Major Restructuring in the Pipeline for SPL

[BobbyBiscuit]

SCOTTISH football last night stood on the brink of revolution amid fears more than one SPL club is going to the wall.

 

Record Sport understands a move towards the restructuring of the SPL will start as soon as this season's championship and relegation issues have been decided.

 

Concerned chairmen have been holding emergency talks in secret for weeks. Matters are now coming to a head in advance of financial figures being released which will show the catastrophe that's on the way unless the Top Twelve is expanded into an 18-team league.

 

SPL chairmen met at Hampden yesterday as calls mounted for a change of direction and even the SPL chief executive Neil Doncaster has now publicly admitted the split isn't the answer to falling crowds and declining standards.

 

One concerned club spokesman said: "There are balance-sheet figures about to come out which are appalling.

 

"Clubs will go to the wall. unless there's change across the board, and soon.

 

"We can't go on paying salaries that the clubs just can't afford. Income must become relative to clubs' expenditure.

 

"Chairmen have been talking to each other in the background but it would be inappropriate to speak out before the major issues have been settled.

 

"Scottish football needs restructuring because the game is the big picture.

 

"If you sort out the product then the financial picture gets better in time.

 

"It might be sore to begin with, and income might drop by as much as 30 per cent, but if we don't take steps to find our true level then there will be serious consequences."

 

Rangers manager Walter Smith has already stated his preference for an 18-team Premier League, reducing the number of fixtures to 34.

 

That would take away the complaint that the same teams are meeting each other too many times during the season.

 

Support for that change to the current system was growing last night .

 

Formal moves to alter the structure of the SPL and redraw the remainder of the clubs in the Scottish Football League are now only a matter of weeks away.

 

Taken from the Daily Retard so may be utter bollocks, but I certainly hope not.

[mizer]

The bbc said yesterday 4/6 clubs polled were wanting to keep the split, so it seems against the grain of that.

[baggy89]

We're saved!

[BobbyBiscuit]

The bbc said yesterday 4/6 clubs polled were wanting to keep the split, so it seems against the grain of that.

 

Turkeys voting for Christmas

[manc_don]

Fantastic news if true. Finally the powers that be are seeing the predicament scottish football has been in for ages.

[tsr]

Nothing will come of it, if 2 clubs vote against it then it won't happen. There's no danger 12 SPL clubs are going to vote for an expanded league for the upcoming season imo.

[Jute]

Asked this elsewhere but why is there such a desperate push to go back to an 18 team league? We had one before and it was scrapped due to far to many meaningless games meaning crowds were dropping.

[Reekie_Red]

That rule has changed, tsr. There now needs to simply be an 8/4 (could actually be 7/5 now) majority rather than the previous 11/1 majority. This came about after the 10/2 majority voted for SPL-TV to happen, but the remaining two (the Old Firm) resulted in the plan being quashed.

[glasgow sheep]

That rule has changed, tsr. There now needs to simply be an 8/4 (could actually be 7/5 now) majority rather than the previous 11/1 majority. This came about after the 10/2 majority voted for SPL-TV to happen, but the remaining two (the Old Firm) resulted in the plan being quashed.

That's what I thought too Reekie but on the bit of Sportsound I heard the other night they were still talking about a 10:2 voting requirement, also said 5 teams had voted against abolishing the split (nobody has stated what this actually means(

 

Asked this elsewhere but why is there such a desperate push to go back to an 18 team league? We had one before and it was scrapped due to far to many meaningless games meaning crowds were dropping.

 

 

No idea Jute.  Seems an even more ridiculous idea if a club is about to go to the wall. Increasing league size and so sharing limited income more widely, less home matches, less matches against the "big" sides and a less attractive product to sell to TV (Less OF games) hardly seeems like the best way to save clubs that are toiling financially.  In anycase contracts are signed (BBC one just re-newed the other day) and TV companies won't be happy if we go changing the league set up mid-contract.  It seems the only reason this is getting more press than it usually does at this time of year is because big Wattie has spoken out against the split.

[tsr]

As I posted elsewhere also what basis is there for an article claiming a bigger league will come to avoid a club going to the wall then predicting a 30% decrease in income?

[Kowalski]

As I posted elsewhere also what basis is there for an article claiming a bigger league will come to avoid a club going to the wall then predicting a 30% decrease in income?

 

I'm wondering this too.

I'm all for an expanded league, but I don't think it's been proved that it would increases the finances of clubs - as some rely on the visits from the Infirm.

[maverick sheep]

I think we're all missing the real issue here...

 

 

...Hertz and the Huns may be about to finally implode! yaassssssss!!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

(or us)

[BobbyBiscuit]

I think we're all missing the real issue here...

 

 

...Hertz and the Huns may be about to finally implode! yaassssssss!!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

(or us)

 

my bet is Killie.

[dave_min]

When we had an 18 team league before, I'm of the understanding that not all of then were full time professional clubs and the difference in standard throughout the league was huge, which should be less of a problem now as the top 5/6/7/8 teams in the 1st Division could easily play in the SPL.

 

I could be wrong though, as I am rather young.

[Mentorred]

When we had an 18 team league before, I'm of the understanding that not all of then were full time professional clubs and the difference in standard throughout the league was huge, which should be less of a problem now as the top 5/6/7/8 teams in the 1st Division could easily play in the SPL.

 

I could be wrong though, as I am rather young.

 

I agree I think the gap between the SPL and Div 1 is not as big. In the 80's how many 1st div teams got to the cup final? Now it seems like every other year a lower league team is there.

[baggy89]

I think we're all missing the real issue here...

 

 

...Hertz and the Huns may be about to finally implode! yaassssssss!!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

(or us)

 

That's probably not altogether unlikely, reduced TV revenue, expensive change of management, poor attendance, low league position.

 

I'm sure it all adds up.

[Reekie_Red]

I think we should ditch the split and keep it a 12-team league. We should have one auto-relegation spot and one relegation-playoff spot.

 

We should also start up a championship playoff scheme whereby the top FOUR teams play a round-robin knockout mini-tournament at the end of the season ... with the final match of the season being at Hampden, and this match ultimately deciding who wins the league, regardless of how many points split the top team from the 2nd-placed team.

 

Something has to be done to try to break up the duopoly the Old Firm has on this league.

[Mentorred]

I think we should ditch the split and keep it a 12-team league. We should have one auto-relegation spot and one relegation-playoff spot.

 

We should also start up a championship playoff scheme whereby the top FOUR teams play a round-robin knockout mini-tournament at the end of the season ... with the final match of the season being at Hampden, and this match ultimately deciding who wins the league, regardless of how many points split the top team from the 2nd-placed team.

 

Something has to be done to try to break up the duopoly the Old Firm has on this league.

 

Don't like the championship play-off idea, thats what they do here in the MLS and a team that plays crap all season can have a good run towards the end of the season get into the play-offs and win the major title and noone  remembers the team that lost 2 games all season and won the league table by a mile. I wish they would scrap it here.

The only other way to close the gap between the old firm would be to have a salary cap in the SPL.

[Sandaldinho]

i'd go for an 18 team league with 2 getting relegated.

i'd also go for the teams finishing 2nd, 3rd and 4th in a playoff for the 2nd champions league/european place with the format being 3rd vs 4th with the winner playing 2nd.

this would give the league the chance to break up the Infirms dominance and give the rest of the league something to play for other than third.

at the end of the day i think the split doesn't do anything and no matter how much you try there will always be "meaningless" games towards the end of the season.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

but the SPL will bottle it and do next to fuck all other than bend over invite the Infirm to shaft them some more.

lets face it the game needs a major overhaul but we don't have anybody within the football heirarchy with the bottle to do it. :hammer:

[BobbyBiscuit]

I think we should ditch the split and keep it a 12-team league. We should have one auto-relegation spot and one relegation-playoff spot.

 

We should also start up a championship playoff scheme whereby the top FOUR teams play a round-robin knockout mini-tournament at the end of the season ... with the final match of the season being at Hampden, and this match ultimately deciding who wins the league, regardless of how many points split the top team from the 2nd-placed team.

 

Something has to be done to try to break up the duopoly the Old Firm has on this league.

 

Why have a league then? That's just a big fuck off cup competition.  It's a league to find out who is best, leave it at that. Just because it isn't our team doesn't mean we should change the rules.  How happy would we have been in 80, 84 and 85 if United, the huns or tims won it on a play off?

[Mentorred]

Why have a league then? That's just a big fuck off cup competition.  It's a league to find out who is best, leave it at that. Just because it isn't our team doesn't mean we should change the rules.  How happy would we have been in 80, 84 and 85 if United, the huns or tims won it on a play off?

 

Exactly, thats what it is like here, you get a little trophy for winning the league and no one  even cares about it. They all want to win the MLS cup which is the paly off trophy.

[Sandaldinho]

Exactly, thats what it is like here, you get a little trophy for winning the league and no one  even cares about it. They all want to win the MLS cup which is the paly off trophy.

we should just combine all the scottish leagues and make it a massive knock-out competition

 

just imagine......Aberdeen going out in the first round to Burntisland Ship Yard!

[Kowalski]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/scot_prem/8889822.stm

 

Announcement due by end of year.

BBC spoke to 9 clubs (wonder who the 3 clubs were that weren't spoken to) and 7 of them favoured a larger league.

 

I just hope "larger league" doesn't mean this farcical 14 team league with a split that they've been talking about.

[scunnered999]

Also considering play-offs potentially. Not sure what to think about that. I can see the attraction from keeping interest going to the end of the season, but can't help thinking if you finish bottom / second bottom after a whole season you must be crap and deserve to go down. Conversely if you finish top/second in the lower league then you deserve to go up

[Tyrant]

18 team league. 34 games each. 1 goes down. 1 comes up. Champions of 1st division come up. 2nd placed 1st division team please 17th placed SPL team in a two legged play-off with a place in the SPL on the line.

 

If the number of games (which would now be less) is a problem go back to the old group stage formula that the league cup had.

 

Done.