NEW: SFL Clubs Breakaway to From Championship (SPFL2)

[bluebear54 0]

It's now a question of waiting & seeing what the rest of the SFL & Longmuir do now. Will they roll over and simply accept the SPL as the ruling body in Scottish football ? because if this goes thro' then the balance of power will have switched over to the SPL who'll have more clubs than the SFL. The SFL's existence may be under threat.

I hope that the SFL may at long last grow a pair and sabotage the SKY deal which basically involves an SFL associate member club(Rangers) subsidising SPL clubs via the SKY deal whereby the SPL gets a disproportionate share of the TV money based on viewing figures. Will they let this continue ? They should tell the SPL(&their SFA partners in crime) they want to withdraw from the current SKY deal and renegotiate their own. Just see what would happen then.

Rab - You're spot on. But time for us to grow a set too. By that I mean the support. The Green Brigade have their Club terrorised (see what i did there?) It's time we make our feelings clear. ST sales time coming. Let's grow a big pair.

[barca72 440]

It's now a question of waiting & seeing what the rest of the SFL & Longmuir do now. Will they roll over and simply accept the SPL as the ruling body in Scottish football ? because if this goes thro' then the balance of power will have switched over to the SPL who'll have more clubs than the SFL. The SFL's existence may be under threat.

I hope that the SFL may at long last grow a pair and sabotage the SKY deal which basically involves an SFL associate member club(Rangers) subsidising SPL clubs via the SKY deal whereby the SPL gets a disproportionate share of the TV money based on viewing figures. Will they let this continue ? They should tell the SPL(&their SFA partners in crime) they want to withdraw from the current SKY deal and renegotiate their own. Just see what would happen then.

 

I may be wrong here, but I think that in any contract if one of the basic elements of the contract is broken - a signatory to the contract, the SFL being the representing body of 32 clubs, has by no action of its own had its make-up changed, then that contract can be declared null and void since that signatory no longer represents 32 clubs. This would mean that the exisiting contract would not represent the existing interests of the original 32 clubs. The SFL, or what is left of it including Rangers, would be free to negotiate their own contract. Where then would the SPL get the money to pay the trickle-down payments expected to the clubs that are prepared to join them?

[pete 2,499]

I may be wrong here, but I think that in any contract if one of the basic elements of the contract is broken - a signatory to the contract, the SFL being the representing body of 32 clubs, has by no action of its own had its make-up changed, then that contract can be declared null and void since that signatory no longer represents 32 clubs. This would mean that the exisiting contract would not represent the existing interests of the original 32 clubs. The SFL, or what is left of it including Rangers, would be free to negotiate their own contract. Where then would the SPL get the money to pay the trickle-down payments expected to the clubs that are prepared to join them?

 

That is what I think they can't rip up contracts with one hand and expect hold on to them with the other hand. Surely if St Mirren and Ross county failed to vote for 12-12-18 they now can't go along with this.

[Blue Moon 1,113]

I honestly don't think they will invite us. At no stage has any SPL club said that we would be doing anything other than working our way back up through the leagues.

 

If I am proved wrong, I think we should refuse, so long as we are still regarded as guilty and the transfer embargo stands.

[barca72 440]

As a follow up to my previous post I have found two areas in Contract Law that may give Liewell a reason to pause -

Novation: The Common Law has long recognized a procedure by which an outside party { the new increased SPL } may achieve a contractual status as a replacement for an existing party { the present SPL } who wishes to be relieved of his rights and duties. The process is known as NOVATION, and it takes the form of a termination of the original contract and the substitution of a new contract for it. Novation must be voluntary; one party { the SPL } cannot insist upon it over the objections of the other { SFL }. The new contract formed by novation may differ from the original either by a change in the parties to it or by a change in the terms.

 

Vicarious Performance: A promisor { the SPL } cannot escape his liability to the promisee { the SFL } by imposing a substitute for himself without the consent of the promisee. In other words, he cannot transfer or "assign" his liability, even assuming he can find someone willing to assume the liability for him { which would be the new improved SPL group }. The promisee may, of course, consent to a new contract with a change of parties, but then the arrangement is not within the terms of the original contract - it is novation.

 

... So Liewell cannot just come in and bully the SFL into a new contract.

[RANGERRAB 3,258]

I honestly don't think they will invite us. At no stage has any SPL club said that we would be doing anything other than working our way back up through the leagues.

 

If I am proved wrong, I think we should refuse, so long as we are still regarded as guilty and the transfer embargo stands.

 

they might not invite us but from a commercial viewpoint they can't do without us. Without our money they shouldn't be getting from the SKY deal they'd be up shitcreek............

They're parasites in every sense of the word. Something needs done about this pronto. Longmuir needs to get his act together or the SFL will cease to exist altogether. Make no mistake the SPL are intent on being THE single league body in Scottish football. They must be stopped at all costs.

Edited May 3, 2013 by RANGERRAB

[Steve1872 4]

By STEPHEN HALLIDAY

Published on 03/05/2013 22:27

 

SCOTTISH Football League chief executive David Longmuir has dismissed the threat of a potential breakaway of ten of his organisation’s clubs, insisting there is no appetite in the Scottish Premier League to admit them as members.

 

Longmuir last night confirmed receipt of a lawyer’s letter on behalf of the ten clubs in line to comprise next season’s First Division – Dundee, Morton, Livingston, Hamilton, Falkirk, Raith Rovers, Dumbarton, Dunfermline, Cowdenbeath and Queen of the South – indicating their intention to resign immediately from the SFL if the opportunity to form an SPL2 arises.

 

The move came after a meeting of the clubs hosted by Hamilton on Thursday night in the continuing fall-out of last month’s collapse of the contentious 12-12-18 league reconstruction proposal when it was vetoed by St Mirren and Ross County in a vote of SPL clubs.

 

An alternative bid to introduce play-offs between the SPL and SFL next season, as a precursor to amalgamating the two organisations and introducing a new financial distribution model, will be discussed by the SPL clubs again at Hampden on Tuesday.

 

Longmuir is adamant that remains the preferred option of both the SPL and SFL, in conjuction with the Scottish Football Association, and says any increased revenue for First Division clubs would not be available if they broke away and breached the terms of the £1.8 million annual settlement agreement set out when the SPL was formed in 1998.

 

“What the SFL1 clubs are doing is difficult for me to comprehend, because I don’t know where they think they are going,” Longmuir told The
Scotsman. “I don’t think there is any room at the inn.

 

“What has happened is that they had a sniff of the carrot which was there in the previous 12-12-18 proposal. They have seen a bit of money being dangled in front of them.

 

“That opportunity was closed off to them because of the SPL’s own voting mechanism, so they now think ‘where is that money?’ Well, you have to remember that money was coming to them because it was going to be a combined organisation.

 

“That would have brought back in the settlement agreement and the Rangers television money which we currently sub-contract to the SPL. So that’s where the additional money was coming from. But without a merged body, that money does not become a pooled pot. That money remains SFL money and a legally binding obligation between the two organisations.

 

“I have had a letter from a lawyer intimating that these clubs, in the event that they are admitted to the SPL, would wish to resign from the SFL. They have not been invited anywhere but at the moment are knocking on a door which is closed.”

 

In the aftermath of last month’s failure to push through the 12-12-18 plan, several SPL chairmen indicated there was no desire to form an SPL2. One senior SPL source, who did not wish to be named, insists that remains the case and described the breakaway threat as a “sideshow” and “an act of desperate men”.

 

Under SFL rule 12, no club can resign without a notice period of two years unless they receive the approval of at least two-thirds of the votes cast at a general meeting. But the ten rebel clubs believe they are entitled to leave immediately by exercising a separate rule, 15.2, which specifically details taking up membership of the SPL and states a club is not obliged to give any notice.

 

Longmuir accepts the SFL could face a legal challenge on that basis but is confident the two-year notice period would hold sway over a rule which was put in place solely to accommodate the extension of the SPL from ten to 12 clubs a decade ago.

 

“I would argue that Rule 15 was put there to allow the SPL to expand in 2002-03, when it increased by two clubs,” said Longmuir. “Rule 15 was put there for that purpose only. But because it was then part of the settlement agreement, it had to remain.

 

“But to me, our two-year notice period, Rule 12, is still required. If there was a vacancy and the SPL decided this was the route they wanted to go down to divide Scottish football further and cast aside some of the other clubs, then there would probably be a legal argument as to whether Rule 12 or Rule 15 would take precedence.

 

“The SPL are meeting on Tuesday to discuss some of the options and I think we’ll get a better idea after that of what they are prepared to do. Because I think it is the format of the play-offs which will be important, as well as the principle and the risk.

 

“I had a very encouraging meeting at the Professional Game Board of the SFA, which included Neil Doncaster and Stewart Regan, last Wednesday. I was encouraged by the fact we all seemed to be getting round to how we make play-offs a viable proposition for next year. That’s all I’m thinking about at the moment.

 

“We discussed a number of changes we think we can bring in for next season that would take the game forward, on the basis that the SPL failed to vote through the recent reconstruction package. Our proposal was that play-offs should form part of next season’s competition as a widening and strengthening of the bridge between the SPL and the SFL.

 

“We also suggested that a pyramid structure could be in place by the end of season 2014-15, subject to the conditions below the SFL Division Three being appropriate for that with an amalgamation of the South and East of Scotland leagues.

 

“I still hope there will be a 42-club solution to this and I believe there can be.”

 

Credit: http://www.scotsman.com/sport/footba...-inn-1-2919636

[Gribz 743]

I said a few weeks ago I think the real agenda is an SPL 2 and to get the majority of teams swung over to the SPL. They want a takeover not a merger. This is their last throw of the dice. Dirty tricks!! So much for sharing the wealth, they could ruin a few clubs in Div2.

 

But as so many have said, its the same people running it and without Rangers there is no financial gain. Does this solve Hearts issues all of a sudden? I dont think so.

 

They can attempt it if they so long as we avoid them. This keeps Doncaster in the job longer. We shouldnt be going near anything he has his hands in.

 

Longmuir has to start getting tougher, he should have got his finger out 9 months ago!

 

Id rather stay in a 2 division SFL than join SPL2.

Edited May 4, 2013 by Gribz

[54andcounting 0]

Personally speaking I think cloak and dagger stuff is going on between every party (except sellik) with Rangers the main say. We've been dealt a huge kick in the balls resulting in a knock on effect on every club at the top end.

3rd division clubs have reaped the rewards from that but that won't save the game neither will lining the pockets of the 2nd division clubs change it either.

Septic like the way it is, a one horse race as long as possible CL last 16 every year, buckets of money pouring into their coffers while every other club goes to the wall.

Maybe we do have influence I think Rangers might be behind this....stop the mhanks from getting rich and destroying the game.

 

Better to have someone to stand up as oppose to sitting back.

 

I'm changing my tune again (nothing wrong with that) I'm thinking now we should join the so called SPL2 quickly before timmy puts every club including Rangers to the sword. If it's not too late.

 

If we get an invite, GRAB IT.....It WONT be an invite from THEM far from it

Edited May 4, 2013 by 54andcounting

[bluebear54 0]

The lawyer's letter quote is interesting. Cowdenbeath are one of the breakaway teams and Donald Findlay is no mug.

However, I still don't think this is going anywhere.

We might not have a vote, but everything depends on us.

We are where the money comes from.

I'm surprised that the rentamouths Gray and Hutton haven't been saying much.