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Whilst the ugly sisters are in the mix a 16, or bigger, team league will never happen.

Easy for me to say as a fan but selling off your sporting advantage of being the home side isn't something that's worth it in my opinion. The double away section that the bigots used to get at Pittodrie seems unthinkable now and not just because we're selling more tickets to home fans. Even if we weren't I would rather have those seats empty than fill them with away fans that may help give our opponents any sort of boost. Fuck that. If I were a J I would indeed be raging. The only sort of mitigating circumstance that I could think of would be if the club (like ICT for example) are fighting for their very existence which, as far as I know no club in the top division is.

Watched his documentary, sad story all stemming from losing his brother during childhood. Never recovered.

Barcelona 1-0 up in second semi final approaching half time.

Val Kilmer - 65

Certainly seems to have a high opinion of his talents. https://archive.ph/K1DI2 “It gave the gaffer a headache, and it came to a point now where they went into his office, and were like: ‘We need Jeff to stay to help us win the league – so drop one of us, so he can start a game.’ “But Derek McInnes was very superstitious, so he wanted to keep it the same, where I’d come on after 60 or 70 minutes. We would always win doing that, so he felt like there was no reason to change that.”

Means little but I’d love to see a 16 team league playing each other twice, two relegated and 3rd bottom in a playoff. It’s so stale playing the same teams x number of times a year. I don’t like the product. 30 league games allows for an autumn league cup as we have, I like the format, plus it means the league is not as congested. We play way too much with cups, Europe, internationals etc. quantity over quality at present. also means little, but if we care about the future of Scottish football a 16 team league allows for the odd game to play some youth, not totally meaningless games. would also like to see the old firm gtf and play elsewhere. Nobody else has the money, fan base, and global appeal that I think ridding ourselves of the ugly sisters would help our league. Would be much more open and interesting.

It wasn't necessarily a criticism of English and Stewart or whoever, or their approach to someone like Doncaster, nor even Doncaster himself. It's systemic. Doncaster will be invited on to speak about topic X, say VAR, and will be questioned about that topic, and he'll answer in political fashion as always. There was/is no real avenue for them to pursue a wider conversation, and it really wouldn't work in the context of a single conversation with the head of fitba, who would simply bat away questions with "well we'd all love....", "we have to be realistic....." throw aways. What I'm talking about here is a complete value change to one that values fairness and plots its course towards that goal - across the board, and in a non-partisan manner. Look at the avenues that you present here (and even those open to you as someone who might be fighting from the inside as it were). What I'm suggesting can't be condensed into 400 words, or a three minute phone in with McIntyre, yet those are the tools of conveyance open to us. No long form discussion or philosophical conversation about what sport is supposed to be and what the values of our game should be. Of course, that's the same with our political and civilisational discourse more broadly. Systemic changes are split into bite size chunks as if they are individual problems and then morons invited to shout about them for ten minutes on question time or wherever, conveniently never addressing the thing as a whole. Football is just the system in microcosm. The Tims the rent-seeker, accumulating capital off the backs of the rest of us (what @wee toon red doesn't mention about the Tims' bank balance is that that £80M is taken entirely from the rest of Scottish fitba - a rent system where capital begets capital). It needs change from the top, of the BBC in this example, that directs the new values through the entire coverage. That would, I'm certain, take the fans with it, and perhaps the opportunity for real change.

Shit, I'll come on Sportsound if you want. Can't do any worse than some of the numpties that have been on

Oh, there is a lot I'd love to say about these Neil Doncaster interviews. Let's put it this way, Tom English and Michael Stewart - no matter your views on them - are not scared to question anyone on the radio. But when Doncaster is on, [redacted]. You could write something. We're always asking for fan views. We have fan columns. If I said "Rico wants to write 400 words this week on why Doncaster should fuck off" they'll probably say to send it in. You could likely still call yourself Rico (because we had the absurd situation a few weeks ago of Kenny McIntyre talking to "Goggsy" on Sportsound.) You could come on Sportsound too. If I said to McIntyre you fancy phoning in on Saturday night, he would say yes.

Completely agree. There's only one change I would make to the setup and that is to make the relegation play offs fairer. I.E second bottom faces 4th and 2nd play 3rd in a semi final rather than 4th playing 3rd then second before the winner facing 2nd bottom.

Under the present - admittedly fucked, as well put by @RicoS321 above - setup, the 12 team league "works" as far as retaining some kind of interest for most clubs for most of the season. However, it's all just playing for crumbs really and the fact that Celtic can sit with almost £80m IN THE BANK and still lord it over the rest of the league should be all the motivation anyone needs for major change rather than shuffling the deckchairs per the "new" proposals. In reality, Celtic and Rangers fucking off to some new European league would be the only potential catalyst for any kind of meaningful change. However, I don't trust any of the other "big" Scottish clubs, including our own, not to try and simply step into the vacant, shit-stained shoes of the "old firm" rather than enact or lead a new setup which would achieve genuine sporting competition. In short, it's fucked and not likely to get any better.

Ha ha, not on this occasion! It was aimed at the article writers, who are essentially putting out unquestioned PR, I suspect leaked from one of the two cheeks. However, I would absolutely include the number one broadcaster in my criticism. Doncaster has appeared on radio Scotland numerous occasions and never been adequately questioned. It almost always concentrates on a single small issue rather than the bigger picture of Scottish football. To the extent that things like league construction become an abstract concept that focuses on a number. You might as well ask a group of fifty kids what their favourite number is out of 10, 12, 14 or 16 and just go with the most popular. The format of the league in and of itself is largely irrelevant. Given that this is the fortieth anniversary of two teams solely winning our league - the worst period in Scottish football, if measured by sport - maybe you could write an article discussing the problem? If you were critical enough, and direct enough, then it might start some discussion. Do you think it would, hypothetically? Or do you think it would simply be brushed off (it's just the way it is, look at countries X, Y and Z) for tedious discussion about VAR or the Huns new manager? I think the latter. The point I was originally making is that fairness doesn't even seem to be a consideration by those that are paid to regularly discuss our game on the BBC (radio. Other broadcasters are exempt from criticism as they actively pursue the inequality as their business model). They don't see it as integral, when it should be the number one consideration. They should be discussing it every single week, and planning how to reduce the staggering inequality. Yet, it isn't even acknowledged as a problem. It's like some natural phenomenon that just happens, controlled by the gods. We can't even name the problem. Numerous discussions go by about the state of the game, or the state of the national side, but inequality has not once been pinpointed as the single greatest problem that underpins the rest. Which it undeniably is. Does it not seem ridiculous to you as someone who writes about the game that league reconstruction is being mooted without recourse to fairness? I think the answer is that it doesn't seem ridiculous, because fairness is so far removed from discourse that it would actually seem weird to hear it being discussed. My preference would be a 16 team league, so that we reduce the number of scum games per season and so that can never again be used as to strong arm clubs that apparently require the blue/green pound. It would also prevent TV companies from holding us to ransom in a similar vein. Thus, it would be targeting fairness first. I think 30 games is perfect, we could ditch three shitey midweek fixtures. However, if clubs require it, then create playoffs for European and relegation places. Second to fifth play off for European spots, and eleventh to fourteenth for third relegation. Teams in sixth to tenth have a set of playoffs designed to give young players a chance, with four youth players required in each starting eleven and two on the bench. Give it a promotional name like the youth presentation cup and get a sponsor. Fairness would come from the European spots being shared, with several teams given the opportunity to play champions league qualifying if Scotland has that route, and others given the opportunity to play Europa or conference. League winners could be given the opportunity for a lucrative fixture elsewhere, or bask in their glory for a few weeks. There should be no monetary prizes for league placing, as these exacerbate inequality (and no player is playing, or trying harder, so that their club can win X amount more money). European prize money should be declared a product of the league itself - because it is - and captured by the SPFL and apportioned equally. Again, this would negate the unearned compounding effect of European qualification that ruins every league in Europe (bar the English, who have discovered that the difference between having £200M and £100M in spending has a lessening effect). The steps towards something like the above begin with those paid to represent our game actually discussing fairness. Every time Brendan Rogers is interviewed, don't say "Brendan, how was that for you today?", say "Brendan, you have eight fold the budget of your opponent today, do you think a three goal margin is enough at home?". Celtic are one goal off of a three goals per game average over an entire season. That is horrific and something to be ashamed of. It's not sport. That should be the default position of anyone paid to discuss the game in our country. If they're not interested in sport, not interested in fairness, then they shouldn't be on our national broadcaster. That shouldn't even be remotely controversial.

He was physical and aggressive and the Motherwell players did their best to get him sent off. The whole team were more aggressive in the first half in particular and it got to the point I thought his next foul would be a red. And to be fair, his scissors tackle could have been red. At the same time, what’s the alternative? Nobody stands out and nobody is consistent, plus as mentioned, he’s decent in the air which is a factor against county. He also plays the 10 and fills that space reasonably well, we don’t really have another attack minded player for that role. Gueye is much like duk, could be crap, could be a game changer. 2-1 us, gueye and nisbet.

You scissor someone with a tackle you are riding your luck these days.

Well some would have one game as opposed to four for a start, and there's TV and some sizeable gate receipt money to be had if they land a group with one of the 'big guns' - more often than not at least one of hearts, Hibs and Aberdeen are in it.

Finished 4-4 with Real Madrid progressing 5-4 on aggregate. Second semi final between Atletico Madrid and Barcelona is tomorrow night. First leg was 4-4.

In Germany Arminia Bielefeld from 3rd division beat Bayer Leverkusen 2-1 to put them out of German Cup and make final.

Do they make much less cash from taking league cup back to straight knockout?

Hey, I'm just the messenger, you're not going to blame are you? Oh, you are. DM me your questions and I'll put them to Neil Doncaster in our weekly catch up. You started off saying "the rest of us", then went on to forget about the 30 or so clubs who rely on the income from the League Cup group stages.

Going into extra time now.

Sociedad go 4-3 ahead to take tie to 4-4 aggregate.

3-3 now. Sociedad keeper flogging the Real Madrid equaliser on the night. 4-3 on aggregate now.

Real get it back to 2-3 and level the tie again. Both sides going for it.

Sociedad 3-1 up and now ahead in the tie.