Spfl trust trophy

[foreverarover]

As fans we wish to see teams who have had successful seasons to be rewarded for thier efforts. The coming seasons SPFL trust trophy have "invited" 6 teams from the lowland league to play. This has caused much angst to 4 of the clubs who finished higher in the league. I know that it's little to clubs in the championship but it is completely wrong on all levels. The SPFL need to have the senior clubs boycotting it and refusing to play until they reward clubs on merit. 

 

https://forum.pieandbovril.com/topic/291814-spfl-trust-trophy/?do=findComment&comment=16509476

[One off poster]

21 minutes ago, foreverarover said:

As fans we wish to see teams who have had successful seasons to be rewarded for thier efforts. The coming seasons SPFL trust trophy have "invited" 6 teams from the lowland league to play. This has caused much angst to 4 of the clubs who finished higher in the league. I know that it's little to clubs in the championship but it is completely wrong on all levels. The SPFL need to have the senior clubs boycotting it and refusing to play until they reward clubs on merit. 

 

https://forum.pieandbovril.com/topic/291814-spfl-trust-trophy/?do=findComment&comment=16509476

I agree this is completelywrong, but if a boycott is the immediate response to every stupid and unfair thing the SPFL does then we would barely ever get to see our teams play.

[Otis Blue]

It is absolutely nuts, but then whenever has the SPFL been a meritocracy?  Since its inception It's always been rigged in favour of the "elite" clubs.

The way to resolve this is surely for the 30 diddy clubs to grow a collective pair and impress their consolidated membership view on the SPFL blazers - as Falkirk, Queens etc did recently regarding the mandation of grass pitches for the top league.  It would of course fail because the blazers are immune to the concepts of embarrassment or shame.

[AlbionMan]

All that is needed is to simplify the trophy to a quick fire knock out with 32 clubs - tiers 2, 3 and 4 plus HL & LL champions. We’ve got rid of the non Scottish clubs, just send ‘B’ teams the same way and off we go.

[Otis Blue]

On 01/06/2024 at 09:29, AlbionMan said:

All that is needed is to simplify the trophy to a quick fire knock out with 32 clubs - tiers 2, 3 and 4 plus HL & LL champions. We’ve got rid of the non Scottish clubs, just send ‘B’ teams the same way and off we go.

Works for me ...

[George Parr]

On 01/06/2024 at 09:29, AlbionMan said:

All that is needed is to simplify the trophy to a quick fire knock out with 32 clubs - tiers 2, 3 and 4 plus HL & LL champions. We’ve got rid of the non Scottish clubs, just send ‘B’ teams the same way and off we go.

Aye, this, or a 64 club knockout that includes all the Highland and Lowland league teams (minus Celtic/Hearts Bs).

 

[ecto]

On 01/06/2024 at 11:29, AlbionMan said:

All that is needed is to simplify the trophy to a quick fire knock out with 32 clubs - tiers 2, 3 and 4 plus HL & LL champions. We’ve got rid of the non Scottish clubs, just send ‘B’ teams the same way and off we go.

Or alternatively, we put it out of its misery 

[Otis Blue]

1 hour ago, ecto said:

Or alternatively, we put it out of its misery 

So ... you'll be fine then with the opportunity of winning the square root of sweet FA each season ... apart from the very occasional 3rd or 4th tier title that is ...?

[ecto]

1 hour ago, Otis Blue said:

So ... you'll be fine then with the opportunity of winning the square root of sweet FA each season ... apart from the very occasional 3rd or 4th tier title that is ...?

Yes, it’s a competition too many

[Otis Blue]

1 hour ago, ecto said:

Yes, it’s a competition too many

Fine, if that's your view ... personally, I've been able to watch my team in 4 Diddy Cup finals, 2 of them with 10,000 crowds and 2 wins - all great days out.  Yes, we also got to a Big Cup final taking 17,000 to Hampden but that was a once in a lifetime shot, never to be repeated.  I know a lot of Queens fans disagree with me on this but I like a shot at a winnable trophy now and then, as opposed to endless mediocrity.

[ExiledLichtie]

I got really annoyed that we didn't take it seriously when we were in the championship, I would absolutely love Arbroath to win a national trophy, and this cup the best chance.  It annoys me that its been tarnished by B team shite.

[ecto]

2 hours ago, Otis Blue said:

Fine, if that's your view ... personally, I've been able to watch my team in 4 Diddy Cup finals, 2 of them with 10,000 crowds and 2 wins - all great days out.  Yes, we also got to a Big Cup final taking 17,000 to Hampden but that was a once in a lifetime shot, never to be repeated.  I know a lot of Queens fans disagree with me on this but I like a shot at a winnable trophy now and then, as opposed to endless mediocrity.

Am pleased for you, haven’t attended one of these ties, for years, won’t this season

[Otis Blue]

53 minutes ago, ecto said:

Am pleased for you, haven’t attended one of these ties, for years, won’t this season

I know I'll not convince you otherwise but, you do know that the prize money has been substantially increased next season with the winner receiving £100k (a 100% increase on last season) and an overall total prize fund of £800k (a 60% increase) being distributed among the clubs, aye?  Income not to be sniffed at for clubs at our level, so I think that a few clubs will be taking this quite seriously this season.

[RedLichtie86]

14 minutes ago, Otis Blue said:

I know I'll not convince you otherwise but, you do know that the prize money has been substantially increased next season with the winner receiving £100k (a 100% increase on last season) and an overall total prize fund of £800k (a 60% increase) being distributed among the clubs, aye?  Income not to be sniffed at for clubs at our level, so I think that a few clubs will be taking this quite seriously this season.

The Challenge Cup was reformatted for the simple purpose of normalizing SPFL clubs playing against Colt teams so that they could be introduced to the pyramid (see the yearly articles of SPFL clubs set to vote for Celtic/Rangers Colts to be added to a 12 team L2 & the failed attempt to railroad in a 10 team Conference league the other season there) at a later date.

Obvioisly there was a lot of hostility to that idea so with some classic misdirection they added the Non Scottish teams so fans can salivate over having a 'European' adventure like the big clubs. And for the most part fans lapped it up and completely missed what was happening.

Now that the 'European' games are gone they need to offer something else to distract fans. A bigger prize pot. Clubs may see some extra cash in their pockets but if that cash is available then clubs in the LL and HL would be better off with it rather than it heading back to the Colt teams. And there are still plenty of grounds in the LL/HL that folk would love to visit as its very seldom that SPFL clubs get drawn away to one.

[Otis Blue]

16 minutes ago, RedLichtie86 said:

The Challenge Cup was reformatted for the simple purpose of normalizing SPFL clubs playing against Colt teams so that they could be introduced to the pyramid (see the yearly articles of SPFL clubs set to vote for Celtic/Rangers Colts to be added to a 12 team L2 & the failed attempt to railroad in a 10 team Conference league the other season there) at a later date.

Obvioisly there was a lot of hostility to that idea so with some classic misdirection they added the Non Scottish teams so fans can salivate over having a 'European' adventure like the big clubs. And for the most part fans lapped it up and completely missed what was happening.

Now that the 'European' games are gone they need to offer something else to distract fans. A bigger prize pot. Clubs may see some extra cash in their pockets but if that cash is available then clubs in the LL and HL would be better off with it rather than it heading back to the Colt teams. And there are still plenty of grounds in the LL/HL that folk would love to visit as its very seldom that SPFL clubs get drawn away to one.

Yep, I'm no fan of having the Colt teams in the competition and would sooner see them  binned.  That said, I think it is a worthwhile competition for us Diddy teams.  The blazers who govern our leagues have pretty well installed an almost perfect set of barriers to prevent the Diddy sides gaining access to the promised land of the top league.  Hence, our only feasible objectives are to win either of L1 or L2 or to progress reasonably deep in the Big Cup or the League Cup.  At least the Diddy Cup gives us a reasonable chance of silverware in a season, and it now comes with some reasonable prize money.  I'm not saying its perfect ...

[ecto]

1 hour ago, Otis Blue said:

I know I'll not convince you otherwise but, you do know that the prize money has been substantially increased next season with the winner receiving £100k (a 100% increase on last season) and an overall total prize fund of £800k (a 60% increase) being distributed among the clubs, aye?  Income not to be sniffed at for clubs at our level, so I think that a few clubs will be taking this quite seriously this season.

I’ll reserve judgement, it just gets in the way

[HibeeJibee]

Especially due to the B sides, it's reputation among fans has been in the doldrums for years - latterly manifested in many very poor crowds in its early stages - but more prizemoney won't make jot of a difference there.

Resting players also become widespread in early rounds and don't see managers reversing this trend - they've now also moved QFs + SFs to midweek which won't help.

[Otis Blue]

2 hours ago, HibeeJibee said:

Especially due to the B sides, it's reputation among fans has been in the doldrums for years - latterly manifested in many very poor crowds in its early stages - but more prizemoney won't make jot of a difference there.

Resting players also become widespread in early rounds and don't see managers reversing this trend - they've now also moved QFs + SFs to midweek which won't help.

Yeah, fully agree about the B teams - but when do the administrators of our game ever listen to the wishes of the fans?  Well, certainly not in Scotland, and certainly they don't listen to fans of the Diddy clubs that's for sure.

There's no doubt that some clubs don't take the tournament seriously - although that tends to change when they start to approach the business end of the tournament.

Not sure how recently the SFs were moved to midweek but I certainly attended a SF in Paisley at the old Love Street on a midweek night with a decent crowd and to this day it remains one of the best games I've witnessed with two sides going flat out for the win that night (ending in a 5-3 win for Queens) and it was a joy to watch.

I'm pretty sure I'm in a minority on here with these views, but most of us at Diddy club level spend anything up to 50 odd years watching our clubs win the square root of feck all, and along comes a chance of a national competition that is achievable and we've no time for it.  Maybe deep down us Scots are indeed masochists after all.

[Sergeant Wilson]

The prize fund is just a bribe to allow reserve teams in. It's also testing the water to establish how much would be demanded to let them in the league structure.

[Ranaldo Bairn]

21 hours ago, Otis Blue said:

Yeah, fully agree about the B teams - but when do the administrators of our game ever listen to the wishes of the fans?  Well, certainly not in Scotland, and certainly they don't listen to fans of the Diddy clubs that's for sure.

There's no doubt that some clubs don't take the tournament seriously - although that tends to change when they start to approach the business end of the tournament.

Not sure how recently the SFs were moved to midweek but I certainly attended a SF in Paisley at the old Love Street on a midweek night with a decent crowd and to this day it remains one of the best games I've witnessed with two sides going flat out for the win that night (ending in a 5-3 win for Queens) and it was a joy to watch.

I'm pretty sure I'm in a minority on here with these views, but most of us at Diddy club level spend anything up to 50 odd years watching our clubs win the square root of feck all, and along comes a chance of a national competition that is achievable and we've no time for it.  Maybe deep down us Scots are indeed masochists after all.

Yep. The first of our 4 (four) triumphs, we had sensational victories over Dunfermline and Meadowbank under the lights.

I love the Challenge Cup, and even though it has smeared shite on its own face by admitting the B teams, I still try and get to games and am desperate for us to win it for a 5th (fifth) time.