Scottish Football set for "drastic changes"?

[djh1878]

As you may or may not know, former First Minister of Scotland Henry McLeish (who is an ex-footballer himself) is currently leading a government and SFA backed review into the state of football in Scotland. His latest installment of the report is to be published by the end of the year, but little nuggets of information are beginning to leak out...

The latest revelation comes in the wake of McLeish's former club East Fife announcing ambitious plans to move to a new stadium. This news has shocked the club's fans, coming out of the blue and already seeming to be at an advanced stage, with plans already drawn up. The question is, why all of a sudden, when their current ground is of a decent standard (built as recently as 1998)?

The answer looks to be the re-emergence of SPL2. Club chairman Sid Columbine stated at the weekend that the plan is now "imminent", and could be in place as soon as the 2011/12 season to tie in with the anticipated 14 team SPL. Basically, the SPL2 would consist of 10 teams, and have stringent entry requirements - at least 3000 seats and such, trying to ensure the continued existance of historically full-time clubs like Airdrie, Clyde and Livingston while removing Cowdenbeath and others from the equation.

According to Columbine (interviewed on Radio Scotland AFAIK), the SFL would then retain Divisions 2 and 3 underneath, which would officially become "non-league", and relegation to a new regional Division 4 North/South level similar to down south would be introduced for clubs looking to work their way up the pyramid - expect Spartans and Cove Rangers to be among them.

So, why the move for East Fife? Well, this new stadium would meet these entry requirements, and it boils down to a simple choice for the club - stay at Bayview, build a new stand and be £500,000 in debt (with assets of £2m) or move to a new stadium with no debt & assets of £4.5m. The reason for such a difference? Turns out that their current home is on prime house development land, and they would be gifted the land for the new site by the housebuilder that wants the plot.

Logistically, the idea is that Scotland cannot support more than 24 full-time clubs, and this plan would allow those that are to gain more sponsorship money at the expense of smaller part-time outfits, while not excluding sides from progressing up the ladder to avoid boredom setting in. Irn-Bru would retain sponsorship of the SPL2, and the CIS Cup would essentially become the SPL Cup.

Thoughts? Can't decide whether I'm in favour of this particular approach...something badly needs to change, and I like the idea of integrating new sides into the league setup, but there may be a damaging monopoly set that makes it nigh on impossible for 2nd Division sides to survive when promoted to SPL2. Hmm...

 

[Chaz Sexington]

Very interesting. Cheers!

 

[Kris]

I often listen to the BBC Scotland football blogs, he was on there spouting about how he is bringing the federations closer together and that progress is being made.

How?

Where is the proof? The SPL and SFL are as distant as ever! We need one federation, having two is just destroying us.

SPL2? Yet another retarded idea! It will end up a disaster like the 12 team SPL idea *sigh*

I have said countless times on here, we are at a horrible crossroads where sides like Motherwell, St Mirren, Inverness, Kilmarnock etc have a small enough turnover as it is and require the money from playing Rangers and Celtic three/four times a season.

However this makes the league stale and boring.

We need to stop operating like England or trying to emulate England, Play Off’s for a league with ten teams? Stupid!

We should have a 16 team top flight, starting in mid July, make the most of the ‘good weather and better pitch conditions. Sure we are missing out on 8 league games, but we can then add in the winter break, preserving the pitches, avoiding embarrassment and gives players a chance to recharge batteries.

The next level down, again should be 16 teams, the champions are promoted and 2nd play 15th in the SPL to see who will play in the SPL. Two teams could be promoted and relegated again; some sort of format could be arranged so that sides such as Cove Rangers, Startans and Preston Athletic can come up.

To make up the additional fixtures, the league cup should be altered and made more interesting. Perhaps a group phase? Many other nations have applied this method.

Saying all of this, sounds great but it once again boils down to money.

 

[Chaz Sexington]

I often listen to the BBC Scotland football blogs, he was on there spouting about how he is bringing the federations closer together and that progress is being made.

How?

Where is the proof? The SPL and SFL are as distant as ever! We need one federation, having two is just destroying us.

SPL2? Yet another retarded idea! It will end up a disaster like the 12 team SPL idea *sigh*

I have said countless times on here, we are at a horrible crossroads where sides like Motherwell, St Mirren, Inverness, Kilmarnock etc have a small enough turnover as it is and require the money from playing Rangers and Celtic three/four times a season.

However this makes the league stale and boring.

We need to stop operating like England or trying to emulate England, Play Off’s for a league with ten teams? Stupid!

We should have a 16 team top flight, starting in mid July, make the most of the ‘good weather and better pitch conditions. Sure we are missing out on 8 league games, but we can then add in the winter break, preserving the pitches, avoiding embarrassment and gives players a chance to recharge batteries.

The next level down, again should be 16 teams, the champions are promoted and 2nd play 15th in the SPL to see who will play in the SPL. Two teams could be promoted and relegated again; some sort of format could be arranged so that sides such as Cove Rangers, Startans and Preston Athletic can come up.

To make up the additional fixtures, the league cup should be altered and made more interesting. Perhaps a group phase? Many other nations have applied this method.

Saying all of this, sounds great but it once again boils down to money.

I agree with everything but the season kick-off. April's fine. It's a lot more tempting to head out to watch a game in sunny spring!

 

[djh1878]

SPL2? Yet another retarded idea! It will end up a disaster like the 12 team SPL idea *sigh*

I have said countless times on here, we are at a horrible crossroads where sides like Motherwell, St Mirren, Inverness, Kilmarnock etc have a small enough turnover as it is and require the money from playing Rangers and Celtic three/four times a season.

However this makes the league stale and boring.

We need to stop operating like England or trying to emulate England, Play Off’s for a league with ten teams? Stupid!

We should have a 16 team top flight, starting in mid July, make the most of the ‘good weather and better pitch conditions. Sure we are missing out on 8 league games, but we can then add in the winter break, preserving the pitches, avoiding embarrassment and gives players a chance to recharge batteries.

The next level down, again should be 16 teams, the champions are promoted and 2nd play 15th in the SPL to see who will play in the SPL. Two teams could be promoted and relegated again; some sort of format could be arranged so that sides such as Cove Rangers, Startans and Preston Athletic can come up.

Like you, I'd love to see two levels of 16, but the arguement over facing the Old Firm 3/4 times a season will always win now. The one thing I disagree with, however, is the playoffs - while they are ridiculous in a 10 team league, they have resulted in big attendances and a bit of excitement towards the end of the year. They would have to be included in a 16 team setup anyway, to avoid the boredom of mid-table. Totally agree with the point about trying to emulate England though, we must try to do what suits us at the end of the day.

When I said that I wasn't sure what to make of it, I'm thinking of what is realistically possible. Knowing what the buffoons are capable of, this plan is maybe as good as we'll get. Mind you, it will almost definitely kill of clubs...possibly including the Clyde, which sways me against it!

Unfortunately, the different associations and greed of the SPL is here to stay.

 

[Nick.]

I think that the system suggested seems a little bit queer, and watered down.

I think the Scottish system should be like CvK's Scottish file, and 2 SPL's are a great idea. However, I think the current system needs improving. The smaller clubs don't get a chance to show themselves, which is ridiculous, considering that there are some really poor clubs that don't get near the play-offs season and season again in Division 3. The Highland League should be abolished, and a better regionally structured section of lower divisions, with the same relegation/promotion system as seen in some of the higher leagues.

Surely teams like Devronvale, Cove Rangers, Spartans, Preston Athletic and Edinburgh City are good enough to fight it out against teams like Elgin City, and East Stirlingshire. The leagues higher up in Scotland are failing because of the lack of growth, and something needs to be done to it, or their co-efficient will fall dramatically.

 

[Kris]

I think that the system suggested seems a little bit queer, and watered down.

I think the Scottish system should be like CvK's Scottish file, and 2 SPL's are a great idea. However, I think the current system needs improving. The smaller clubs don't get a chance to show themselves, which is ridiculous, considering that there are some really poor clubs that don't get near the play-offs season and season again in Division 3. The Highland League should be abolished, and a better regionally structured section of lower divisions, with the same relegation/promotion system as seen in some of the higher leagues.

Surely teams like Devronvale, Cove Rangers, Spartans, Preston Athletic and Edinburgh City are good enough to fight it out against teams like Elgin City, and East Stirlingshire. The leagues higher up in Scotland are failing because of the lack of growth, and something needs to be done to it, or their co-efficient will fall dramatically.

The problem with your point is that most of those clubs prefer to stay within there means. The highland league is not part of the SPL or SFL federations (I think).

Most of those sides are happy to continue in that format because it suits geographically. The truth is, most junior sides would destroy our lower league clubs. We have a terrible system that badly needs changing.

Who is CvK ? Do you have a link to the file, I always like checking out others idea’s.

I really wanted to make my own, but like most know got lazy and fluffed off someone else’s work, which in truth was a terrible DB anyway.