Darthter 542 Posted November 19, 2012 Share Posted November 19, 2012 have to many "meaningless" games. yet under the SPL plans for the 2 leagues of 12, which split to 3 of 8 there will be even more meaningless games. Once the leagues split, only the 2nd league will be competitive. In the 1st league of 8, it will be Rangers and Ceptic challenging for the title, the other 6 in the league are guaranteed top division status for the following season, so what do they play for. Similar for the 3rd league....other than the bottom 1 or 2 who will be relegated, there's nothing for the other 6 or 7 to play for. The middle league is playing for either promotion or demotion, which could be quite exciting - but are Sky gonna pay vast sums of cash to watch the bottom of the top league playing the top of the bottom league??? The SFA need to take charge....find out what the fans want, and what would make the return to games ie. bring in the cash. Then balance that off with a financial package suitable for ALL clubs in the league structure. If the clubs are getting a stead income of decent cash, they can then focus on whats happening on the pitch, so hopefully the end product improves. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rbr 1,247 Posted November 19, 2012 Share Posted November 19, 2012 The funniest thing was the desperation in Jim Spences voice trying to find out if Rangers were to be invited in 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chilledbear 16 Posted November 19, 2012 Share Posted November 19, 2012 The Scottish Premier League's plan for reconstruction is nothing new. An identical format was tried over 20 years ago in Austria, and was scrapped after eight seasons. http://t.co/3ItbHlu9 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
amms 0 Posted November 19, 2012 Share Posted November 19, 2012 The Scottish Premier League's plan for reconstruction is nothing new. An identical format was tried over 20 years ago in Austria, and was scrapped after eight seasons. http://t.co/3ItbHlu9 As a footballing nation our parallels with Austria are huge, you'd have thought they might try and learn from their mistakes instead of continuing to repeat them. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
amms 0 Posted November 19, 2012 Share Posted November 19, 2012 The funniest thing was the desperation in Jim Spences voice trying to find out if Rangers were to be invited in I tend to defend the BBC on here, but you're spot on with this. The only thing they were interested in was Rangers, it was almost a parody. Their obsessive hatred will kill them in the end. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ian1964 10,457 Posted November 20, 2012 Author Share Posted November 20, 2012 Published on Tuesday 20 November 2012 02:01 All 12 Scottish Premier League clubs yesterday emerged from a meeting at Hampden Park having reached broad agreement on a league reconstruction plan that is hoped will be given serious consideration by Scottish Football League clubs, who unveiled their own proposal last week. SPL clubs were unanimously in favour of a proposal where there would be two divisions of 12 in an attempt to group together 24 elite professional clubs in Scotland. At present, this would not include Rangers, whose chairman Charles Green has been a vocal opponent of the SPL. Ally McCoist, the Rangers manager, has backed the SFL proposal for a three-division 16-10-16 set-up. The SPL, however, remain convinced that extending the top league to include 16 clubs is not viable for commercial reasons and would also lead to too many meaningless games, at a time when one of the principal aims is to attract fans back to Scottish football. Having investigated other league formats in Europe and North America, an SPL restructuring group have devised a system consisting of two leagues of 12. They then split into three divisions of eight teams after 22 games, with the middle division being where the promotion/ relegation issue will be played out over a further 14 games. SPL chief executive Neil Doncaster was at pains to express that the new proposal was not a mechanism to hasten Rangers’ rise from the Third Division. Instead, it was one devised in the knowledge that something radical has to be done to address the problem of exclusivity. The SPL has long been perceived as a closed-shop. “There is a view that we need to be expanding the top league to be looking after the whole of the professional game in Scotland but also those clubs that aspire to be full-time professional clubs,” said Doncaster. “The view unanimously expressed round the table today is that is exactly what we should be doing. We met with the clubs in September, a restructuring group was formed and its work was fed back to all of the clubs today, and unanimously they approved the view that they should be working towards a plan that does exactly that.” The two league set-up that is being explored would see the two top leagues consist of 12 teams. However, the leagues would split into three divisions of eight after 22 games. The top eight teams would play each other twice again for a 36-game season, two fewer than the current model, where the split occurs after 33 games. The bottom four of the top division would join the bottom four of the second division and complete their own extended play-off system, with their points totals re-set to zero. The bottom eight teams of the 24 would also play each other twice again, as the top eight teams do. Providing these plans are accepted by the SFL and the Scottish Football Association, the SPL hope the new format could be in place for the start of the 2013/2014 season. There is, though, a PR battle to be waged first. A 40-page document will be issued to each SFL club outlining the plans in detail. “There is a realisation that we need to work together for the greater good of the game,” said an SPL chairman yesterday. “We don’t want this to be adversarial. We need to move on from historical squabbling about things. This is not going to keep everyone happy but it is about compromise. The future of Scottish football is at stake. “Four clubs will have a chance of playing in the top league the following season. Currently there is only one. And four clubs could go down, of course. There will be excitement right through the leagues. “It is all about compromise from everyone, whether it is Celtic at the top or teams at the bottom, who will give themselves more chance of being relegated. Anything new in this country, people knock it. We hope this might be given a chance first.” The SFL’s own plans are based on a 16-team top league with two further tiers of ten and 16 teams respectively. This would also include a number of promotion/relegation play-offs at the end of a regular season. The members of the SPL restructuring group, which includes Kilmarnock chairman Michael Johnston and Steve Brown of St Johnstone, will report back to the SPL at a meeting on 3 December with further findings. “There will be a final vote at some point but we are trying to do everything by consensus,” said an SPL source yesterday. http://www.scotsman.com/sport/spl-opts-for-radical-plan-to-tackle-closed-shop-issue-1-2645727 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnyk 158 Posted November 20, 2012 Share Posted November 20, 2012 I hope the SFL tell them to fook off, and the teams that are invited to the SPL 2 (ha ha) do that also. If this happens things are going to get worse. Most fans want a bigger league, they want rid of this joke of a split. They listened to the fans to get rid of us why aren't they listening to them now if they want them to come back in their droves as they seem to think they will..... Again until there is one association and all teams look at the game not money our game is buggered. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darthter 542 Posted November 20, 2012 Share Posted November 20, 2012 It is all about compromise from everyone, whether it is Celtic at the top or teams at the bottom, who will give themselves more chance of being relegated. A simple comment, that speaks volumes..... 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ian1964 10,457 Posted November 20, 2012 Author Share Posted November 20, 2012 The SPL is toiling financially,the SFL is not,why would the SFL agree to the proposal from the poisonous SPL? 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darthter 542 Posted November 20, 2012 Share Posted November 20, 2012 I get the impression that anything that happens will simply paper over the cracks.... The SFA need to tackle the root causes of the demise of Scottish Football. Simply changing how many teams are in the various leagues won't make a bit of difference (IMHO). Fans are the life-blood of the game....the SFA need to fully understand why a lot of fans are not going to matches, and what needs to be done to encourage them to go. I would even go as far as consulting with the folk @ Sky - find out what would get them to invest more cash!!! IMHO....It should be led by an independent SFA committee. They are the governing body in this country. If it is left to the SPL, they will only look after themselves, not the Scottish game. The SFL will also do this to a certain extent, but given that they include the majority of Scottish clubs, their influence is further reaching. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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