SPFL new league 3

[BEARGER 1,829]

https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/3503540/spfl-plans-league-three-highland-lowland-colts/amp/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter&__twitter_impression=true

SPFL ‘draw up plans’ to create League Three with Highland League and Lowland League sides playing alongside colts teams

The SPFL have reportedly already circulated a draft proposal among the relevant clubs and are set to discuss the potential set-up at a meeting in the coming weeks

By Gary Taylor

17th November 2018, 6:22 pm

 

Updated: 17th November 2018, 6:23 pm

 

  

 

THE SPFL are drawing up plans to create a new League Three, according to reports.

The Evening Express claims a ‘fifth tier’ would involve a 12-team setup comprising of four sides each from the Highland and Lowland Leagues.

A further four colts teams would apparently round off the league structure.

The SPFL are said to have circulated a draft proposal among several clubs.

And the matter will reportedly be further discussed at a meeting of all the relevant sides in the next few weeks.

The winners of the Highland and Lowland Leagues face each other in an end-of-season play-off to decide who faces the bottom-placed League Two club, under the current system.

Cove Rangers, Brora Rangers and Buckie Thistle have all been unsuccessful in their promotion dreams since the introduction of the play-offs in 2015.

Edinburgh City are the only club to move up into the fourth tier of Scottish football so far.

The creation of a League Three would reportedly see a similar play-off structure to the one used between the Championship and League One, and League One and League Two, introduced.

The eventual champions would therefore be promoted to League Two with the second, third and fourth-placed teams going into promotion play-offs.

[MacK1950 2,231]

Yawn how underwhelming.

[BlackSocksRedTops 3,483]

Scottish top flight football needs less teams not more. I find this baffling tbh

[buster. 4,808]

Sounds like a way of getting the colt teams into the main league pyramid.

 

It's certainly questionable if there is an appetite for this amongst all of the Lowland & Highland teams, some are ambitious, others happy where they are and not so keen to clock up the miles.

[compo 6,147]

Bring back a simple reserve league if we play ar Ibrox then the reserves play the opposition on the same day away it would help players get match fitness after injury and help younger players .

[buster. 4,808]

21 minutes ago, compo said:

Bring back a simple reserve league if we play ar Ibrox then the reserves play the opposition on the same day away it would help players get match fitness after injury and help younger players .

Reserve League has been brought back and we sit top of the table

 

https://spfl.co.uk/league/rl1/table

 

			HOME					AWAY
POS.		P	W	D	L	GF	GA	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	PTS
1	Rangers Reserves	6	3	0	0	13	4	2	0	1	5	5	9	15
2	Kilmarnock Reserves	5	3	0	0	12	4	1	1	0	6	1	13	13
3	Ross County Reserves	5	2	0	1	7	5	2	0	0	6	2	6	12
4	Dundee Reserves	5	2	1	0	9	4	1	0	1	3	7	1	10
5	Motherwell Reserves	5	3	0	0	6	1	0	1	1	3	7	1	10

Edited November 18, 2018 by buster.

[Rousseau 9,382]

I think this sounds 'good', in principle.

 

The Highland sides are wanting to move up, and are often better than the dross at the bottom anyway. 

 

And, it gets our Colt teams into the pyramid, which benefits us and benefits player development.

 

There are too many teams, but we can't ask these sides to shut up shop. 

 

I still think the Premiership should be extended quite a bit too.  

[ranger_syntax 3,775]

2 hours ago, Rousseau said:

I think this sounds 'good', in principle.

 

The Highland sides are wanting to move up, and are often better than the dross at the bottom anyway. 

 

And, it gets our Colt teams into the pyramid, which benefits us and benefits player development.

 

There are too many teams, but we can't ask these sides to shut up shop. 

 

I still think the Premiership should be extended quite a bit too.  

I think this sounds very bad in principle.

 

Youth teams playing in the senior leagues is designed to strengthen the position of big clubs even further. It will make Scottish football even less competitive than it already is.

 

Also, if the highland league teams really are better then why don't they win promotion in the existing system?

Edited November 18, 2018 by ranger_syntax

[Rousseau 9,382]

1 hour ago, ranger_syntax said:

I think this sounds very bad in principle.

 

Youth teams playing in the senior leagues is designed to strengthen the position of big clubs even further. It will make Scottish football even less competitive than it already is.

 

Also, if the highland league teams really are better then why don't they win promotion in the existing system?

We disagree on the Colt teams point. I only really care about Rangers; this benefits us.

 

It could benefit all teams anyway by bringing through better youngsters. When you think of the countries that produce the best players, Spain and Germany; both of these have B-teams in the senior leagues. 

 

It's weighted against them, but former Highland League teams (Elgin City, Inverness, Peterhead and Ross County) do pretty well compared to the rest of the League.

[Scott7 5,179]

The clubs in the strangely mis-named Highland League would do well to stay out of it. caley and RC have done reasonably well but where are they now with pathetic attendances? Access to public funds helped them on their way but that can’t last forever.

Peterhead haven’t had that good fortune but they’ve had reasonable private investment and been very well managed. Nonetheless they couldn’t stay in League 1. Better luck next season, perhaps

The example not to follow is Elgin City, former Lords of the League. They’ve struggled from day one and are permanently short of money.

Cove being an Aberdeen city club are most likely to succeed but there is no historical fan base and in reality Aberdeen could not sustain two top league teams. Dundee can’t and some might say neither can Edinburgh.