Even less of a title race with the return of Rangers

[Greenlantern]

We are NOT taking Efe Ambrose back!!

[Nightmare]

31 minutes ago, Northboy said:

Does anyone know how the US draft system operates if a player doesn't want to join a particular team?

There are instances of it, but few & far between. Generally doesn't happen due to the salary cap in American sports, because a player knows they'll be making a lot of money either way (all teams have roughly the same budget).

Try telling Kieran Tierney he's been drafted to play for Clyde instead of Celtic, and making far less money as a result, and that's why it's not really practical.

[Northboy]

19 minutes ago, Nightmare said:

There are instances of it, but few & far between. Generally doesn't happen due to the salary cap in American sports, because a player knows they'll be making a lot of money either way (all teams have roughly the same budget).

Try telling Kieran Tierney he's been drafted to play for Clyde instead of Celtic, and making far less money as a result, and that's why it's not really practical.

I've tried discussing this with American friends and colleague but have never received a proper explanation. Although financial resources do vary in US sport it does seem like every team is capable of offering big bucks. That's one of many reasons why it's not practical in Scotland.

[Nightmare]

38 minutes ago, Northboy said:

I've tried discussing this with American friends and colleague but have never received a proper explanation. Although financial resources do vary in US sport it does seem like every team is capable of offering big bucks. That's one of many reasons why it's not practical in Scotland.

Using the NFL as an example, all the teams have the same wage cap to spend on players. So whilst certain teams with bigger fanbases that will sell more tickets, merchandise, etc will make more money than others, only a certain amount of that can be routed back into player contracts, and that number is the same for all teams. Meaning that generally teams will (or should) offer a player of a certain quality roughly the same sort of contract.

It's not just the financial implications either. If a player gets drafted to one of the 32 teams in the NFL he's going to be playing in the NFL regardless of who it is - there are no 2nd, 3rd or 4th tiers. In Scottish football, if a player is good enough to be playing in the top tier then they're just not going to play for Cowdenbeath or Montrose because it's a huge drop in standard.

[Bambino7]

On 11/03/2017 at 16:41, wastecoatwilly said:

Celtic are bring through their own players tierney,Forrest,mcgregor,Henderson with a healthy number of Scots in the team  

Celtic youth policy is actually destroying grass roots football in this country. They take all the best players all over the country (nothing stopping them tbh) and throwing the cast offs to the rest of us. Therefore they "develop" all the top youngsters in the country stopping other clubs doing so for a good profit in the future. 

[Dindeleux]

Could always just burn Ibrox and Celtic Park to the ground and tell both teams to go away and give us all peace.

[Bambino7]

2 minutes ago, Dindeleux said:

Could always just burn Ibrox and Celtic Park to the ground and tell both teams to go away and give us all peace.

Neither want to be here regardless so perhaps a good plan. 

[PauloPerth]

On 13/03/2017 at 12:50, Tartantony said:

In the short term, I just wish we would concentrate fully on making our League as competitive and exciting as possible for our own fans. Stop giving a f**k about what England thinks about us, stop worrying about TV deals, stop worrying about playing in Europe. If we can find a way to make the League more competitive then the rest will naturally follow.

My own preference would be an MLS type set up with Playoffs at the end of the season. There would be no better way in our current situation to provide a legitimate chance of a non OF team winning the league. 50,000 at Hampden for a League decider would be tremendous imo. 

I agree with quite a bit of what you say.

I read a bit of the hearts v Aberdeen thread and noticed the level of apathy amongst hearts fans about their club currently. It's the 'second season up reality kicked in' feeling. Fans of every club in the country are buzzing about being promoted to the promised land of the premiership, and in the first season crowds are up because you're playing all the best teams, and going to the big grounds.  And then second season you realise this is it, as good as it can ever get.  You're taking part in a sporting competition where only one team can ever win it due to finances.

Its shite. And saying all leagues are like that cos of CL money doesn't make it any less shite.

I'd go along with your idea of play offs, but not a straight forward knockout.. 16 team league, play each other twice.  Then 8-8 split. In the top 8, points are back to 0 and play each other once. The advantage of finishing top 4 in the first half of the season is you get 4 home games. 5th-8th play 3 home games.  The league winners play 2nd, 3rd, 4th placed team at home. So it's not irrelevant where you finish in the main season.

Crowds would be right up at the end of the season, more meaningful fixtures, and more chance of other clubs winning it overall.

 

 

[PauloPerth]

Regarding tv money, just share it equally amongst all clubs in the entire league.

 

I like the idea of a draft, but think it would be difficult to implement. It could only be for full time clubs, as the top 16 year old in the country isn't going to go into part time football. If all clubs were limited in what deal they could offer youngsters, the best ones would have agents who would just parade them round clubs down south to get a better deal.

[Dons_1988]

I'd say before you even go down the route of playoffs, league formats etc the whole power structure of Scottish football needs to change.

The clubs have too much power in how the league works for me.  We need a governing body that will lead the game in the right direction.

As a basic idea have all the clubs come together and decide as a whole where we want to take the game in Scotland, do we want a competitive league where income is distributed more fairly etc.  Once that strategy is decided the governing body is then trusted to implement a system that deliver that.

No 11-1 majorities every time you want to make a change in the premiership or anything like that.  A governing body that has the power to take the decisions, even if it pisses off the OF, Aberdeen, Hearts or whoever, that delivers what the clubs decided as a collective was the future of the Scottish game.  

Every progressive change is blocked by self interest.  Strict liability, distribution of tv income, split of gate receipts, every club has their own interests to look after but they all cancel each other out to the point where we just go nowhere.

[PauloPerth]

3 minutes ago, Dons_1988 said:

I'd say before you even go down the route of playoffs, league formats etc the whole power structure of Scottish football needs to change.

The clubs have too much power in how the league works for me.  We need a governing body that will lead the game in the right direction.

As a basic idea have all the clubs come together and decide as a whole where we want to take the game in Scotland, do we want a competitive league where income is distributed more fairly etc.  Once that strategy is decided the governing body is then trusted to implement a system that deliver that.

No 11-1 majorities every time you want to make a change in the premiership or anything like that.  A governing body that has the power to take the decisions, even if it pisses off the OF, Aberdeen, Hearts or whoever, that delivers what the clubs decided as a collective was the future of the Scottish game.  

Every progressive change is blocked by self interest.  Strict liability, distribution of tv income, split of gate receipts, every club has their own interests to look after but they all cancel each other out to the point where we just go nowhere.

Agree completely that the current power structure is flawed as its based on self-interest, rather than benefiting Scottish football as a whole.

[Northboy]

11 minutes ago, PauloPerth said:

I like the idea of a draft, but think it would be difficult to implement. It could only be for full time clubs, as the top 16 year old in the country isn't going to go into part time football. If all clubs were limited in what deal they could offer youngsters, the best ones would have agents who would just parade them round clubs down south to get a better deal.

Another reason that the draft system works in US is that top level American football is only played there. Our football is clearly a global game. Even if we did have a platform to develop and select talent from the players coming through would have options to head to England or any other country they choose which would make a mockery of the whole process.

[wastecoatwilly]

On 3/13/2017 at 11:26, oneteaminglasgow said:

Can you explain how you want Scottish teams in Europe to "put their resources together to achieve success"?

I genuinely have no idea what that's supposed to mean.

As it stands just now the 4 clubs go into European competitions on a self interest basis and do all the professional work themselves
for me if the Scottish premier league set up a European committee each year for the 4 clubs to work together to gather all the information they need as a collective body
giving it a more professional outlook to european success.
the more teams that gets into the group stages of European competition, the better it is for the status of the league.

[Monkey Tennis]

3 hours ago, wastecoatwilly said:

the more teams that gets into the group stages of European competition, the better it is for the status of the league.

This fixation with status is no massive surprise from an OF fan.

When our biggest clubs make group stages, it distorts domestic competition further.

[Dons_1988]

17 minutes ago, Monkey Tennis said:

This fixation with status is no massive surprise from an OF fan.

When our biggest clubs make group stages, it distorts domestic competition further.

This is another one where it comes down to what you want from your own domestic league.

If your focus is on seeing the best quality of footballer possible (and by that I mean through the transfer market, not homegrown) then this idea of status, investment, tv exposure etc is probably quite important to achieving that goal.

If you are like me and accept that Scottish football will never be an elite level of football in relation to the global stage then this whole status argument is very much irrelevant when all i really want is a competitive league where it's the fans in attendance that matter and not the tv companies that see us as a virtual irrelevance.

 

[Greenlantern]

This fixation with status is no massive surprise from an OF fan.
When our biggest clubs make group stages, it distorts domestic competition further.

Distorts meaning...worse than it has been?

[Monkey Tennis]

3 minutes ago, Greenlantern said:

 

Distorts meaning...worse than it has been?

 

Yes, European football has played a part in the current distortion.

I was glad when we lost the second CL place.

[Booker-T]

On 3/14/2017 at 11:11, Dindeleux said:

Could always just burn Ibrox and Celtic Park to the ground and tell both teams to go away and give us all peace.

burning Ibrox seems a tiny wee bit extreme 

[7-2]

8 minutes ago, Monkey Tennis said:

Yes, European football has played a part in the current distortion.

I was glad when we lost the second CL place.

I was delighted when we lost the second CL club.

[Greenlantern]

Yes, European football has played a part in the current distortion.
I was glad when we lost the second CL place.

How many years of our top clubs missing out on European qualification do you think it would take for some parity to be established in the league?