams going up, exemplified by the North Region Championship East/West split.

Great work. Though I think Celtic is missing from the Glasgow City list (FYI). I know its a lot of work as is, though would love to see a de facto league standing for clubs based on the current league system (similar to what FWF did in September in this thread), to imagine what an actual competitive league system would look like!

That's a decision for mods, imo, than me. Its toxic but maybe necessary for some collective education on the state of play of supporters in lower level leagues when it comes to sporting situations of public interest. Unfortunately if there's something I'm learning, and admittedly I did fear, is individuals who literally describe themselves by their team (and de facto representing them) has the same worrying attitudes to this whole debacle. As someone who has plans to support KRR once they return to Kirky, who has had longstanding concerns about inclusivity/equality/diversity in lower level leagues, this is putting me off putting my hand into my pocket for the team when its "representatives" have such attitudes that I know I will be more exposed to in small crowds than having the relative anonymity of a 50000 stadium. The silence from WoSFL (and looking at the committee - not exactly a diverse bunch of people), doesn't help. Maybe they have the same opinions as some of the contributors here? It's not completely out of the question if supporters here have similar views. Might as well stick to my "big" team which also has plenty concerning attitudes but is somewhat diluted by the cooperate and mainstream aspects of supporting a team with greater ambitions than being community-focussed, and at least have (albeit niche and half-heartedly) attempted to address some of the issues being raised in this thread. Hey ho.

There's a difference about being safe in the community (otherwise the person would be incarcerated) vs being a public role model. No child is dreaming to be a guy in a corner shop backroom compared to someone scoring goals for their local team. Glasgow United doubling down is car crash worthy media. Just googling "Glasgow United" shows the reputational damage they have caused themselves. Actions have consequences. Being declined a job based on conduct is not a protected characteristic.

Well isn't this a fun thread. Maybe we need to move away from the semantics of language (particularly around violence and mental health issues - I have strong professional opinions on both but I'm keeping out of this for my own sanity) and just recognise that the guy has been found to be a rapist per civil law definitions. It still doesn't answer the silence from Teams and WoSFL itself (as per my previous reply). Or do they wish for politicians to make their decisions for them?

For some bizarre reason, I didn't think this thread would blow up considering no one had commented on it since the friendly. What do I know. For what its worth (and speaking from a lifelong professional career that deals with a lot that the case discusses) - it's an atrocious act (and easy civil judgement) which also unfortunately shows where criminal case prosecution also lies when it comes to judgments on sexual violence. This guy probably wants a criminal case purely on the low prosecution rates based on higher standards of proof - not because he is innocent. It's the usual issues with criminal/civil "rehabilitation" - when can someone "move on with their life"? Well people can, but don't expect to be accepted as a public role model, that footballers at all levels are ascribed to be by their own clubs and fanbases. Glasgow United should not have considered trialling him, in my opinion. I'm not necessarily expecting WoSFL to get involved per se (unless the individual is breaking any contractual or constitutional rules, or going against any other values that the organisation has signed up to). However I do hope that WoSFL take a public position on this to protect the reputation of its leagues and the values it informally tries to promote. Similarly you would not want teams to be in a position of making individual decisions when playing Glasgow United (particularly Women's/Girl's teams). Silence just makes the vacuum bigger, and increases both organisational speculation of its own values, but also leads to constant squabbling, politicisation, entrenchment of views, and general nastiness from the louder/unhinged people of the world who influence clubs and fanbases alike.

https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/10990569/david-goodwillie-glasgow-united-losing-ground-signing-rapist/ Given North Lanarkshire Council's response to Clyde you'd think Glasgow United might be asking themselves why they decided to wade in to this saga...

David Goodwillie: Glasgow United says rapist 'deserves a chance' - BBC News

Super annoying how you need to log in to twitter to see these links now. On another note - Kirkintilloch Rob Roy - do they have to declare/have they declared where they are playing their home games with you? Presumably you need to know if they are groundsharing or otherwise to compile fixtures...

Kirkintilloch Rob Roy FC | Kirkintilloch | Facebook Someone's changed their front page banner... Facebook (using a photo originally posted Dec 22)

"...Kirkintilloch Community Sports Complex where all works are now substantially complete and handover is due in May 2023." I guess its imminent. Rumours are that KRR are returning to Kirky. Interestingly KRR (or at least whoever runs their FB page) have said in a comment "Decision was made back in December but no official announcement has been made yet until contracts are in place", which would be a strange thing to say if they weren't successful, I speculate.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promotion_and_relegation#Argentinian_football_and_the_average_performance_system Generally lurking on these forums and listening to all the discussions around promotion/relegation, and balancing up financial risks (inc. B Team and Conference league discussions), would the "average performance system" (used in Argentina) work at Tier 4 alongside automatic promotion from Tier 5? I'm sure someone more resourceful than me would tell us who would have been relegated in the past few seasons.

Sadly not - though being brutally honest I don't think this saga resonates with many locally, partly due to demographics, partly historically underutilised community engagement by the club, partly the fact that they've been away for many years. On the other hand I do think that if KRR return, they have a better opportunity to develop a fan community than they did at Adamslie Park. I wouldn't be averse to KRR and Glasgow City/other being co-tenants though you'd think a SWPL team would want to be in a more central location given their stage of football development.