National Conference League

[Salvo Montalbano]

3 hours ago, Pyramid Watcher said:

I didn’t say It did, I refer you back to the first sentence in your post - “What does the SFA have to do with leagues”, I then refer you to article 18.1. Which is the pertinent point to which I was referring.

Yes, "with the consent of". Not "by". The SFA don't run any leagues, they don't decide anything about the leagues, they just allow the leagues to operate. 

[Burnieman]

1 hour ago, Salvo Montalbano said:

Yes, "with the consent of". Not "by". The SFA don't run any leagues, they don't decide anything about the leagues, they just allow the leagues to operate. 

It's no different to the WoSFL which had to have its rules approved by the SFA and the members vote it into existence.

I believe the intention is that the SPFL administer the Conference for 5 years, so presumably they present it's rules to the SFA for approval and the members vote it into existence (or not as the case may be).

I can't see how the SFA can just shove this through with no vote at all, by anyone.

[Pyramid Watcher]

3 hours ago, Salvo Montalbano said:

Yes, "with the consent of". Not "by". The SFA don't run any leagues, they don't decide anything about the leagues, they just allow the leagues to operate. 

They have to pass all the league rules, I would say that is a fairly important part in deciding stuff about the league?

[Salvo Montalbano]

5 hours ago, Pyramid Watcher said:

They have to pass all the league rules, I would say that is a fairly important part in deciding stuff about the league?

So by that rationale FIFA are involved in league football?

[Sparticus]

We cannot let Hearts off free here.

They are as bad and sucking up to the old firm for there own gain.

Clearly Hearts dont give a whatever about sporting integrity or the state of Scottish football but hey, we knew that already didnt we.

[Guest]

What has happened to the PWG. We were lead to believe this was going to be an on going group looking at all the different parts and aspirations of the pyramid. An inclusive group with input from all interested parties.

Why is Scottish Football run like some wee island dictatorship out of the Expendables?

Football should belong to us all, we all have a vested interest at some point. Whether a fan, a player, a coach, a sponsor, a committee, an owner.

What we have is these no names at Hampden meeting behind closed doors cooking up some awful feckin recipes, that are almost always received with hostility.

There are 42 clubs in the SPFL with a further 200 approximately in the Tiers below. 

These people are supposed to work for the good of them all. Instead it appears to us outsiders that 2 clubs are calling the shots.

Obviously you can't have 2 determining what is best for all. There are many reasons for this.

Question: Do we have too many separate leagues all pulling in different directions with their own agenda to push?

Is the alternative of one overall governing body the answer?

Probably not. So what is the solution?

Have a governmental office with responsibility for keeping these self serving sycophants in check.

That probably wouldn't work either.

I'm just an ordinary fan with no specific interest in one club. So can take a step back. What do I see.

The usual constant bickering and accusations. What is needed is a united front from Tier 1 to Tier 10.

Is no to b teams and conference league the first step? Only if clubs, fans, sponsors, all interested parties tell the blazers to stop trying to run our game for the few and instead run it for all.

To finish a proper all encompassing review from top to bottom is required. This tinkering with whatever to suit a few is clearly not working.

That's me had my say.

Back to the horses.

Edited May 3, 2023 by HorseyGhirl

[Pyramid Watcher]

5 hours ago, Salvo Montalbano said:

So by that rationale FIFA are involved in league football?

Here is the the thing, The SFA, as the governing body for this country, have to pass the LL and other league’s rule changes every season, without that permission the league won’t function properly, I’m not sure I can be any clearer than that.

Anyway, Gianni Infantino is a regular down at Alliance Park, he was at a game v Dalbeattie this season, he loves the LL apparently.

Edited May 3, 2023 by Pyramid Watcher

[Salvo Montalbano]

2 hours ago, Pyramid Watcher said:

Here is the the thing, The SFA, as the governing body for this country, have to pass the LL and other league’s rule changes every season, without that permission the league won’t function properly, I’m not sure I can be any clearer than that.

Anyway, Gianni Infantino is a regular down at Alliance Park, he was at a game v Dalbeattie this season, he loves the LL apparently.

Yes, but the SFA don't specify the rules. They could say "you need to have a 16 team league" or "you need to have 3-up and 3-down" or whatever and the SPFL can simply say "nah".  The SFA can set up whichever league it wants, but without the leagues (plural) agreement, it can't function - no teams, no promotion, no relegation. As the SFA found out the hard way with the West Juniors "done deal" stuff in the past, they can't just railroad something through, as much as Ian Murray or anyone else thinks they can. 

And you joke about Infantino, but he was recently at Millwall and there's not exactly a shortage of top class stadia and teams in London he could have visited. 

[invergowrie arab]

3 hours ago, Pyramid Watcher said:

Here is the the thing, The SFA, as the governing body for this country, have to pass the LL and other league’s rule changes every season, without that permission the league won’t function properly, I’m not sure I can be any clearer than that.

Which has got f**k all to do with any point anyone was making.

The SFA can not unilaterally establish a league and force three other league bodies to accept promotion/relegation to/from it short of threatening to withdraw the co-operation of the SFA in the operation of those leagues.

[Pyramid Watcher]

7 minutes ago, invergowrie arab said:

Which has got f**k all to do with any point anyone was making.

The SFA can not unilaterally establish a league and force three other league bodies to accept promotion/relegation to/from it short of threatening to withdraw the co-operation of the SFA in the operation of those leagues.

Have you read the conversation to which this post relates?

[Sparticus]

I thought that the SFA and SPFL were just the collection of clubs who are members  and any major change such as league structure would have to be voted on by all the clubs?

[vikingTON]

Quote

 

Members,

In June the club [Greenock Morton Football Club] will be required to vote on a proposal put forward by the Pyramid Working Group. 

As part of the ongoing work to improve our relationship with our fans as a community owned football club, we want to get your views ahead of the vote the club has to undertake.

The vote will take place on whether a new Conference League should be set up at tier 5 within the Scottish football pyramid. The information the club has on this and is able to share can be found summarised below:

• The new Conference League would replace the Highland and Lowland Leagues at tier 5 of the Scottish football pyramid

• The new Conference League could potentially be a division of 10 or 12 teams

• B teams are being invited to take part, alongside a selection of sides from the Highland and/or Lowland League, should they be interested

• The clubs that enter B teams will be required to pay a fee to enter, which will create the prize money for the new league

• B teams would not be eligible for promotion or relegation from this league

There hasn't yet been any information shared on whether the team that wins the league, or highest team that is eligible for promotion would be automatically promoted or whether they would then be required to playoff against team 42 in the SPFL to gain promotion

Please click the link below to give us your views on the matter.

 

I fully expect the consultation with MCT members to result in the club voting to launch this shan proposal into the sea.

[VodkaTap]

We have constantly been told that any change to the HL/LL/club 42 playoff required the agreement of the 4 parties involved. Namely SFA, SPFL, HL, LL.

So I would presume that if the HL or LL did not accept any change, how could a conference playoff be introduced ??

[welshbairn]

North Caley President is not impressed.

Quote

North Caledonian League president says proposed Scottish Conference League threatens to rip out 'heart and soul' of lower divisions

THE lower leagues of Scottish football face having their heart and soul being ripped out if the proposed Scottish Conference League involving Premiership colts teams gets the go-ahead.

That is the view of North Caledonian Football Association president Iain Whitehead who fears the impact of a new tier five division will have on competitions at levels below.

SPFL clubs are set to vote on the proposals at the next SFA AGM, which if approved, would see teams from the Highland League and Lowland League, along with colts teams from Aberdeen, Celtic, Hearts and Rangers, compete in a new 10-team division.

The division would sit below League Two and relegate both the Highland League and Lowland League into tier six level and the North Caledonian League into tier seven level.

The plans have been created by the Scottish Pyramid Working Group and if successful would be introduced for the 2024/25 season.

Giving his own views, Whitehead, who lives in Helmsdale, is against the Scottish Conference being established saying no thought has been given to leagues below League Two.

“You look at the way it is being done and there are a lot of things that are not right about this,” said Whitehead.

“We didn’t hear about this at all until being asked to go to a pyramid working group meeting last week and that is the first we heard of it.

“It appears to me that everything has been discussed and decided upon whether we like it or not, with a total disregard to our level of football.

“If they want to go ahead with it, they should at least allow us to give our point of view on it.

"I feel that they have disregarded any input from us and we should get that. The majority of football minded people would have the same opinion on the matter.”

Whitehead thinks if Premiership clubs want to have colts teams playing at senior level, the SPFL leagues should be reconfigured without impacting the lower divisions in the pyramid system.

“It is not just about being in tier five, six or seven, this says more about the top end of the game.

"If they are that desperate to have B teams playing, can they not just rejig the SPFL leagues instead of demolishing the divisions below?

"I think the Scottish Conference will pull out the heart and soul of the Highland League as they will lose a number of teams just to boost the conference league.

“Maybe teams in the Highland League want to go up and that is fair enough.

“But it is unfair there is this carrot dangled with Premiership teams involved offering £100,000 each over the course of five seasons to create the Scottish Conference.

“It sounds like the European Super League, on a completely different scale, but it is the same idea.

“If they saw the bigger picture, two years ago they would have put in Celtic and Rangers into the West of Scotland League rather than Lowland League and work their way up. I don’t think people would have had a problem with that.

Whitehead said the North Caledonian Football Association are preparing to put out an official statement on the issue this week.

Nairn County have also put out a statement objecting to the plans and Whitehead said more clubs need to let their fans know where they stand.

He said: “It would be good to see more teams be like Nairn County and give their opinion on the matter.”

 

[welshbairn]

https://www.change.org/p/vote-against-the-unjust-conference-league-at-the-scottish-football-association-agm

[Greenmachine]

48 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

North Caley President is not impressed.

 

Pretty much what I’ve heard.

They will just shove it through.

[welshbairn]

7 minutes ago, Greenmachine said:

Pretty much what I’ve heard.

They will just shove it through.

Who will? The SFA need a majority at their AGM, and it's very unclear where they'd get the votes from. I hope you're asking your own club WTF they're playing at.

Edited May 3, 2023 by welshbairn

[Greenmachine]

8 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

Who will? The SFA need a majority at their AGM, and it's very unclear where they'd get the votes from. I hope you're asking your own club WTF they're playing at.

I’d imagine they’ll already have enough support to get it through or they’d have ditched it.

The status quo with 1 relegation place from the LL is worse than the conference league option for clubs south of the Tay!

Edited May 3, 2023 by Greenmachine

[CityDave94]

Its interesting that much of the restructuring of the leagues including the speed in which the pyramid was set up happened post 2012 when Rangers died and the new club had to start at level 4 with no voting rights and Celtic had lost their vito buddy. It should never be forgotten that pre Rangers death the two arse cheeks were having secret meetings with the SFA without the knowledge of the other SPL clubs, the 10-2 vote in that league was there for a reason. One of the ideas put forward by the arsecheeks was to reduce the SPL by 2 clubs in what Doncaster talked up as a bigger slice of the cake for the other clubs. This decended into claims of bullying by some of the smaller clubs and the move failed. And now all that hard work while the arsecheeks where helpless is being undone by guess who? Saying this because fairness and integrity are nothing but words to these pair of c**ts.

Do not underestimate those two horrible clubs they will threaten and bully clubs into submission if they don't immediately get their own way, utter scum and the SFA will do what they are told. They dangle rotten carrots in front of clubs to buy their dependence, clubs who go for this have no integrity and should be on relegation from this stinking Conference be made to start again from the very bottom level of the West, East or where wherever just like a new club.

Warning for clubs that supported B teams and will naively believing having a Conference will be for the benefit of Scottish Football, prepare to be used and then shafted. Its your club that will be relegated down a level. Never forget Rangers once tried to remove clubs from the Scottish League in 1964,  one of those was Berwick Rangers another was Brechin City. As I said you will not get fairness and integrity from Rangers or Celtic, they don't give a f*** about non league football.

I wouldn't be surprised if both arsecheeks and Hearts are having secret meetings and conversations about B teams and how to get away from this 'ridiculous' guest team status, Rangers, like Celtic and Hearts should not be reduced to 'guest' status amongst a group of glorified pub outfits, it should be the other way around. They 'Karens' talking to the manager (SFA) and demanding that they are more important so should be considered first because they have more money and have friends high up and in media.

Hearts should be ashamed getting tarred with the same brush as those two.

 

 

[CityDave94]

11 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

Who will? The SFA need a majority at their AGM, and it's very unclear where they'd get the votes from. I hope you're asking your own club WTF they're playing at.

What is the majority required?

I've read talk of all it needs is a 51% in favour instead of the usual 75%

Not even considering keeping the current set up as an option.

Someone is stacking the decks or is this gaslighting?

I await for the bullying to start.