Lowland League General Discussion

[Ginaro]

2 hours ago, Cowden Cowboy said:

Bronze you need 300 lux floodlights at bronze (200 for entry)

Bronze floodlights have been a requirement for League 1/2 for years so no excuse for Buckie not sorting them before now (unless they were just waiting to see if they won the league again).

[Burnieman]

34 minutes ago, Sergeant Wilson said:

In my limited experience, smaller clubs will talk a Doctor who supports the team in to doing it.

In my experience when having to find one, it was a matter of a mate of a mate who agreed to do it, who was about 100 miles away. The local surgery wasn't interested.  He wrote the letter and that was enough, it was also all he ever did. 

Completely pointless, but a box that had to be ticked at the time.

[Highland ITFC]

Think that the doctor, or other appropriate medical professional, needs to be there on match days though, not just be a name on a piece of paper?

[Cowden Cowboy]

54 minutes ago, Burnieman said:

In my experience when having to find one, it was a matter of a mate of a mate who agreed to do it, who was about 100 miles away. The local surgery wasn't interested.  He wrote the letter and that was enough, it was also all he ever did. 

Completely pointless, but a box that had to be ticked at the time.

 

But not good enough for bronze where you need to have a doctor present at every home game

[Burnieman]

6 minutes ago, Cowden Cowboy said:

But not good enough for bronze where you need to have a doctor present at every home game

Indeed, but it shows even that low bar was a problem for clubs.

[Burnieman]

"Buckie Thistle Football Club would like to issue the following addition to last night's statement on the SPFL Pyramid Play-offs:

"The club is endeavouring to get to the bottom of the decision to remove us from this weekend's play-off semi final against East Kilbride FC."

"Club officials attended meetings and had discussions with both the SPFL and SFA on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, but no indication was given at any point that Saturday's fixture was in doubt."

"Attached is a screenshot from the Decision Note issued by the SFA, which clearly states a decision on the Bronze Licence is deferred until the 15th of May. Buckie Thistle were awarded derogations on 3 of the items mentioned, and given until 15th May to resolve the Medical items."

"After further discussions with the SFA this morning, we are now looking into the possibility of taking this to Arbitration, as per Article 99 of the SFA handbook."

"Further updates will be provided in due course."

[An Absolute Imposter]

4 hours ago, Cowden Cowboy said:

Bronze you need 300 lux floodlights at bronze (200 for entry)

Doctor required to be present at each home game

Safety Officer needs to be professionally qualified - entry level anyone can do it

 

Equality and Diversity - you need published policies and also give some actual evidence of what steps you have taken 

Thanks for putting meat on the bones for us lesser mortals.

The main point that sticks out for me is the cost involved in implementing these, also a person within the club I imagine will need to admin them too.

I wonder how they come up with the different criteria for each level. Would presume at some point UEFA have input into requirements.

Not being critical of the requirements for licensing at each tier of the pyramid. Can't help but be suspicious of the intentions of the SFA in updating the requirements at this stage.

Does come across that Buckie are up to their old tricks. I can imagine someone at Brechin has spoken to a lawyer already.

It does get frustrating as a fan from the outside, can't get past the feeling that the SFA do not give a toss about the pyramid.

 

[welshbairn]

23 minutes ago, Burnieman said:

"Buckie Thistle Football Club would like to issue the following addition to last night's statement on the SPFL Pyramid Play-offs:

"The club is endeavouring to get to the bottom of the decision to remove us from this weekend's play-off semi final against East Kilbride FC."

"Club officials attended meetings and had discussions with both the SPFL and SFA on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, but no indication was given at any point that Saturday's fixture was in doubt."

"Attached is a screenshot from the Decision Note issued by the SFA, which clearly states a decision on the Bronze Licence is deferred until the 15th of May. Buckie Thistle were awarded derogations on 3 of the items mentioned, and given until 15th May to resolve the Medical items."

"After further discussions with the SFA this morning, we are now looking into the possibility of taking this to Arbitration, as per Article 99 of the SFA handbook."

"Further updates will be provided in due course."

[Deanburn Dave]

What would be the point of Brechin speaking to a lawyer ?

Clubs know that the HL/LL playoff only happens if the WINNERS of both leagues meet the required licencing criteria of SPFL2.

 

[aidan-bufc]

Personally would ban both champions due to Buckie's actions and let both of the best placed clubs compete in the play off.

[To B or not B]

38 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

The point is that they don’t have the license at the start of the play-offs. What if they get to May 15th and they still don’t get awarded it, where does that leave the play-offs.

[To B or not B]

14 minutes ago, aidan-bufc said:

Personally would ban both champions due to Buckie's actions and let both of the best placed clubs compete in the play off.

Why would you ban EK?

[welshbairn]

1 minute ago, To B or not B said:

The point is that they don’t have the license at the start of the play-offs. What if they get to May 15th and they still don’t get awarded it, where does that leave the play-offs.

The playoffs were ruled out for them when they didn't get their application in for March 31st. The rest is just different officials from the SFA and SPFL talking to Buckie without checking what's going on between them.

[jaggyness]

8 hours ago, Slabs said:

It is / was an idea that the SFA have made a complete hash of since its conception 

Hate to jump in on the SFA bashing here but my understanding is that it's the spfl that require this license criteria. Not the SFA. Sure they set the standards for the criteria and assess a request but nowhere do they dictate they are required for league 2 access

[searchers1963]

1 hour ago, welshbairn said:

The playoffs were ruled out for them when they didn't get their application in for March 31st. The rest is just different officials from the SFA and SPFL talking to Buckie without checking what's going on between them.

I get the impression buckie thought they could drag it out until 15th May. Where sfa were looking for evidence that they were working towards it and they haven't done it

[Rhys McCabe Hype Train]

Wee brown envelopes kicking about Hampden with a “Black Rooster” stamp on it imo.

[searchers1963]

31 minutes ago, Rhys McCabe Hype Train said:

Wee brown envelopes kicking about Hampden with a “Black Rooster” stamp on it imo.

Or buckie just didn't do what they should have 

[Footballfirst]

Now a further statement by the Buckie club president.

“As your club president it is not only my responsibility, but my duty to inform you of the facts / circumstances that resulted in the decision made yesterday by the SFA. I am personally gutted for our fantastic management team and our fantastic players, who all did so much to make us all proud, and to all of you , our fantastic and loyal supporters.

The statement issued by the SFA yesterday indicates that we did not reply to their requests. We have in fact been actively preparing for a Bronze Licence since late last year when it was clear that was the requirement from the SPFL.

I will state straight away that we did in fact miss the cut off date for the “period of grace “ from the SPFL. We have to accept that and categorise as an error never to be repeated. However earlier this week we were asked to submit a request for this to the SPFL, which we did straight away. Why did they request this ?

On the licencing side ( SFA ) I had a Teams meeting with the SFA Licencing Committee at Hampden on Wednesday to discuss the 4 applications for derogation that we had previously submitted. We were granted 3 of those derogations, the Floodlights, The Safety Officer and the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. The Medical Return was deferred to the next meeting due on the 15th of May.

We have been unable to complete / submit our Medical Return because we are still trying to engage the services of a Doctor to attend all of our home games , this is a requirement for Bronze Level. This is currently our stumbling block and I believe the reason for our failure to be granted a Bronze Licence.

I have to stress that during ALL the dialogue between the club, the SPFL and the SFA, there was never any mention of the pending disaster that unfolded last night. I received the e-mail last night at 5 o’clock, informing us that we would not be taking part in the Pyramid Playoffs. The rest, as they say is history.

On a personal note I can only hope the above statement of fact clarifies the clubs current status as regards the licencing procedures and the efforts we have put into gaining a Bronze Licence. We felt we were in a good position , but unfortunately we were off the mark there.

I would like to finish this by saying that the board, committee and management team will continue to pursue the Bronze Licence, do our utmost to keep our management team and players together, and fight ( as we did this season ) for the title again next season.

We owe this to every one of you at Buckie Thistle Football Club.”

[Cowdenleith]

I don’t know how I feel about this, there’s been a mental stooshie the last 24 hours, it’s all gone bonkers in tier 5, and to my knowledge no one has blamed Cowdenbeath yet. Strange times we are living in.

[Spyro]

30 minutes ago, Cowdenleith said:

I don’t know how I feel about this, there’s been a mental stooshie the last 24 hours, it’s all gone bonkers in tier 5, and to my knowledge no one has blamed Cowdenbeath yet. Strange times we are living in.

Good to see you're over it now and still don't think about it every day