Our Competitive League

[Kapowzer]

After the world cup, I was looking forward to domestic football, curtailed for a few teams by the cold snap.

However, tonight I went onto the BBC website and had a bit of an epiphany, it has always been a factor but I don't think it ever hit like it did tonight. So here's the current league table. If Hearts win their game in hand they are ONLY 7 wins behind the league leaders with 17 games played. That's just wild. I'm just sapped for enthusiasm for an annual procession that many of us outside the OF go through the motions for. The mock excitement of 2nd Qualifying stage or the Conference League, or we can get to a quarter, ideally a semi of a cup before meeting the OF are merely scraps to given an illusion of competition and get people out their beds.

Is this what we've accepted as a nation as the way it will be in perpetuity? If so it's just scunnering. the SPFL must be regarded as a joke but any less so than La Liga or Ligue 1?

This isn't a bash the OF, they've exploited their particular positions in our society and done what any business would do. Hoover up the best talent, stifle competition and generate as much money as they can. Their fans have been conditioned into winning week in and out domestically but claim they need more competition at home to both attract better players and give them a better chance in Europe. Of course it is a complex one 150 years into our game, it should have been addressed way before now, are we beyond anyone actually looking to do anything for the greater good and instead building silos around what they currently have?

However, I'll never understand the OF fans with their 20x financial advantage celebrating and rubbing their hands with glee at slotting away Livingston or Motherwell like it's an achievement. I'm sure many of them play FIFA as Real Madrid vs Queens Park, cheat codes, hacks, request Mulligans when playing golf or get off on nutmegging a toddler in the back garden at a family BBQ. I could understand it more maybe 30 years ago before the rampant commercialism of the game overtook the closer financial parity that existed but now our league in particular has mirrored the wealth gap in our society. Their dominance has always been there due to the tribal over geographic nature of their followings but in the past a well put together team could challenge their dominance.

So, how exactly do we turn our league into something competitive rather than the charade and precession that is essentially F1? They at least introduced a spending cap and have started some initiatives to make it more of a sport.

[kennie makevin]

We do not have a top flight 'league competition' in any meaningful sense. There is no achievement in 'winning' it. I have no feelings other than contempt for the Old Firm and all that goes with them but for their sake, never mind anyone else, we need to kick them out of Scottish football and kick them out now ! After that we find our level, get to enjoy a proper league and realise that life without glory hunting bigots is a life worth living.  

[Dons_1988]

Feels like there’s about 30 threads on this, it’s been covered many times. 

The answer starts and ends with the share of resources, predominantly money. This is the fact of the matter. 

It will not change because the people running the game don’t see this as a problem, in fact it suits the business model. 

[Sergeant Wilson]

5 hours ago, Kapowzer said:

After the world cup, I was looking forward to domestic football, curtailed for a few teams by the cold snap.

However, tonight I went onto the BBC website and had a bit of an epiphany, it has always been a factor but I don't think it ever hit like it did tonight. So here's the current league table. If Hearts win their game in hand they are ONLY 7 wins behind the league leaders with 17 games played. That's just wild. I'm just sapped for enthusiasm for an annual procession that many of us outside the OF go through the motions for. The mock excitement of 2nd Qualifying stage or the Conference League, or we can get to a quarter, ideally a semi of a cup before meeting the OF are merely scraps to given an illusion of competition and get people out their beds.

Is this what we've accepted as a nation as the way it will be in perpetuity? If so it's just scunnering. the SPFL must be regarded as a joke but any less so than La Liga or Ligue 1?

This isn't a bash the OF, they've exploited their particular positions in our society and done what any business would do. Hoover up the best talent, stifle competition and generate as much money as they can. Their fans have been conditioned into winning week in and out domestically but claim they need more competition at home to both attract better players and give them a better chance in Europe. Of course it is a complex one 150 years into our game, it should have been addressed way before now, are we beyond anyone actually looking to do anything for the greater good and instead building silos around what they currently have?

However, I'll never understand the OF fans with their 20x financial advantage celebrating and rubbing their hands with glee at slotting away Livingston or Motherwell like it's an achievement. I'm sure many of them play FIFA as Real Madrid vs Queens Park, cheat codes, hacks, request Mulligans when playing golf or get off on nutmegging a toddler in the back garden at a family BBQ. I could understand it more maybe 30 years ago before the rampant commercialism of the game overtook the closer financial parity that existed but now our league in particular has mirrored the wealth gap in our society. Their dominance has always been there due to the tribal over geographic nature of their followings but in the past a well put together team could challenge their dominance.

So, how exactly do we turn our league into something competitive rather than the charade and precession that is essentially F1? They at least introduced a spending cap and have started some initiatives to make it more of a sport.

Did you just learn to count?

[RandomGuy.]

31 minutes ago, kennie makevin said:

We do not have a top flight 'league competition' in any meaningful sense. There is no achievement in 'winning' it. I have no feelings other than contempt for the Old Firm and all that goes with them but for their sake, never mind anyone else, we need to kick them out of Scottish football and kick them out now ! After that we find our level, get to enjoy a proper league and realise that life without glory hunting bigots is a life worth living.  

I imagine theyd just be replaced by whoever happened to win the first title tbh.

Theyd instantly have a huge financial advantage over everyone due to CL qualification and could build from there.

They wouldnt have the same revenue from attendances etc., but the ~£20m+, and if its Hearts then you have millions on top of that due to Anderson and the FOH, puts you well beyond anyone else.

[Dundee Hibernian]

Unfortunately, rather than the disparities being addressed, over the years more layers are added to the charade to ensure the OF continue and reinforce the duopoly. 

Removal of gate sharing, media bias and collusion, referee selection, Glasgow based cup semis, club/company Ibrox mirage, Colt/B-sides creeping into system, VAR.

Even when one side of the OF is markedly worse than the other, steps are taken to keep the vision of ‘healthy competition’ between the two alive.

[KirkieRR]

Thing is, competitive leagues don't necessarily attract supporters. WInning every week DOES attract supporters. Which is why the Evils Twins each attract far more than the entire Championship - which IS a breathtakingly competitive league.

 

There are umpteen threads on how to fix this. We know how to fix it. But it'll never happen.

[tree house tam]

Tactical nuclear bomb on Glasgow,  that'll sort it and the world would be a far better place.

[Jimmain]

19 minutes ago, KirkieRR said:

There are umpteen threads on how to fix this. We know how to fix it. But it'll never happen.

Aye pretty much. We're destined to live out the charade for ever more unfortunately until something bizarre changes like a European League which takes the OF away, or they go to England; they would, quite rightly, never have them of course. More's the pity.

The SFA are quite happy with how the situation is playing out, and see them as their geese laying the golden egg, and f**k the harm their bigot shit causes and everyone else frankly...

Should the miracle of them leaving ever occur, you can bet your bottom bawbee the high heidyins would push for RanTic 'B' teams in our League, 'as a massive selling point' or some pish...and they would get it.

We know they would.

[DA Baracus]

https://www.pieandbovril.com/forum/index.php?/topic/284369-how-do-you-solve-a-problem-like-the-scottish-premiership/#comments

 

[Squonk]

Part of the problem is that the SFA and SPFL that we blame for everything are actually the clubs, including your's and mine.

Every decision supposedly made 'for the good of Scottish football' isn't autocratically enforced by Ian Maxwell or Neil Doncaster, or even their respective boards, but in consultation with our clubs. Our clubs are willing to accept the current duopoly in perpetuity in return for crumbs off the table.

The clearest evidence of that came when Rangers went into liquidation and died, leading the other clubs to shart their pants at the prospect of lost broadcasting and other commercial contracts.

All our clubs, including Celtic, were complicit in the drafting of a five way agreement that was concocted to pretend that Rangers had only undergone a change of ownership, rather than dying exactly the same death of liquidation as Third Lanark, amongst others, as we all know they did.

There is no obvious solution to the ongoing 37 year-old duopoly but I am slightly surprised that more clubs don't speculate to accumulate by purchasing world cup stars they can't really afford from far and wide, knowing that if the gamble doesn't pay off, only a meaningless, expendable, replaceable operating company will be sacrificed, not the ethereal, intangible, metaphysical, immortal football club.

Edited December 22, 2022 by Squonk

[KirkieRR]

1 hour ago, tree house tam said:

Tactical nuclear bomb on Glasgow,  that'll sort it and the world would be a far better place.

No it wouldn't. Have you ever been in Perth Station on the morning of days when your club are at home? Try it and count the Evil Twins fans heading for their games, and multiply it appropriately to factor in those going by car or bus. They're everywhere.

[Mark Connolly]

There's only 13 points covering the 10 clubs we care about. That's pretty exciting

[hk blues]

1 hour ago, KirkieRR said:

There are umpteen threads on how to fix this. We know how to fix it. But it'll never happen.

If you mean emptying the OF then, as mentioned above, we will just end up with another duopoly, or worse, monopoly, due to the money involved in European qualification.  There just isn't enough money in the game in Scotland to ensure 6 or 7 teams could have a fair shot at the title consistently.  

We're stuck with a league which is uncompetitive in terms of the title.

[Charles Stiles]

28 minutes ago, Squonk said:

Part of the problem is that the SFA and SPFL that we blame for everything are actually the clubs, including your's and mine.

Every decision supposedly made 'for the good of Scottish football' isn't autocratically enforced by Ian Maxwell or Neil Doncaster, or even their respective boards, but in consultation with our clubs. Our clubs are willing to accept the current duopoly in perpetuity in return for crumbs off the table.

The clearest evidence of that came when Rangers went into liquidation and died, leading the other clubs to shart their pants at the prospect of lost broadcasting and other commercial contracts.

All our clubs, including Celtic, were complicit in the drafting of a five way agreement that was concocted to pretend that Rangers had only undergone a change of ownership, rather than dying exactly the same death of liquidation as Third Lanark, amongst others, as we all know they did.

There is no obvious solution to the ongoing 37 year-old duopoly

In a nutshell.  The non-Old Firm clubs are totally to blame and agreeing to the Sky Old Firm bigot recruitment campaigns shows they have absolutely no intention of changing. The game will continue to regress but all that matters is the crumbs from the Old Firm table while they try to suggest otherwise. The'yve got what they wished for but the fans most certainly haven't. 

[Grangemouth Bairn]

13 minutes ago, hk blues said:

If you mean emptying the OF then, as mentioned above, we will just end up with another duopoly, or worse, monopoly, due to the money involved in European qualification.  There just isn't enough money in the game in Scotland to ensure 6 or 7 teams could have a fair shot at the title consistently.  

We're stuck with a league which is uncompetitive in terms of the title.

I think you are being very generous to Rangers in calling our present a duopoly tbh. Of the last 33 domestic trophies on offer, Celtic have won 21 and have the biggest transfer budget by a country mile. What we have just now is a monopoly as Celtic are totally and utterly dominant.

I’m not sure what the answer is tbh. Celtic are currently dominant with a coach in Postecoglu that lost 22 games across his last 2 seasons in the J League and the league has also been won by Gerrard and Lennon in the 3 seasons previous to this so it’s not as if Celtic, or indeed Rangers are hiring elite coaches. They just have more money.

I’d be very surprised if over the next 5 seasons Celtic don’t win it and Rangers don’t finish 2nd every year.

[Charles Stiles]

25 minutes ago, hk blues said:

If you mean emptying the OF then, as mentioned above, we will just end up with another duopoly, or worse, monopoly, due to the money involved in European qualification.  There just isn't enough money in the game in Scotland to ensure 6 or 7 teams could have a fair shot at the title consistently.  

We're stuck with a league which is uncompetitive in terms of the title.

It makes absolutely no difference if it's duopoly or a monopoly but the latter would be better instead of worse. At least with only one club dominant it allows others to make finals, win more prize money and it's fewer games you're subjected to the sectarian onslaught the suits ignore. 

[velo army]

Two things have been introduced to the game that are further nails in the coffin of competitiveness. Allowing 5 subs and adding on a massive amount of injury time at the end. Now if Celtic or Rangers are getting beat at 60 or 70 minutes I know that they'll just swap out half their team and the other team have less chance of hanging on to a lead as the game goes to an extra 10-13 minutes of time.

 

[invergowrie arab]

When is the report commissioned by the "Big 6" due?

[Kapowzer]

4 hours ago, tree house tam said:

Tactical nuclear bomb on Glasgow,  that'll sort it and the world would be a far better place.

“Hey Putin, Alfredo Moleros thinks you’re a baldy p***k”

Any fallout would decimate Paisley, Motherwell, Hamilton, Coatbridge and probably Greenock. Not much different to the status quo then.

Edited December 22, 2022 by Kapowzer