League Reconstruction In Scottish Football – Oh So Depressing

The honours of this world, what are they but puff, and emptiness, and peril of falling?

Augustine of Hippo

Football reorganisation in Scotland will come to the fore again today and then again later in the month

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20941213

Various SPL and SFL clubs sharing views on league reconstruction and now ready for the vote on what has been proposed

Recent briefs from both SPL Neil Doncaster and David Longmuir

Suggests the outcome of these discussions will be movement towards the convoluted SPL plan

Or should we call it the Gordon Smith plan

What ever

It is proposed to consist of 2 leagues x 12 and a third league of 18

So how does it work again?

After each team plays each other twice

the two leagues of 12 (premier and championship) will split into 3 mini leagues of 8

and play each other again x 2

The top 8 teams from premier contesting the title and European slots

Assured of their status for the next season in top league

The bottom 4 from premier league and top 4 from championship merging

And fighting it out for premier and championship league status the following season

top 4 of this mini league go to premier

bottom 4 of the mini league go to championship

Note unlike the other two mini leagues of 8

Previous points amassed in their parent league of 22 games counts for nothing

This combined mini league from premier and championship starts afresh

All 8 teams involved with status of zero games played zero points on the table

the bottom 8 of championship fight it out to retain a their second tier placement

Wait to see how many teams relegated and teams coming up from the best of the rest league of 18

We are told it is going to be competitive

This is a model which has been tried before

It is recognised that it failed in Austria and Switzerland in the late 80s early 90s

Where will Rangers sit within the league structure

Well in the league of 18 the best of the rest of course (the national league)

No favours asked no favours given on that one

I quote the fallen hero Longmuir

“This isn’t about one club. This is about what is best for all of Scottish football.

People are getting ahead of themselves a little bit because no decisions have been taken with regards to how the new leagues would be made up.

But if you look at the league tables as they stand today it doesn’t take much imagination to work out how to make it happen.

Yes, that might be disappointing for some clubs in the Second and Third divisions if it was to work out that way but then we are talking about the long-term good of the game here.

If change is going to happen then inevitably there would have to be one season when adjustments would have to be made. That adjustment has to come at some stage.”

Just get a better run in the Ramsden cup to compensate might be his thinking

The rest of the best in the 18?

How are they convinced to vote for this

(at least the teams in SFLD2 have something to play for this season)

Well I will tell you the probable sop

You have another unexpected year of the cash cow that is Rangers

Everyone is a winner

Except the team who actually has people going to their games

What is that though?

Do I hear our old mate Turnbull shouting from the rooftops

Sticking up for sporting integrity and all that

Rangers (or who ever in SFLD3) win the league but as noted get no promotion

Nope mistaken

Silence from Kirkcaldy

Never mind

As I said we ask for no favours

Celtic might need it though

Crowds at Parkhead could expect to really drop under this set of proposals

Imagine the scenario next season?

No ECL

and an average of 25K at Celtic home games

The likely winners in this model are your middle tier teams dundee united, aberdeen, hibs etc

PS: I make no qualm about Rangers staying in SFLD3 (or what ever it will be called in the new structure)

It suits us  for two reasons

1. We do not need to go thru more unnecessary bile form malicious characters like auldheid and his SFM cronies

2. It will continue to help us in the development of our longer term youth plan

My anger is that Rangers – the cash cow of Scottish football

The biggest club in Scotland with easily the biggest support both at games and on TV was excluded from discussion in reaching this agreement

This is an affront to Rangers FC and more importantly the Rangers supporters (AGAIN)

How to go from the high of posting on the technical and sporting genius of la pulga to this in just a few mouse clicks and keyboard bashes

Oh and i have just remembered

Bradford city are playing tonight in the semi final of the Capital one cup

Now i am really depressed

Well i was until

1. I marvelled in Bradford winning 3 -1 against Lambert’s Villa (who sacked first Lambert or O’Neill the terrible premiership lookalike twins)

2. read this – think is called opinion peace from our Head of Comms James Traynor

Full Traynor statement: ‘Remember Sporting Integrity?’

The shape of things to come, three divisions of 12-12-18, has been agreed in principle.

This abomination will now be pulled and stretched by selected members of the SPL and SFL in a desperate attempt to make it more presentable.
Good luck with that.

It would be easier trying to iron out the lines on the face of the old broad, Madge, in Benidorm.

12-12-18. It’s ridiculous, especially when you remember the two 12s will fragment into three eights.

Yet this time supporters will just have to buy into it. Whatever happened to that new and bold notion that fans were all important?

It isn’t that long ago clubs, particularly those in the top flight, were solemnly insisting that ignoring the views of fans would be akin to financial suicide.

Remember? It was when the game was wrestling with the problem of what to do with Rangers.

All the clubs were squealing that the wishes of fans had to be granted. If you swallowed any of that bilge you probably also believed in sporting integrity.

Of course it was all nonsense. Sporting Integrity was a cloak of convenience, albeit a rather thin, practically transparent one, behind which club leaders huddled together to come up with sanctions.

Rangers had to be punished, they deserved to be punished but it seemed as if additional penalties were being randomly introduced depending on who was in which meeting.

Many Rangers fans like to think the frenzy to cause the club as much additional pain as possible was driven by one club but that wasn’t strictly the case. 

Many fans of many clubs waded in but this is not to say Celtic fans or their club didn’t attempt to influence the outcome of debates on Rangers and possible sanctions.

Of course they did. And they are still at it on social media sites and on blogs clattered out by individuals who are no better than semi-literate.

The sheer hypocrisy of what is happening within Hampden’s corridors of power right now will be lost on them but let’s not pretend sporting integrity or the wishes of supporters really are important to all those clubs pushing for this change.

If they were listening to fans they wouldn’t be sticking with a top division of 12 , and if there was any integrity there would be no rush to bring in changes for the start of next season.

If, as seems likely, the structure is altered for 2013-14 supporters won’t get what they’ve already paid for, especially those following teams striving for promotion. Actually this entire season will be rendered meaningless.

Sporting integrity won’t merely be compromised, it’ll be crushed but this is what happens when desperation slips in and throttles reason.

This belief won’t sit well with the few who are more or less running the SPL and influencing thinking within that desperate organisation but they can’t complain. After all, they’ve dismissed Rangers’ views  completely.

This club, the biggest one in the country, were not invited to take part in talks which will shape the game’s future.

We are then entitled to conclude that this club are not important, which is strange indeed when so many fans of other clubs continue to be obsessed by Rangers, who are simply getting on with their own affairs asking no favour from anyone.

We do, however, expect commonsense to be applied, along with fair play.

Look, Rangers will return to the top flight, which will of course have to be rebranded. Rangers will take a seat at the head of the table where, despite the latest insult of being shut out of reconstruction talks, we will act with the good of Scottish football in mind.

We’ll work through the divisions and we will return stronger and better than ever before.

This club accepted their sanctions and moved on but too many others have been unable to do the same. They continue their assaults and while the deranged, who are using social media sites as conduits for their twisted agendas, should be ignored there are more than a few in the mainstream still maligning the club at every opportunity.

In a BBC radio debate last Saturday night one pundit, in a matter-of-fact manner, said Charles Green speaks with ‘forked tongue.’ No attempt to explain or justify the statement, just as no explanation was offered when another radio voice claimed there was a dishonesty about Walter Smith when he went public with a late bid for the club.

Word of advice gentlemen. From now on be very careful when talking or writing about this club.

To paraphrase something said about another club, Rangers will not be treated less than others. And although there is no desire to pick fights, be assured that no one will attack Rangers with impunity.

Better, however, to quote Bill Struth: ‘Never fear, inevitably we shall have our years of failure and when they arrive, we must reveal tolerance and sanity. You do that, you will emerge stronger than before.’

Tolerance and sanity. That’s what Rangers will demonstrate and maintain, especially when back at the summit.

3. Read these additional quotes from Doncaster (we must remember this and analyse carefully how the placements are provided) and Longmuir

Asked specifically about Rangers, Doncaster said: ‘There is a genuine desire to ensure that sporting merit is the basis on which clubs fill the positions which are available.

‘Our intention is to ensure that clubs get there on sporting merit.

I don’t think there is any desire to accelerate any club falsely. It’s sporting merit which will decide it.”

That stance was reiterated by the SFL’s David Longmuir, who said:

‘No club will move through the leagues and quicker than any other club given any of the structures we have put in place – and we are unanimous on that.’

So let us watch where Dundee end up – they if relegated must not be allowed to be fast tracked back into the premier league but demoted to the championship

(i note this because watch the north and east teams of Dundee United, St Johnstone and Aberdeen query Hibs and Hertz  canvas for them to be included)
Financial scrutiny must also be placed on Dunfermline and Hertz ability to get a licence agreement for next year based on the various shenanigans they have experienced this year