effeffsee_the2nd Posted April 16, 2020 Share Posted April 16, 2020 39 minutes ago, LongTimeLurker said: Have heard the Shetland team do that as well. The limit I could see islands teams being able to do would be Scottish Cup entry if there was a generous travel subsidy. Given how many clubs are likely to get licensed in the years ahead I'd place that in don't hold your breath territory. I only mention Shetland cause I lived there for a few years, the others I have little to no knowledge about If there was a wealthy benefactor who helped facilitate it in terms of facilities and licensing ( there are plenty wealthy individuals in Shetland) then I could see the local population getting behind the team. The Aberdeen shire/moray catchment area would be the best suited in terms of travel links but perhaps the more northerly NCL might be more suited when it comes to footballing standard As for travelling there are a decent number of islanders with season tickets for the old firm who travel to Glasgow so it can be done. it would probably be more trouble than it's worth but i'd like to see every corner of Scotland have some sort of footballing representation 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doonhamer1969 Posted April 16, 2020 Share Posted April 16, 2020 3 hours ago, AML67 said: The South Committee and our rivals here in the SOSFL are in general very accommodating for such occurrences however we ( and we can’t be sure who ) found the LL and or Gala let’s say slightly less helpful ! We found this strange considering they’d be favourites for the tie regardless of who we had available on the day and I’d certainly like to think most League set ups and adversaries might given the obvious free week for both in that first round date have been slightly kinder given their obvious advantages in terms of players and finance Perfectly illustrates that the SoS can't be that bad if Lowland League Gala could only beat Newton Stewart reserves 2-1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drumbeg geordie Posted April 16, 2020 Share Posted April 16, 2020 1 hour ago, sdr71 said: The Channel Islands teams in the English system get allocated to the league that covers the most convenient mainland airport - Heathrow in their case. Shetland in the WOSFL, anyone? its actually Gatwick. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert James Posted April 16, 2020 Share Posted April 16, 2020 1 hour ago, effeffsee_the2nd said: I only mention Shetland cause I lived there for a few years, the others I have little to no knowledge about If there was a wealthy benefactor who helped facilitate it in terms of facilities and licensing ( there are plenty wealthy individuals in Shetland) then I could see the local population getting behind the team. The Aberdeen shire/moray catchment area would be the best suited in terms of travel links but perhaps the more northerly NCL might be more suited when it comes to footballing standard As for travelling there are a decent number of islanders with season tickets for the old firm who travel to Glasgow so it can be done. it would probably be more trouble than it's worth but i'd like to see every corner of Scotland have some sort of footballing representation Interesting views regarding Shetland, which in general I agree with. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LongTimeLurker Posted April 16, 2020 Share Posted April 16, 2020 39 minutes ago, effeffsee_the2nd said: ...it would probably be more trouble than it's worth but i'd like to see every corner of Scotland have some sort of footballing representation Shetland has plenty of football in the summer and even quite small communities like Burra have fitba pitches, so it's not like rugby where they probably do need the mainland angle due to the lack of local competition. It's too bad Shetland doesn't have more autonomy like the Faroese or they could have had their own national team and Champions and Europa League entrants. Just a wee bit too close to Caithness and Orkney or history could have been very different. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert James Posted April 16, 2020 Share Posted April 16, 2020 (edited) 10 hours ago, FairWeatherFan said: Doesn't look likely. This newspaper article was from Tuesday. If the article is accurate, then it continues to be the case that the North Juniors want to remain outside the pyramid, for now. The North Caledonian clubs have already confirmed their interest in joining the highland pyramid, which may, or may not, provide additional focus for the junior clubs. It will be interesting to see if the SFA and the HFL, recognise the NCL as a pyramid league for next season, without the juniors joining as a (parallel) league at tier 6. If so, the north & west highlands and islands, the city of Inverness, and Moray, at least, will have pyramid representation. Edited April 16, 2020 by Robert James 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
effeffsee_the2nd Posted April 17, 2020 Share Posted April 17, 2020 (edited) 8 hours ago, LongTimeLurker said: Shetland has plenty of football in the summer and even quite small communities like Burra have fitba pitches, so it's not like rugby where they probably do need the mainland angle due to the lack of local competition. It's too bad Shetland doesn't have more autonomy like the Faroese or they could have had their own national team and Champions and Europa League entrants. Just a wee bit too close to Caithness and Orkney or history could have been very different. Wonder how they would get on ranking wise? As far as I know there a currently zero full or part time professional players who come from the islands? In fact from my time living there my memory is the closest anyone ever got to that in living memory was a boy who had been pro youth at inverness and another at Aberdeen? They'd have to use the granny rule like f**k if they ever had a team like the faroe islands. On the slightly more realistic prospect of playing in the pyramid or Scottish cup, is the north juniors and ncl pretty much amateur for all intents and purposes? if so then it could be possible if a deal was struck regarding transport . Even then they would probably struggle quite badly I recon , they won't be able to have players based elsewhere who travel for home games as is done with small town teams in the mainland, they also won't be able to sign players unless they're local as no one will move there to play football. you never know tho Edited April 17, 2020 by effeffsee_the2nd 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LongTimeLurker Posted April 17, 2020 Share Posted April 17, 2020 No easy answers on this one. The population is too low and dispersed to be able to easily draw the crowds needed to make it worth the players time to do all the travel needed to participate at a level on the mainland that is likely to draw a lot of paying spectators. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AML67 Posted April 17, 2020 Share Posted April 17, 2020 15 hours ago, Doonhamer1969 said: Perfectly illustrates that the SoS can't be that bad if Lowland League Gala could only beat Newton Stewart reserves 2-1 It was a tremendous performance and effort from those on show and heart breaking to lose at the death as we looked towards extra time but certainly proved on any given day the South’s better sides could defo compete with at least the bottom half of the LL . We. and others probably might not be able to keep that up over a whole Season I’ll admit as was shown when Threave struggled in the Lowland but the standard isn’t as poor as a lot of the posters assume. We can obviously see the difference against the higher level opposition but the sparsely populated region we live in makes it difficult with 15 sides competing for the best players available to realistically sustain the level required ! Perhaps through time if the South did merge with the West to some degree the better level week in week out would help the progression for many teams and give them a target to aspire to in the long term 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Footballfirst Posted April 17, 2020 Share Posted April 17, 2020 The Gowfers don't appear to be very happy with the ERJFA, or very happy about anything really https://www.thegowfers.com/club-statement/ Can I first of all pass on my best wishes to our committee, coaches, players, supporters, sponsors and advertisers at what is a difficult time for everybody having to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic and thank you to all those who are working on the frontline to help us, wherever you may be working. Last night saw a decision taken by the Management Committee of the East Region that sees the 2019/20 season null and void, meaning that no team will be awarded the title in any of the four divisions. The decision is difficult to take for us as a club, from a season that has been particularly tough with a number of obstacles off the park having to be overcome as well as maintaining the top position in the Super League North. I will not go in to the specifics of the decision other than it has been my consistent belief that declaring a season null and void is not an acceptable decision in any league but at our level it is made worse because a lot of players play for the love of the game and not to award a title after the majority of the season is wrong. I would like to go on record as thanking our hardworking committee for their efforts during the season as well as Manager Phil McGuire, his coaching staff and the players. I am proud of every one of you and the way we have dealt with everything that has been thrown at us, since the beginning of July last year, in the right way. I would also like to thank Libby, Graham and Garry as well as the rest of everybody associated with Back Onside as we couldn’t have got through the season without your backing. Where we go from here I am not sure, there several things going on regarding the league structure in the East but with the West Region clubs leaving the Junior game for the newly formed West of Scotland League, being ran by the Lowland League, I really have fears for the continued existence of the Junior game and as a result we will need to look at which direction is best for the club both in reality and metaphorically. The background politics that, in my opinion, are not helping the Junior game, are not the reason I got involved in Junior football, whether I want to be involved in that is now questionable and something that I need to consider. Meantime I will endeavour to keep you all up to date with the format for next season as far as I can. Once again thank you to everybody for the efforts and support during the season. Mark Johnson General Manager . 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patriot1 Posted April 17, 2020 Share Posted April 17, 2020 Excellent statement from Mark. Null and void is by far and away the worst option as it means that everything that every team was playing for was all for nothing. With other options there will be winners and losers. With null and void everyone loses. I take it supporters will now be refunded for paying into games that no longer exist? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FairWeatherFan Posted April 17, 2020 Share Posted April 17, 2020 Looking at the Fauldhouse thread shows that Syngenta have been making some signings ahead of next year. Anyone heard anything about what their home ground is meant to be going forward? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the tin man Posted April 17, 2020 Share Posted April 17, 2020 Just wondering why did syngenta join the juniors were they rejected by eos seems a strange decision 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanCamelonfan Posted April 17, 2020 Share Posted April 17, 2020 1 minute ago, the tin man said: Just wondering why did syngenta join the juniors were they rejected by eos seems a strange decision They were rejected because of the ground situation 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GNU_Linux Posted April 17, 2020 Share Posted April 17, 2020 Were they not rejected twice? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimmo's Notes Posted April 17, 2020 Share Posted April 17, 2020 22 hours ago, effeffsee_the2nd said: Wonder how they would get on ranking wise? As far as I know there a currently zero full or part time professional players who come from the islands? In fact from my time living there my memory is the closest anyone ever got to that in living memory was a boy who had been pro youth at inverness and another at Aberdeen? They'd have to use the granny rule like f**k if they ever had a team like the faroe islands. On the slightly more realistic prospect of playing in the pyramid or Scottish cup, is the north juniors and ncl pretty much amateur for all intents and purposes? if so then it could be possible if a deal was struck regarding transport . Even then they would probably struggle quite badly I recon , they won't be able to have players based elsewhere who travel for home games as is done with small town teams in the mainland, they also won't be able to sign players unless they're local as no one will move there to play football. you never know tho Pretty sure Shetland used to beat the Faroe Islands back in the 70s. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
effeffsee_the2nd Posted April 18, 2020 Share Posted April 18, 2020 4 hours ago, Nimmo's Notes said: Pretty sure Shetland used to beat the Faroe Islands back in the 70s. They actualy had a fairly decent record against them considering the faroes have more than double the population, they played fairly regularly until the faroes gained UEFA membership in the 1990s 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LongTimeLurker Posted April 18, 2020 Share Posted April 18, 2020 8 hours ago, Nimmo's Notes said: Pretty sure Shetland used to beat the Faroe Islands back in the 70s. Shetland won 6 out of 24 games played apparently: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shetland_football_team Given there would usually have been no direct commercial transport links the effort needed to keep that fixture going shows that both sides must have seen it as worthwhile in a competitive sense. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pyramidic Posted April 18, 2020 Share Posted April 18, 2020 13 hours ago, FairWeatherFan said: Looking at the Fauldhouse thread shows that Syngenta have been making some signings ahead of next year. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welshbairn Posted April 18, 2020 Share Posted April 18, 2020 (edited) 3 hours ago, LongTimeLurker said: Shetland won 6 out of 24 games played apparently: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shetland_football_team Given there would usually have been no direct commercial transport links the effort needed to keep that fixture going shows that both sides must have seen it as worthwhile in a competitive sense. There were flights for a while. Quote Atlantic Airways previously flew from Faroe to Shetland en route to London, but it stopped the service in 2008 after the Scottish Government refused it access to the air discount scheme. https://www.shetnews.co.uk/2017/03/14/faroe-route-cancelled-following-poor-bookings/ Shame this never happened. If Logan survive the coronavirus maybe it could still happen sometime, maybe with some government grants from around the region. https://www.shetnews.co.uk/2016/11/23/loganair-introduces-summertime-links-to-faroe-and-manchester/ I'd have thought there could be enough interest from people looking to island hop in the summer around the North Atlantic/North Sea without taking a cruise the whole way. P.S. Travel forum for this pish.. Edited April 18, 2020 by welshbairn 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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