More Shenanigans From Our Imperial Masters @SPFL

[banditjag]

23 hours ago, jagsfan57 said:

1 suppose if this seasons split works, you could maybe do something similar in a 16 team league - split after 30 games into 2 groups and play a further 7 games for champions and playoff/relegation/playoff There will obviously be an uneven number of home and away games, but if the schedule can be made to gI’ve the top 4 the extra home game, that should be acceptable 

I like this suggestion. Anything that increases the number of clubs in the lower leagues gets my vote. Playing the same team 4 times a season is dire. The greed of the media, television, clubs etc to have 4 OF games a season shouldn't prevent change in the lower leagues. And many clubs in the pyramid are as well run as us in L1 and L2 and would be a huge asset to those leagues not to mention some nice away days/weekends. Any change creates interest and if that change proves to have been a mistake change it back of tweek it until it works for everyone. 

[Fuctifano]

This is what I said about it pre-covid, haven't really changed much. The top tier won't change unless on the back of some moonshot chance of the ugly sisters fucking off to England as a result of what's going on there (they won't) and even then there'd probably be a colt team proviso.

On 08/05/2019 at 23:27, Fuctifano said:

12-16-16 (no colt teams)

Keep the top tier the same, tiers 2 and 3 follow the Polish model of 2 rounds of 15 then split 8/8 for one round of 7 games, total of 37. Teams that finish 1-4 and 9-12 get the extra home game.

Tier 1 / Tier 2 relegation & playoffs same as now, bottom 2 in tier 2 straight down

Winner of tier 3 straight up, teams 2-5 in tier 3 play off like current English lower leagues for 2nd promotion spot. Bottom of tier 3 straight down replaced by HL/LL playoff winner. 2nd bottom in tier 3 plays loser of HL/LL playoff.

It's obviously still shite and folk would argue too many meaningless games in the bottom half of the 16 team leagues but it would combat the "death spiral championship spending" and "4 times a season" issues in the lower leagues.

Also rename the fucking leagues differently from England. And no colt teams.

edit: can't count

 

[strichener]

On 13/04/2021 at 08:19, Gordon EF said:

The problem is though, because of Scotland's geography, the vast majority of clubs in the current tiers 3 and 4 are in the central belt. So take East Fife. Somehow it's going to make East Fife players improve enough that it will have a knock on effect on the national team by saving them trips to Cove and Peterhead by putting them in a League One North with, eh, Cove, Peterhead, and Elgin?

The only part time SPFL clubs who travel long distances regularly are the clubs at the relative geographical extremes of the country. You can't stop that by regionalising because there are not and will never be enough teams from outside central Scotland to not make the likes of Elgin, Annan, Peterhead and Stranraer travel relatively long distances.

The top part-time clubs in Scotland travel less than the equivalent clubs in England do because the vast majority of the Scottish population live in a relatively very small area.

In Peterhead's case, the "home" games aren't actually home for most of the players who live outside of the area.  A game at Falkirk would see Peterhead with far less cumulative travel miles than a game in Peterhead.

[Gordon EF]

1 minute ago, strichener said:

In Peterhead's case, the "home" games aren't actually home for most of the players who live outside of the area.  A game at Falkirk would see Peterhead with far less cumulative travel miles than a game in Peterhead.

A lot of clubs will be in the same position I'd guess. I'd imagine most East Fife players would stay below the North/South dividing line of a L1/L2 split.

[Ad Lib]

Get it so far up Brechin.

Beat Kelty or Brora or get the f**k down.