Paul Murray urges radical thinking to address Scottish football decline

[Little General 80]

The first thing that needs to be done to address the decline in Scottish football is the removal of Liewell's placemen Doncaster & Rhegan from their respective positions.

 

I suspect he was hinting at we want change at SPFL boardroom level.

[SteveC 150]

The first thing that needs to be done to address the decline in Scottish football is the removal of Liewell's placemen Doncaster & Rhegan from their respective positions.

 

Or even better " Liewell and his placemen....."

[ian1964 10,514]

Larger Scottish Premiership 'needs more TV cash' - Tommy Wright

 

St Johnstone manager Tommy Wright is in favour of a 16-team Scottish Premiership but believes it will only happen if there is a better TV deal.

 

League restructuring is returning as an issue as an agreed three-year period of stability comes to an end.

 

"The only way a 16-team league is going to happen is if we get the proper finance and commercial deals into the game," said the Saints boss.

 

"But it needs change and a 16-team league would bring freshness to it."

 

Wright was speaking after Mark Warburton, whose Rangers side lead the Championship, came out in support of league restructuring.

 

Celtic manager Ronny Deila thought there could be benefits from a larger league but suggested there would also be negatives and that he would reserve judgement until seeing the details of any possible proposal.

 

Wright says the managers have discussed the matter with the Scottish Professional Football League's chief executive.

 

"The managers, we have a meeting with Neil Doncaster at the start of every season and reconstruction comes up," he told BBC Scotland.

 

"I would say most of the managers would like to see change, but it comes down to finance.

 

"A 16-team league with less home games, financially the revenue would have to come in from TV and commercially we would have to sell it and make sure that we get the right value for it.

 

"Because I do feel that Scottish football is probably undervalued a bit.

 

"We need to get better value for the clubs and I think, if you saw that, most chairman would go for it."

 

Wright believes there are enough quality clubs to sustain a 16-team top flight.

 

"With the emergence of the likes of ourselves, Ross County, Inverness, the fact that Rangers, Hearts, Hibs have been out of the top league, I think quite easily you could get a 16-team league which would be competitive," he said.

 

"I don't think it would dilute the quality."

 

Wright pointed out that Dundee United played Celtic seven times last season because of cup meetings over and above the four Premiership fixtures.

 

"It is good if you are only playing each other twice and I think it would maybe help bring through younger players as there would be less pressure," he said.

 

"Jim McIntyre touched on it that Ross County are seven points off third and seven points off the play-off place in a 12-team league.

 

"You can think everything is going nicely and then have a bad month and you are down near relegation."

 

Rangers director Paul Murray believes the league has to tap into the ideas of those involved in Scottish football who have built international businesses - like Hearts' Ann Budge, Partick Thistle's Billy Allan and Ross County's Roy McGregor.

 

"My own view is that we have to talk to the paying customers more - what do the fans want?" he added.

 

"No business organisation survives without talking to its customers and, in Scottish football, there hasn't been enough done with the fans.

 

"Do they want summer football? Less games? More games? Games on a Friday night?"

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/35128772

[calscot 0]

When you really think about it a bigger league just makes all the top teams poorer - unless as they say it attracts more money.

 

If you think about it logically the answer (which no-one would ever go with) should probably be an 8 team league playing each other 4 times each and then splitting into two groups of 4 for champiionship/Europe and relegation fights - that's 34 games and all symetrical. There is always something to play for, you get 6 OF games as well as 6 games each of other top clashes, the money only gets split 8 ways and pretty much every game is meaningful. You only also only have the top teams probably with the biggest supports.

 

I think we almost did something like that once but it failed and we went the other way going from 10 to 12 due to the revolt from the middling clubs.

 

It really makes the most sense logically but not emotionally, and I realise no-one would vote for it except perhaps the two Glasgow sides. The biggest problem (apart from self interest) is familiarity and boredom of seeing the same sides meet again and again, and perhaps again in the cups.

 

The problem is that there is no acceptable solution and we really should have merged into a British league when the FL was struggling. If Newcastle adn Carlisle can do it, we're not that much further away and fans have more opportunity to use cheap flights than northern English clubs' fans.

[craig 5,199]

When you really think about it a bigger league just makes all the top teams poorer - unless as they say it attracts more money.

 

If you think about it logically the answer (which no-one would ever go with) should probably be an 8 team league playing each other 4 times each and then splitting into two groups of 4 for champiionship/Europe and relegation fights - that's 34 games and all symetrical. There is always something to play for, you get 6 OF games as well as 6 games each of other top clashes, the money only gets split 8 ways and pretty much every game is meaningful. You only also only have the top teams probably with the biggest supports.

 

I think we almost did something like that once but it failed and we went the other way going from 10 to 12 due to the revolt from the middling clubs.

 

It really makes the most sense logically but not emotionally, and I realise no-one would vote for it except perhaps the two Glasgow sides. The biggest problem (apart from self interest) is familiarity and boredom of seeing the same sides meet again and again, and perhaps again in the cups.

 

The problem is that there is no acceptable solution and we really should have merged into a British league when the FL was struggling. If Newcastle adn Carlisle can do it, we're not that much further away and fans have more opportunity to use cheap flights than northern English clubs' fans.

 

I would contend that the longer term solution is two leagues of 20 or 22 - if you cant get teams to merge anyway. With two leagues you have less of that familiarity and boredom you suggest.

 

The issue with your 8 team league, as you say, is familiarity and boredom. Even the OF game, over time, will be diluted in its appeal, and probably significantly so. The quality of games would probably see a sharp drop as you have teams and players going up against the same faces all the time. It would also be very difficult to attract high quality players who are playing the same teams 6 times a year in the league alone.

 

One thing is for sure - we DO need drastic change - and even though I wouldn't personally go with your 8 team league, at least you seem to have thought about it, rather than Doncaster plagiarizing what Denmark have done......