SFL propose Old Firm "Colt" Teams

[UCF2008 0]

I think it's a good idea. It could benefit us in the sense that we might get the promotion we deserve and our reserves get regular competitive games.

 

It also means that if we're serious about leaving the Scottish game then those discussions can move forward with a B-side already in place as opposed to having it thrown down on the negotiating table at the last minute. Meanwhile time is given for proper consideration towards those who would take our place.

 

One condition I would add is that the B-sides are rooted to the bottom tier as it would guarantee a sustained revenue stream via increased attendances and sponsors to those clubs. Besides, the split season 'championship' model is enough of a joke already without throwing B-sides into the mix at that level.

[UCF2008 0]

Probably the fairest solution all round would see us move into the 2nd tier of a 12-12-20 with the 2 B-sides stuck in the bottom tier.

[bluebear54 0]

Bluebear - Paul Brennan Celtic Quick News mate what a wallaper.

 

Ah well.

That explains it.

[ian1964 10,450]

DAVID LONGMUIR sent out an email to SFL clubs. He’d have been as well lobbing a grenade into their inbox.

 

The league chief expected fierce debate when he floated the idea of placing Old Firm colt teams into the lower leagues as part of a new 12-12-10-10 set-up.

 

What he didn’t bargain for was all-out war as SFL and SPL clubs lined up to slaughter him for the idea.

 

Raith Rovers chairman Turnbull Hutton and Falkirk supremo Martin Ritchie were joined by St Mirren’s Stewart Gilmour in rubbishing the plan.

 

Chief executive Longmuir was stung by this criticism as the league reconstruction debate descended into a messy squabble.

 

He insists he was merely doing his job by putting forward controversial colt team proposals — and made an urgent call for sanity across our game.

 

He told SunSport: “Everyone’s going to have a strong opinion on this — but it should have been measured and balanced.

 

“That’s when people begin to sit up and listen. The reaction on this occasion was imbalanced, given what I put out was long-term and strategic. It looked beyond next week.

 

“The response surprised me in many ways and I hope, after giving it some reflection, people will be a lot more balanced in the way they react to it.

 

“I found the reaction a bit remarkable, given that it’s my job to be objective. It’s my job to look at strategic issues that could affect the game and could benefit the game.

 

“I have 30 clubs looking at whether they want an 18-team league or two tens below the top two leagues of 12.

 

“It was my duty to give an objective view on an issue that has been about for a while, been discussed at our own meetings and was a key recommendation of the Henry McLeish report.

 

“I was merely doing what any chief executive should do by thinking strategically.

 

“I was giving a perspective on an issue that clubs needed to have a chance to think about. It’s my responsibility to do that and create debate around an issue. If that can’t be done without an irrational response it’s a pity.

 

“I understand it’s a sensitive issue but can we not have a debate on it without things being overstated?

 

“Just because I bring colt teams into the equation should not send hares running. We should be able to cope with that in the debate.”

 

Longmuir believes the reaction to his Old Firm Colts plan was based on FEAR.

 

He said: “What is out there at the moment is fear of the unknown.

 

“When you are going into something you have never been in before, then there will be resistance.

 

“Personally, I am not 100 per cent behind two 12s and three eights but I am supportive of all the other things that come with it.

 

“But it’s not up to me. It’s up to the clubs. The clubs will be feeling the same thing just now.

 

“They’ll be saying, ‘we like the one league body, the pyramid, the play-offs, the governance and the distribution of wealth’.

 

“They will say, ‘we’re not sure of the two 12s and three eights’, because we haven’t seen it before. That’s the fear of the unknown. It makes people withdraw from the process and I can understand that.”

 

SPL clubs will vote on reconstruction plans in mid-April — but a date for the SFL vote has yet to be set.

 

With clubs undecided over whether an 18-team league or two ten-team divisions sit below that, time is ticking on.

 

Longmuir admits he’s NOT certain if Scottish football’s brave new dawn will be pushed through for next season.

 

He said: “There is no way I can give a realistic guarantee on anything. We will work on a timetable that will give it a realistic chance of being in place for next season. We are reacting to club feedback and the SPL timetable.

 

“We have 30 clubs to look after. We are getting feedback from all of them and that’s what we will continue to do.

 

“Our clubs are doing a good job. A lot of the feedback I’ve had so far has been encouraging and thought-provoking.

 

“What you have to do is give rational proposals and as much detail as you possibly can.

 

“We are working at a pace we believe satisfies the clubs.Clubs are taking this seriously and that’s what I’d expect.

 

“I’d expect everyone involved in the game to take a balanced, reasoned and measured approach to all of this.”

 

Read more: http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/sport/4840646/The-Plan-B-reaction-is-irrational-its-time-to-look-beyond-next-week.html#ixzz2NV8H2l5f

[Blue Moon 1,118]

If a balanced, reasoned and measured approach was being taken to this, everyone would be calling for us to be promoted if reconstruction takes place. There are too many Turnbull Huttons, vociferous but bringing nothing to the debate.

[der Berliner 3,288]

By the looks of it, Longmuir knows his job. You'd hope most SFL-chairmen see the reasoning and reason behind it. (For some reason, I can still envisage the "Braveheart-style" weak-mindedness and treachery all over the place though.)

[Waltersgotstyle 297]

Colt teams would be a revelation for the Scottish league.

[ian1964 10,450]

Colt team system was good enough for Barcelona.. same plan could work for Celtic and Rangers

14 Mar 2013 08:30

 

THE plan to have colts teams playing in the SFL has been panned but a similar system allowed players like Barcelona's Lionel Messi to thrive.

 

IT was good enough for Lionel Messi and Barcelona.

 

But in the upside down world that is Scottish football it’s not good enough for Turnbull Hutton or Rodger Morrison.

 

In fact, the very idea is an affront and an absolute deal breaker to Raith Rovers and Peterhead.

 

Sometimes David Longmuir must wonder what he got himself involved in when he took on the role of trying to fix our broken game and bring its many different warring factions together.

 

It has been a bumpy old ride for the man who would be mediator and on Tuesday he was left battered and bruised once more when he was rounded upon by some of his own members for offering up his latest idea on how to drag Scottish football, kicking and screaming into a brighter better place.

 

Now, if you can, let’s forget for a minute that that place might be an utter abomination. Two 12s with its head-scratching three eights? An 18 or a couple of 10s? Frankly, the cure sounds worse than the disease.

 

Hell, even Longmuir admitted yesterday to having his own misgivings over the proposals.

 

But the SFL chief executive insists he is trying to make the best of it which is why he has been left somewhat scalded by the furious reaction to his rehashed blueprint for Celtic and Rangers to have colt teams in Scotland’s lower leagues.

 

In an exclusive interview with Record Sport, Longmuir hit back at his critics and explained why he feels his 11th-hour suggestion is for the long-term benefit of the entire Scottish game.

 

He said: “Look, the very idea of Old Firm colt teams will always be a reasonably controversial issue for non-Old Firm fans.

 

“But it’s an issue which should be looked at because it has the ability in the short and long term to deliver something at the bottom end of the game, both from a commercial and player development point of view.

 

“It’s not just about bringing in more fans and more money – it’s also about developing players.

 

“Lionel Messi played 30 games for Barcelona’s B team before he made the top team – it seemed to work quite well for him.

 

“But I’m not saying we should follow the Spanish model just because it worked for Messi. This is a model they have used for 20 seasons and many more players than Messi have been developed by Barcelona and Real Madrid in that time.

 

“I was also criticised for saying that AC and Inter Milan currently have colt teams. They have maybe changed the way they structure their youth teams now but they did have colt teams previously.

 

“I think it’s a debate that we should be having in this country because we have to be prepared to look towards the future.”

 

And Longmuir insists that future – one without Celtic and Rangers in the domestic set-up – may be closer than many think.

 

In fact, he revealed yesterday he’s already had a high-level visit from the men who might one day take these squabbling siblings away.

 

Meantime, his plan would ensure that at least they have some form of continued presence on these shores, even if Saturdays in Stranraer might never be the same again as Stair Park and the likes become the world’s most unlikely creches.

 

Longmuir added: “What people have to realise is that as far back as a year ago I met with senior UEFA officials who came to

Scotland to tell us their thinking on cross-border leagues. That thinking might not have been at an advanced stage but it was pretty in-depth stuff.

 

“They were looking at how to match up specific countries to their position on rankings and co-efficients.

 

“They were looking at a way of trying to cluster countries with similar standards. And then look at how to cluster teams – by that I mean the top teams who could come together in a new set-up.

 

“So work is being done and these things are being looked at, even if it’s hypothetical just now.

 

“I used to work in the drinks industry and the big brands – Johnnie Walker, Guinness, Smirnoff – drive the global profit.

 

“But there are domestic

products which survive perfectly well in their own market and which also benefit from the profit these brands bring back to the whole country.

 

“I’m not saying that’s a perfect analogy but it’s not a bad one. Big brands that have global appeal should go and develop that brand wherever they can.”

 

It has been argued also that if Celtic and Rangers are allowed to nurture youngsters in the lower leagues others should be given the same opportunity.

 

Longmuir, though, believes “an element of realism” is required. Which is a gentle way of pointing out that every other top-flight club currently has a job on its hands just attracting enough fans to watch their first teams, never mind their kids.

 

Indeed, this game of ours has seldom faced so many challenges or been placed quite so close to the brink.

 

Which is why the idea of copying a league system which crashed and burned in Austria and Switzerland and forcing it upon Scottish fans against their will, remains utterly terrifying.

 

And deep down Longmuir may even feel the same fear, bubbling in the pit of his stomach.

 

He said: “You might not be too keen on two 12s and three eights, I’m not a great fan of it myself. But I’m taking a strategic view on the whole thing and where we can go with it.

 

“You must remember I came out with a 16-team proposal a while ago which was roundly welcomed by fans but which soon became clear was never going to be deliverable.

 

Wealth

 

“With regards to the new proposals we are all a bit afraid of the unknown and that

uncertainty is the biggest concern just now. I understand that.”

 

All of which begs one rather obvious question. If, as we are so regularly assured, everyone around the table agrees on two fundamentals – one league body and fairer distribution of wealth – then why not simply do that?

 

And then argue about the creation of the all new, Whacky Races league for another day?

 

Longmuir would probably bite your hand off for such a compromise but the offer has not been forthcoming from the SPL. Nor will it be. He said: “I’m having that debate regularly and I can assure you it is one I am very familiar with presenting.

 

“But you have got to ask the question of Neil Doncaster, why is this is the only proposal you can get total alignment with?

 

“It’s a strange one. It’s probably because they can’t get 11 out of 12 to agree with any of the other options. The two 12s and three eights seems to be the only thing they can agree on and so it binds them together.

 

“Does that mean the game is being thought of first? Or is it their alignment that is being thought of first?”

 

The question doesn’t need to be answered.

 

This, after all, is the decaying, panic-stricken world of Scottish football. A world where nothing much makes any kind of sense. A chaotic world where the Turnbull Huttons call the shots.

 

Messi? It doesn’t even come close.

 

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/colt-team-system-good-enough-1762440