Yoss Posted July 8, 2014 Share Posted July 8, 2014 Open it up, let everyone in. Who gives a shit if other organisations have their own separate competitions as well? Can't think of any good reason not to have a proper national cup competition for every team that wants to enter. It's great seeing the excitement it generates within local communities in the qualifying rounds in England, when some village side is getting near the last qualifying round and the chance to play even a Conference side. There was a little bit of the same feeling to our Challenge Cup tie up at Wick two years ago - which gave them a game which the local 'paper was hailing as their biggest ever, and gave us a cracking weekend away - but there aren't nearly enough opportunities for that in the Scottish game. Open it right up, the extra excitement (and thus, ultimately, revenue) it brings to the game will far outweigh any petty squabbling about who's getting the media coverage or whether junior teams are taking some of the prize money. It's the one thing I'd do if there were one change I would make to the Scottish game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roker Rover Posted July 12, 2014 Share Posted July 12, 2014 As an outsider I have to say the 'organisation' of Scottish Football seems a bit hap hazard to say the least. Scotland must be the only proper footballing nation in Europe without a proper working pyramid system and you seem to have more cliques and self interests than your average Dutch World cup squad. The Junior/Non Junior thing just appears a complete joke from the outside and as a bit of a ground hopper who loves visiting new grounds, I cannot see the point in doing any of the Junior grounds as its a competition that doesn't really have any place in the pyramid so what's the point? There should always be a route for strong clubs to progress and a place for weaker clubs to lick their wounds and regroup and that's why the proposed promotion/relegation from league 2 to the Lowland/Highland league is a good thing for Scottish football. It will breath new life into the bottom of the pro ranks and give the non league sides an incentive. Why the Juniors don't want to be part of that is beyond me. They may grab most of the non league headlines up there but down here they are not on the radar while the Highland league and the Lowland league are (if only just). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roker Rover Posted July 12, 2014 Share Posted July 12, 2014 As a history lesson there may be a lesson to be learned from what happened down here in England. Prior to the establishment of the pyramid the Northern League was recognised as one of the strongest leagues in England. It had provided more amateur cup winners than any other league and was a constant source of players into the football league. When the FA set up the pyramid they created the conference and offered to the Northern League, the Northern Premier League and the Southern League equal status below that. The Northern League declined and stayed outside the pyramid. When they finally came in they ended up at step 5 (level 9 overall) and effectively 3 steps further down than initially offered by the FA. The game had moved on the pyramid had become established and there was no way back. Famous clubs like Bishop Auckland, West Auckland and Crook Town now find themselves playing in a league way below some of the sides they used to regularly beat in the old amateur cup days and the pyramid has a severe southern bias and they have become almost an irrelevance to all but a handful of diehards. That would not be the case had the Northern league taken the original invite. There are only 10 proper Northern clubs in the entire top 4 levels of the pyramid and by northern I mean Cumbria, Northumberland, Durham, Teesside and North Yorkshire. I can only think of Workington, Kendal Town, Lancaster City, Barrow, Penrith, Blyth Spartans, Gateshead, Whitby Town, Harrogate Railway and Harrogate Town. Half of those are located in under populated Cumbria and three of the other 5 are in North Yorkshire, which means only two are from the densely populated Durham/South Northumbeland area. This is the same area that has non league clubs in every town and village and supports two of the top seven best supported teams in England. That's a joke when you look at how many Lancashire or Midlands clubs are in there and its a legacy of the isolationism of the Northern league way back when. Perhaps the Juniors should take note. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lex Posted July 12, 2014 Share Posted July 12, 2014 Let them in when they join the pyramid. In fact, kick out any team that isn't in the pyramid. Agreed. The juniors who don't want to join the pyramid shouldn't be allowed near the big cup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CALDERON Posted July 13, 2014 Share Posted July 13, 2014 Same with the Highland League teams. The lack of ambition from some of them is startling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welshbairn Posted July 13, 2014 Share Posted July 13, 2014 Same with the Highland League teams. The lack of ambition from some of them is startling. Aye, it's amazing some of them don't want to join the SPFL 10 team borefest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HTG Posted July 13, 2014 Share Posted July 13, 2014 Does anyone know how many "organised" football teams play south of Dundee and how many play north of Dundee? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IainMorton Posted July 14, 2014 Share Posted July 14, 2014 Seeing as Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles play in the Island Games anyway I wouldn't mind them getting automatic entry to the Scottish. Kirkwall for a Tuesday night replay sounds epic Would probably need to take about 5 days off work for that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Audaces Fortuna Juvat Posted July 15, 2014 Share Posted July 15, 2014 When is the draw for the first round of the Scottish? Couldn't find anything on SFA site, other than dates for each round. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HibeeJibee Posted July 15, 2014 Share Posted July 15, 2014 Haven't announced date for Preliminary draw yet, let alone R1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigkillie Posted July 15, 2014 Share Posted July 15, 2014 I don't think the dates have been announced yet. You'd hope the draw would be soon considering there's only about a month until the Preliminary Round ties. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Audaces Fortuna Juvat Posted July 15, 2014 Share Posted July 15, 2014 That's what I was thinking as Bo'ness are due to play on 16th August and could have a fair bit of travelling to do. More consideration should be given to the working vagaries of part-time players, both junior and senior. As someone who combined playing with working shifts I was very lucky to have an understanding employer and some very helpful colleagues but, even then, it wasn't always easy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HTG Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 Does anyone know how many "organised" football teams play south of Dundee and how many play north of Dundee? I'll answer this. Details taken from the appropriate organisational websites. There may be a few clubs around the border of the North/South line in the sand. South of Dundee Non League Seniors: Lowland League - 14 EoS League - 20 SoS League - 14 Juniors West Super Prem - 12 West Super First - 14 Central 1st - 14 Central 2nd - 11 Ayrshire - 12 East Super - 14 (Plus 2 in the North) East Premier - 11 (Plus 5 in the North) East South - 14 East North - 6 (Plus 9 in the North) Amateurs There are 19 Amateur Leagues or Associations in the South with 876 teams in them North of Dundee Non League Seniors Highland League - 18 Aberdeen & District - 1 (Plus 9 from the HFL) Juniors North Super - 14 North Div 1 East - 12 North Div 1 West - 11 East Juniors North - 16 Amateurs There are 4 amateur leagues or associations in the North 210 teams in them. So ... there are 1032 teams south of Dundee and 282 north of Dundee. You could add a tolerance of +/- 30 clubs on the border (with most likely to shift north). This makes no odds for entry into the Scottish Cup but if the pyramid were to open up right through the game, it is hard to justify splitting the country in half in terms of area only to conclude that the split of teams in those geographic areas is approximately 78% - 22% biased towards the south. If the country were split into 3 there would be a much better balance but still stacked against the West with the numbers stacking up roughly as: North - 282 East - 403 West - 629 If you made it this far without nodding off ... congratulations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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