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[sff]

Dear Scottish Premier League, Scottish Football League and Scottish Football Association, The national side is doing alright, right? While I’m sure Craig Levein wouldn’t mind a bigger crop of young talent coming through. Or perhaps a squad quality like England or Spain’s. Does anyone have any real issues with the national set up and progress at [Read more]

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[?apester]

The national side is doing alright ?????????? .

[craig]

?apester, on 15 February 2012 - 09:08 PM, said:

The national side is doing alright ?????????? .

Personnel wise I would agree, at least in goals, midfield and the potential players up front. Obviously the results are not there

[?apester]

craig, on 15 February 2012 - 09:09 PM, said:

Personnel wise I would agree, at least in goals, midfield and the potential players up front. Obviously the results are not there

Oh well then.

[jaybee1978]

I enjoyed the article.

I think the national team has improvement in it and hopefully we can get world cup campaign off to a good start.

I think most fans would like to see change in the league format. I'd like to see an extended SPL with maybe 16 teams then a regional league set up with other teams involved giving more local derbies. This would hopefully lead to increased attendances.

I'd also like to see a better distribution of sponsorship and tv money. It would be good to see more focus given to other teams outside of old firm.

[Laurie]

jaybee1978, on 15 February 2012 - 09:34 PM, said:

I think most fans would like to see change in the league format. I'd like to see an extended SPL with maybe 16 teams then a regional league set up with other teams involved giving more local derbies. This would hopefully lead to increased attendances.

I'd prefer 16 teams rather than 20 too, although not sure how it would work in terms of matches - because playing each other twice would only mean 30 matches, which loses 8 games, and 8 games worth of revenue.

[jaybee1978]

Laurie, on 15 February 2012 - 11:18 PM, said:

I'd prefer 16 teams rather than 20 too, although not sure how it would work in terms of matches - because playing each other twice would only mean 30 matches, which loses 8 games, and 8 games worth of revenue.

They could show teams outside the old firm more often on tv. That would be a start.

[craig]

jaybee1978, on 15 February 2012 - 11:24 PM, said:

They could show teams outside the old firm more often on tv. That would be a start.

A larger league gives scope for the usual Old Firm away, plus another game

[Perry Pie]

Laurie, on 15 February 2012 - 11:18 PM, said:

I'd prefer 16 teams rather than 20 too, although not sure how it would work in terms of matches - because playing each other twice would only mean 30 matches, which loses 8 games, and 8 games worth of revenue.

16 teams would work well if there were two league competitions.

Start the season with a "Conference" competition consisting of 4 groups of 4 who play home and away (everyone gets 6 games). Top two from each conference make the playoffs. Format of playoffs, 4 teams finishing top of group play, 4 teams finishing second play. Winners of top place games to semi final (home game), losers play the winners of the second place games in quarter finals. Then semi and final. Winner is guarnateed a Euorpean place if the avoid relegation.

Start the main season after that, everyone plays everyone else twice in the normal way (30 games). Two up and two down. Everyone is guaranteed a minimum 36 games in total. SPL two champion is promoted, playoffs for the second promotion place.

SPL two (SFL one) is the same, with 16 clubs. Difference is the winner of the "Conference" competition is gauranteed a promotion playoff if they avoid relegation.

That leaves 10 clubs in the lowest division - hmmmmm. Could be as now.

[jaybee1978]

Perry Pie, on 02 April 2012 - 09:11 PM, said:

16 teams would work well if there were two league competitions.

Start the season with a "Conference" competition consisting of 4 groups of 4 who play home and away (everyone gets 6 games). Top two from each conference make the playoffs. Format of playoffs, 4 teams finishing top of group play, 4 teams finishing second play. Winners of top place games to semi final (home game), losers play the winners of the second place games in quarter finals. Then semi and final. Winner is guarnateed a Euorpean place if the avoid relegation.

Start the main season after that, everyone plays everyone else twice in the normal way (30 games). Two up and two down. Everyone is guaranteed a minimum 36 games in total. SPL two champion is promoted, playoffs for the second promotion place.

SPL two (SFL one) is the same, with 16 clubs. Difference is the winner of the "Conference" competition is gauranteed a promotion playoff if they avoid relegation.

That leaves 10 clubs in the lowest division - hmmmmm. Could be as now.

I'd have 16 team league, home and away with 30 games. 2 teams relegated, 3rd bottom faces 3rd top in SPL2 in 2 leg playoff.

An SPL 2 with 16 teams also.

Below that regional leagues so there are still plenty of derbies and that ensures bigger crowds. This would be North, East, West and South.

Two legged league cup games which would mean the wee teams get a home tie against an SPL team now and again and also a trip to SPL ground. The cash then gets distributed even further down the leagues.

Open the Scottish cup up to all the junior teams in West and East league. The competition would then involve even more teams. In recent years we've had Auchinleck Talbot and Irvine Meadow go to SPL teams and not disgrace themselves.

Edited by jaybee1978, 02 April 2012 - 10:21 PM.

[Perry Pie]

jaybee1978, on 02 April 2012 - 10:19 PM, said:

I'd have 16 team league, home and away with 30 games. 2 teams relegated, 3rd bottom faces 3rd top in SPL2 in 2 leg playoff.

An SPL 2 with 16 teams also.

Below that regional leagues so there are still plenty of derbies and that ensures bigger crowds. This would be North, East, West and South.

Two legged league cup games which would mean the wee teams get a home tie against an SPL team now and again and also a trip to SPL ground. The cash then gets distributed even further down the leagues.

Open the Scottish cup up to all the junior teams in West and East league. The competition would then involve even more teams. In recent years we've had Auchinleck Talbot and Irvine Meadow go to SPL teams and not disgrace themselves.

I like the cup suggestions, especially extending the FA cup.

Thinking more about the league structure, 3 division of 14 clubs could work and would have the benefit of keeping the 42 clubs in the SPL/SFL as now.

It is a bit more messy but it is possible to split the season into a conference competition with play offs (10 Home and away games + play offs) in the early part of the season and a seperate league season of 26 games. This could give a minimum of 36 games in each division for each club. Two up, two down with playoffs for the second promotion spots.

Edited by Perry Pie, 08 April 2012 - 10:33 PM.

[jaybee1978]

Perry Pie, on 08 April 2012 - 10:33 PM, said:

I like the cup suggestions, especially extending the FA cup.

Thinking more about the league structure, 3 division of 14 clubs could work and would have the benefit of keeping the 42 clubs in the SPL/SFL as now.

It is a bit more messy but it is possible to split the season into a conference competition with play offs (10 Home and away games + play offs) in the early part of the season and a seperate league season of 26 games. This could give a minimum of 36 games in each division for each club. Two up, two down with playoffs for the second promotion spots.

Do you not think that we are better off to have a system where teams outside of SPL/SFL can get in the leagues?

[Perry Pie]

jaybee1978, on 08 April 2012 - 10:35 PM, said:

Do you not think that we are better off to have a system where teams outside of SPL/SFL can get in the leagues?

Maybe. It is worth thinking about, we need to take account of the impact on a club of dropping out of the league. Probably only one up and down to start with. (relegate Rangers perhaps?)

If we did have promotion/relegation I would like to see the league smaller as you suggested earlier with the two leagues of 16 discussed above. Your regional idea is sound, in that case I would suggest a playoff of the regional champions to gain promotion.

It does come down to what can be afforded and what generates the most interest for the fans (bearing in mind that more fan interest does = more money in the long term).

[jaybee1978]

Perry Pie, on 09 April 2012 - 05:19 PM, said:

Maybe. It is worth thinking about, we need to take account of the impact on a club of dropping out of the league. Probably only one up and down to start with. (relegate Rangers perhaps?)

If we did have promotion/relegation I would like to see the league smaller as you suggested earlier with the two leagues of 16 discussed above. Your regional idea is sound, in that case I would suggest a playoff of the regional champions to gain promotion.

It does come down to what can be afforded and what generates the most interest for the fans (bearing in mind that more fan interest does = more money in the long term).

It is difficult as I'm not sure how many of the non league teams would want to be involved at a higher level.

I like the idea of playoffs between the regional champions to get in to SPL2 or whatever it would be called.