In the SPL or not?

[BrahimHemdani 1]

If they want to piss off, fine by me. I'll hold the gate open at Berwick for them.

 

I agree with the concept of rejigging the league but on SFL terms. Our ideas of reconstruction in the past have been shown up to be pish from 1976 onwards, so I'm absolutely fine with the concept of our fellow diddy teams taking the reins for the next game of musical chairs. The OF hogging the cash has led to one of the worst leagues (standard wise) in the world, so why not try spreading it out.

 

In short, I think I've learned my lesson.

 

If the top two in the SPL didn't get 33% of the money, the rest would get about £500k more per season on average; just think what the likes of Kilmarnock, St Johnstone and Inverness with astute managers could do with that kind of money to spend on wages and how much it would increase competition.

[BrahimHemdani 1]

 

The talk of moving to England is interesting, I too would have supported an application to play south of the border had we made one. We didn't, but we now find ourselves surrounded by decent, straightforward football people again. I hope we remember that these clubs, the smaller clubs, were fair to us when the larger clubs weren't. I'd put all our energies into creating a 2 league structure, containing far more teams and who play each other twice a season. 3 up and 3 down, more even spreading of money to all clubs and a focus on improving the quality of player and style of football, not about maximising income and increasing debt.

 

As an aside on the English thing. A Glaswegian by the name of Frank Lynch (we'll all just guess what team he supports) started bankrolling an obscure Carlisle non-league club recently. Gifford Town play in the Northern League and they recently changed their name to Celtic Nation, they now also wear green and white hoops. They are expected to be promoted again this season as they are buying players from senior leagues, considerably better quality than the rest of the league can afford. Strangely Mr Lynch has no connection with the club, or Carlisle or indeed Cumbria, he's a rich Glasgow guy who now lives in South Carolina.

Quite why someone who lives 2,000 miles away and has no connection to the region would want to bankroll a team with no history (they were founded in 2005) and a tiny support to make progress through the English leagues we can only guess at. It's also curious why he picked a team situated as close to the Scottish border as possible, I'm not aware of the transatlantic flight connections between Charleston and Carlisle, perhaps a club nearer Manchester or indeed Heathrow might have made more sense. Why you'd insist they changed their name and strips to ones resembling a club 100 miles or so north we can also only speculate at.

 

This is all perfectly legal, Lynch has no official connection with any other club under the auspices of a different FA. If, in a few years time, when perhaps Celtic Nation have made it to say the Conference their ground won't meet the criteria required, they've such a small support they've no hope of building a new one, they might then consider looking for a new home to play in. I wonder where they might consider finding somewhere suitable?

 

I have always thought that buying an English club was a more likely route to playing down south than applying to any given league. The entire English league system is based on a pyramid structure and the chances of getting in above level 7, which is regionalised, are remote in the extreme because it would depend on there being a vacancy which is rare at that level. I think I am right in saying that last season the first league with an odd number of teams was at level 9 i.e. 5 levels below the Football League (below even the Evo Stick Leagues!) and then you are talking about something like the United Counties League which covers Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire, as well as parts of Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire and Norfolk and feeds into the Southern Football League Division One Midlands, so that might be extremely problematic!

 

Buying a club (and continuing to play at Ibrox) would require English FA and UEFA approval and whilst that might be very difficult as well, I don't think there are any rules against it and no EU laws to prevent it either.

Edited September 15, 2012 by BrahimHemdani
small typo

[simplythebest 0]

I'm uncomfortable with the idea of us buying a club, mainly because I wouldn't wish that on any fans after what we've went through.

 

Well apart from some Scottish ones of course.

[Zappa 0]

I'm uncomfortable with the idea of us buying a club, mainly because I wouldn't wish that on any fans after what we've went through.

 

Well apart from some Scottish ones of course.

 

Buying a club isn't the way to go at all. It would be a last ditch resort. I actually suggested it as an option a good while back and we had a wee discussion about it, but in all honesty it's not the way to go, certainly not at this point or the near future. It was a potential route to take while we were still in administration because the administrators had the legal power to merge the two companies, but now that we're out of administration, it just wouldn't make sense. The ideal scenario (in terms of buying an English club) would've been for us in a state of administration to buy an English club who were also in administration at the same time, so a club like Port Vale. Too late now though!

Edited September 14, 2012 by Zappa

[simplythebest 0]

Buying a club isn't the way to go at all. It would be a last ditch resort. I actually suggested it as an option a good while back and we had a wee discussion about it, but in all honesty it's not the way to go, certainly not at this point or the near future. It was a potential route to take while we were still in administration because the administrators had the legal power to merge the two companies, but now that we're out of administration, it just wouldn't make sense. The ideal scenario (in terms of buying an English club) would've been for us in a state of administration to buy an English club who were also in administration at the same time, so a club like Port Vale. Too late now though!

I did wonder about if Portsmouth didn't make it to the start of the season there may have been a vacancy somewhere, but they obviously did make it and even if they don't survive now (hope they do) I assume League 1 would have have 23 teams and Portsmouth fixtures voided.

[GovanAllan 0]

Oh my we keep all the money and the rest don't get any boo hoo.

 

How about the rest along with us invest the money we have in proper youth schemes instead of blowing it all on poor imports, or selling the gems we do unearth to the EPL at the first time of asking. Have a league where your not a couple of bad games away from relegation and have some breathing space.

 

The chairmen of the clubs crying foul we want more, why not put some effort into getting your support of its arse and through the turnstiles instead of wanting the Rangers fans who can be bothered to support their team bail you out time and time again. Simply throwing money at the problem won't fix anything, especially when the guys in charge of the money I wouldn't trust with the kitty on a night out.

[Thinker 857]

Oh my we keep all the money and the rest don't get any boo hoo.

 

How about the rest along with us invest the money we have in proper youth schemes instead of blowing it all on poor imports, or selling the gems we do unearth to the EPL at the first time of asking. Have a league where your not a couple of bad games away from relegation and have some breathing space.

 

The chairmen of the clubs crying foul we want more, why not put some effort into getting your support of its arse and through the turnstiles instead of wanting the Rangers fans who can be bothered to support their team bail you out time and time again. Simply throwing money at the problem won't fix anything, especially when the guys in charge of the money I wouldn't trust with the kitty on a night out.

 

In a perfectly fair world the money into the league would be split according to how much each team contributed, but how could that be measured? Maybe Season Ticket sales? So if Hearts, say, (and this is not supposed to be realistic) built a new stadium and managed to fill it with 40,000+ fans they'd get an equivalent slice to us.

 

I admit this is just Friday morning day-dream stuff, but something new has to be done because any set up where two clubs get a bigger slice than any of the others no matter what they do is never going to last. There has to be at least a mechanism by which other clubs could theoretically grow and catch us, even though they'll never manage to actually do it.

[GovanAllan 0]

In a perfectly fair world the money into the league would be split according to how much each team contributed, but how could that be measured? Maybe Season Ticket sales? So if Hearts, say, (and this is not supposed to be realistic) built a new stadium and managed to fill it with 40,000+ fans they'd get an equivalent slice to us.

 

I admit this is just Friday morning day-dream stuff, but something new has to be done because any set up where two clubs get a bigger slice than any of the others no matter what they do is never going to last. There has to be at least a mechanism by which other clubs could theoretically grow and catch us, even though they'll never manage to actually do it.

 

You just argued your own point there not one of them will take the step so why should Rangers bail them out because we have taken that step. No Rangers or Them no TV contract, no big away support, no money for them. When Rangers rebuilt Ibrox I don't remember the rest offering to chip in and help pay for it, I don't remember the wipe round to get us out of Admin. No they sat back and circled the dying giant to see what they could get, well they got f#*k all and what do you know we didn't die so they can do one.

 

You want Rangers to grow and become a European force again, but hold on we want you to do it with less money because the diddy teams can't get their own fans through the door because they play shit football and sell their best players first time somebody flashes a cheque book at them.

 

Tell you what why don't we ask Man U, Barca, Madrid, Chelsea etc for part of their gate money on CL night so we can buy better players and challenge them better, any idea the answer we would get?

 

Their is a mechanism for them to bridge the gap it's called a youth policy, Hibs had a team that could've went on to win a Championship did they nurture that team maybe add to it and see if they could be Champions, did they Hell they sold up and got as much money as they could get. Wheres the ambition in that the forward planning?

[Thinker 857]

You just argued your own point there not one of them will take the step so why should Rangers bail them out because we have taken that step. No Rangers or Them no TV contract, no big away support, no money for them. When Rangers rebuilt Ibrox I don't remember the rest offering to chip in and help pay for it, I don't remember the wipe round to get us out of Admin. No they sat back and circled the dying giant to see what they could get, well they got f#*k all and what do you know we didn't die so they can do one.

 

You want Rangers to grow and become a European force again, but hold on we want you to do it with less money because the diddy teams can't get their own fans through the door because they play shit football and sell their best players first time somebody flashes a cheque book at them.

 

Tell you what why don't we ask Man U, Barca, Madrid, Chelsea etc for part of their gate money on CL night so we can buy better players and challenge them better, any idea the answer we would get?

 

Their is a mechanism for them to bridge the gap it's called a youth policy, Hibs had a team that could've went on to win a Championship did they nurture that team maybe add to it and see if they could be Champions, did they Hell they sold up and got as much money as they could get. Wheres the ambition in that the forward planning?

 

I'm not arguing anything, I'm suggesting (and not even seriously suggesting - just chucking ideas around for the sake of Friday chat) a system where diddies have no-one to blame but themselves for their diddiness. Obviously, they shouldn't be blaming us, but try getting that point across to them. Wouldn't it be better if they couldn't blame us because the league incorporated a system which directly rewards investment and contribution?

 

If the majority of teams in a league feel like they're getting a rough deal, then that league will inevitably break up.

[aweebluesoandso 290]

Spreading the wealth is a terrible idea. Scotland can either have 2 good teams or none. Without a strong old firm, the Scottish league just becomes another Irish league.

 

The big teams in other leagues are helped by getting a massive percentage of the wealth. The rest of Scotland have already been getting far too much of the pie.

 

The days of "know one likes us, we don't care" surely must to be over. We must learn the mistakes of the past and make friends and alliances with the other clubs in the SFL. We can always go it alone and take everyone on, be selfish and grab the lions share of everything. We're still the biggest club with the biggest support so we will always take the spoils, but the smaller clubs who (whether we like it or not) we rely on, must be considered for a larger portion of the pie imo. Or we as a club are forever going to be envied and disliked, better to be considered a fair benefactor then unfair miser.