Latest Scottish football league reconstruction plan will be welcomed by all fans

[forlanssister 3,050]

And could clubs sell ST's not knowing who they'd be playing against in the second half of the season following the split?

 

What like they do now?

[RANGERRAB 3,258]

What like they do now?

 

In the SPFL premiership it's only the last five games after the split they don't know who they're playing against.

The previous 33 they do know

[forlanssister 3,050]

In the SPFL premiership it's only the last five games after the split they don't know who they're playing against.

The previous 33 they do know

 

They don't know 5 teams that they'll play as opposed to 7 in that plan not much of a difference.

[colinstein 294]

Gordon Smith has raved about it for years

Must have been a big hit when he played in Switzerland

I wonder how he got the SPFL to consider it

It sounds complicated but maybe it's different when you see it happening

[Darthter 542]

What's wrong with having a league of x-number of teams with the team at the top winning and 2 teams at the bottom being relegated. Why the need to complicate things???

 

No game is meaningless if the clubs have any ambition - they should all be wanting as high up the league as possible, and be fighting till the last kick to improve that position.

With Smiths idea....what about the teams at the bottom of the top 8??? They can't be relegated, they won't qualify for Europe, and they can't win the league - how is that "non-meaningless"???

[Thinker 857]

What's wrong with having a league of x-number of teams with the team at the top winning and 2 teams at the bottom being relegated. Why the need to complicate things???

 

No game is meaningless if the clubs have any ambition - they should all be wanting as high up the league as possible, and be fighting till the last kick to improve that position.

With Smiths idea....what about the teams at the bottom of the top 8??? They can't be relegated, they won't qualify for Europe, and they can't win the league - how is that "non-meaningless"???

 

Spot on - at the point of the split the season would pretty much be over for the teams lying in 8th, 7th, 6th and maybe even 5th place.

 

The only way to really make sure of significant games at the end of the season is to have some sort of play-off system and Grand Final like Aussie NRL, for example. Personally I hate the thought of the best team throughout the season losing the title in a one-off grand final though. It also just shifts the problem to the period of the season just before the play-offs begin when teams know their league position isn't going to effect their seeding in the knock-out stage and therefore have nothing to play for.

 

As has been mentioned before, the Belgian top flight has a kind of compromise where the league splits into play-off "groups", each vying for either the title, European berths, or staying up. It's a bit contrived and ugly though.

[calscot 0]

What's wrong with having a league of x-number of teams with the team at the top winning and 2 teams at the bottom being relegated? Why the need to complicate things???

 

No game is meaningless if the clubs have any ambition - they should all be wanting as high up the league as possible, and be fighting till the last kick to improve that position.

With Smiths idea....what about the teams at the bottom of the top 8??? They can't be relegated, they won't qualify for Europe, and they can't win the league - how is that "non-meaningless"???

 

You seem to contradict yourself here - either games are meaningless or not. However, if you think about it the format suggested has a lot less "meaningless" games than say a 20 team league.

 

Imagine you're 8th in the last 14 games of a 20 team league. You may only have one OF game left out of four, two max. More than half your games will be against teams who can't be related or qualify for Europe or win the league like yourselves. How "meaningful" are those games?

 

Contrast with the proposed format and you have a guaranteed 4 games against the OF, with two at home, and another say 6 games against teams fighting for Europe leaving 4 less meaningful games - but at least they are against the 6th and 7th best teams rather than say 15th and 16th. We talking games against say Dundee Utd or Hibs rather than Livingstone or Falkirk.

 

Then you have your 9th to 12th place teams who again have four OF a season and so one or two to look forward to and mostly games with nothing at stake. In the new format they have no OF games to look forward to but have already had 4 which makes the first half of their season more meaningful, but now instead of more than half dead rubbers, they have to play EVERY game competitively to stay up - at least until they are safe. That's a lot more "meaningful" games.

 

Then there are the 1st to 4th of the Championship who in a 20 game league would be like before although they would get 4 OF games. But they are again always competitive as they have to fight to get into the top 4 for promotion and then fight again to try and stay up. If we kept things as they are they would still have no OF games but be playing Cowdenbeath and Alloa instead of Motherwell and St Mirren. In the current system they could be pretty safe without being able to win the title but now they have to play for every game. In a 20 team league, they could be safe and have a load of games without much outcome.

 

The bottom 8 wouldn't be much different from now and probably would have a some meaningless games at the top without some kind of incentive.

 

I'm not advocating this at all and I know many will not like it, but you need to understand that there WILL be less "meaningless" games - at least for the top 16, before slating it. It also gives a combination of more top games than a 20 team league and more variety than a 12 team league.

 

It's not perfect but the stated or maybe not even desirable but the stated benefits are definitely there.

[Tannochsidebear 2,306]

We have to have balance and fairness in the fixtures, something which the current split does not do. It is manipulated every season to suit certain agendas, and often causes an truly unfair balance for some sides as they try to win titles, euro spots, or avoid relegation. The fact some sides have had an extra or lost a home game is outrageous. That a side will have to travel 3 times to the Champions while their rival for a Euro spot has an extra home game against the bottom seeded team is totally unfair.

 

I would have more sympathy for the current split if they announced the fixtures at the start of the season. The team in first place plays the team in 6th place in week 1 etc, then the home and away permutations are worked out when the teams are known depending on how the balance of their relevant fixtures that season have gone. That it always has favoured celtic in the run-in with favorable fixtures in favorable order is something we should be wanting to avoid going forward.

 

I have said about a more even split similar to Smith's idea on several occasions before. I like his idea. My version was a top 14 that play each other home and away once giving 26 games. The league then splits in two and the top 6 go forward to play another round of home and away for the title and euro spots. The bottom 8 play each other home and away giving them all an extra couple of home games and a trophy for the "champions" of this league, while the two automatic relegation spots and a third in the play offs mean just about every game in that section will be worth something. The bottom clubs get a 40 game season and the top six get a 36 game season. The extra gate receipts help to offset against not getting the glamour games against the OF.

 

There are probably dozens of potential reconstruction ideas out there, and there is even not a lot wrong with the current set up apart from the manipulation of the final fixtures, which could be easily resolved. The argument that the Police will not allow a potential title winning OF match is pathetic just because the tims couldn't behave in 1999 (or at any game really!). That is for the Police to do their vastly overpaid job. The amount they charge football clubs for policing and then they want to dictate who plays when is just not on. Get them telt!

[ranger_syntax 3,765]

They don't know 5 teams that they'll play as opposed to 7 in that plan not much of a difference.

 

The number of matches, post split, would be 14 as opposed to 5.

 

The teams might start to sell a 'season' ticket for each section of the season with prices that vary accordingly.