Challenge Cup Restructure

[Bully Wee Villa]

The first 10% of total gate receipts go to host club to cover costs then the rest is split 50 / 50

So we should make about twelve quid?

Sweet.

[third lanark]

The first 10% of total gate receipts go to host club to cover costs then the rest is split 50 / 50

thanks

[BerwickMad]

thanks

So will that be something like £100 towards Arbroath's bus then? Seriously, who is going to bother watching some of these games, never mind when it costs £12 or whatever to get in. I can watch Newcastle U21s play Man Utd U21s for £3.

[1320Lichtie]

So will that be something like £100 towards Arbroath's bus then? Seriously, who is going to bother watching some of these games, never mind when it costs £12 or whatever to get in. I can watch Newcastle U21s play Man Utd U21s for £3.

Sums it up. Lower league clubs need to boycott this nonsense

[Zen Archer (Raconteur)]

The far Eastern betting syndicates will lap this fucking shit up.

[Ned Nederlander]

Call me unreasonable, stuck in my ways, an old goat or even a feckin dinosaur but I still absolutely hate it - nearly everything about this set-up is shit.

 

These are the people that wanted to inflict an absolute clusterfuck of a league set-up on us a few years ago until they were thankfully kicked into touch by the Buddies and Ross County - they have zero credibility - from the shenanigans surrounding Rangers going tits-up, continually talking our game down to starting the SPL season late to suit the Old Firm rather than the majority I don't think they've got one single thing right.

 

Cockwomble canny even get his fucking hair cut right.

[Diamond Oracle]

What a disaster of a competition. Is it too late to call it all off?

[Doonhamer doon south]

I gotta admit I like this new format it's different and fresh. Prize money still pish but at least it's different.

[Lichtie78]

I gotta admit I like this new format it's different and fresh. Prize money still pish but at least it's different.

You wouldn't be saying that if you had Inverness u20s away on a Tuesday night 2 days after playing their first team there.

[Poet of the Macabre]

You could have changed the rules so that each club had to play one supporter during every match. Just a random dude from the crowd. That would have been different too. Much like the new Irn-Bru Bantz Cup though, it would be nonsensical and shit in every way.

[BFTD]

You could have changed the rules so that each club had to play one supporter during every match. Just a random dude from the crowd. That would have been different too. Much like the new Irn-Bru Bantz Cup though, it would be nonsensical and shit in every way.

 

Infinitely preferable to U20s, random foreign diddies, and whatever other shite they've decided to dick about with.

[Ned Nederlander]

You could have changed the rules so that each club had to play one supporter during every match. Just a random dude from the crowd. That would have been different too. Much like the new Irn-Bru Bantz Cup though, it would be nonsensical and shit in every way.

 

 

I like this game

 

How about movable goals!? They could just slide back-and-forth automatically or be set on runners and have a fan on each post trying to move them to suit themselves.

 

We could introduce 'Jokers' like on It's A Knockout? with goals and yellows counting double for 5 minutes after the've been played! Struart Hall could commentate and not even damage the competitions credibility.

 

 

For uber lolz we could introduce Premiership U20 teams and have them seeded ahead of league teams       

[WBR]

Is "under 20" the age or the expected attendance?

[lionel hutz]

Next Season get those Colt sides to f**k and have more LL and HL sides, the Irish/Welsh sides can stay as long as they come in at the same time or before Championship teams. 

[bendan]

Next Season get those Colt sides to f**k and have more LL and HL sides, the Irish/Welsh sides can stay as long as they come in at the same time or before Championship teams.

I'd agree with this.

[Poet of the Macabre]

Next Season get those Colt sides to f**k and have more LL and HL sides, the Irish/Welsh sides can stay as long as they come in at the same time or before Championship teams. 

 

I'm still not a fan of including non-Scottish sides in a Scottish competition. If they want to create a Home Nations tournament of some kind then fair enough but don't like adding Welsh and Northern Irish clubs into pre-existing tournaments in Scotland.

[RabidAl]

Well, I hope you are right.

 

On the points you raise;

 

1. If you can make a sporting argument as to how the inclusion of B team in a diddy comeptition is meant to "improve standards" then go right ahead. That's the nonsensical pish we're being asked to swallow.

 

2. By "normalising" the participation of Colt teams in senior football via this cup competition, over a period of years. It is a process, not an event.

 

3. You seriously think the prospect of, let's say, Rangers B - Linfield, just as one example, hasn't been thought of? Why would the boards of NI teams and Welsh teams bother otherwise, unless there was cash in it?

 

You're probably one of those who nodded enthusiastically when the likes of John Yorkston said with a straight face that the creation of the SPL in the late 90s "would create a level playing field for all the invited clubs to compete"

 

I am not putting forward the view that the stuff said in my initial post, and on the wasteland forum, will happen overnight. It is the long term direction of travel and the implications for smaller part time clubs that really concerns me.

 

Just as it took fifteen years of farcical mismanagement for the SPL to go tits up, killing old Rangers and nearly taking your club with it in the process.

 

This is overdue a response and i'll try to avoid the shrill hysteria of my previous effort.

 

Yes, I do think that including development teams in a senior cup competition can improve the quality of the young players - through the experience it gives them competing against senior pros.  But it makes sense to allow them to participate in a competition at a slightly lower level since, by definition, they're not generally ready to compete at the higher level yet.  

 

Being cynical, I can see why it looks like this might be the thin end of the wedge in terms of colt teams coming into the League itself; however, on balance I think that the authorities are well aware of the reaction that such a move would receive from the majority of fans and I don't believe that's what is going to happen.  I think that they see this as a compromise - a way to get more youths valuable experience at a higher level than the development league, yet without affecting the sporting integrity of the League itself.  I think that this will be as far as it goes - to paraphrase, it will be an event, not a process. 

 

Indeed, because it's such a mongrel of a competition I have my doubts as to whether it will last more than a couple of seasons (and I also doubt that there's a great deal of cash in it for bigger clubs at all).  Anyhow, people will vote with their feet as usual and will (hopefully) put forward a viable alternative that meets their desires for a competition that they'd like to see going forward. 

 

Personally, I wouldn't be keen to see B teams or colt teams in the League proper, with the possible exception of a Scotland-wide national/composite colt (u18s) team in the event of league expansion and more teams/clubs being admitted (e.g. 14-14-18, with the new teams being one each from east, west, north regions and colts). 

 

I can't make any sense of your comments about Yorkston, the SPL or how it relates to this at all.   

[Poet of the Macabre]

If young players would benefit from playing at a lower level in competitive games then why not just loan them to the lower league clubs? How does playing for an Under 20 side against senior teams aid their development?

[dee_62]

If young players would benefit from playing at a lower level in competitive games then why not just loan them to the lower league clubs? How does playing for an Under 20 side against senior teams aid their development?

 

I keep wondering aout that too - how will playing one or two matches against senior pros in this cup be more beneficial than being loaned out and potentially playing an entire season in amongst and against senior pros? 

 

Did Super Saintees not loan out about 5 or 6 of their youth team to the lower leagues last season?  That's bound to have done these players the world of good and give an indication if they are more likely to make the jump?

[SlipperyP]

I keep wondering aout that too - how will playing one or two matches against senior pros in this cup be more beneficial than being loaned out and potentially playing an entire season in amongst and against senior pros? 

 

Did Super Saintees not loan out about 5 or 6 of their youth team to the lower leagues last season?  That's bound to have done these players the world of good and give an indication if they are more likely to make the jump?

Correct, playing as a boys team against men, will do f**k all for development, if anything, knock the young boy back a few strides.  Young boys (and this is what were talking about), need 2 things, either play with boys (not yet ready) or team up with pros (loan or first team). 

 

 

This is doing nothing for our future.