Major Restructuring in the Pipeline for SPL

[maverick sheep]

"Never seen Stewart Gilmour look so angry as he made his way to his car. Stewart Milne looked close to tears."

[Sandaldinho]

Glad it never went through, fuckin stupid idea!

I can understand the clubs are trying to find ways to entertain the fans whilst maximising income but when are they actually going to LISTEN to the fans? As unaffordable as a larger league is, there is soon going to come a point where they have to make it affordable. Fans aren't turning up anymore because our current set up is fuckin nonsense, the new proposed set up was nonsense also, I know myself I stopped going 2-3 years ago because of crap football, expensive tickets and a league run by morons. I can find better things to throw my money at 

 

And let's all remember, the people saying that a larger league in unaffordable are the same people that spun all the fire and brimstone pish about Rangers getting the dunt to Div. 3! And that turned out as they predicted didn't it

[Kowalski]

RANGERS have this evening released the following statement after the meeting of SPL clubs at Hampden Park earlier today.

  A club spokesperson said: “We note the outcome of today’s SPL vote on League reconstruction.

"Rangers has already openly talked about what we believe were constructive proposals and hope that these will be considered at some point in the future.

“The vast majority of supporters did not want 12-12-18 and the two clubs who voted against this should not be singled out for criticism. They stood up for what they and their fans believe.”

 

 

Although I didn't want to see the proposals go through, is there something else afoot here - are St Mirren and Ross Co somehow in cahoots with Sevco?

[tlg1903]

 

Although I didn't want to see the proposals go through, is there something else afoot here - are St Mirren and Ross Co somehow in cahoots with Sevco?

 

highly doubtful IMO.  The focus for fans now should be why there has been change from the 'we are following the fans wishes' rhetoric to 'lets completely ignore them' less than a year later.

[manc_don]

I find it absolutely ridiculous that there is  / was no plan b. If destruction is what it takes to allow Scottish football to die / reform, then so be it. The plan put forward was completely idiotic and been proved to fail. I'm still not sure who to believe but frankly, they needed to discuss it further.

[Mentorred]

Just listening to BBC Scotland sports podcast and Tom English said exactly what I said when I heard how pissed Stewart Milne is, we had the chance to change the 11-1 voting structure and he voted against changing it. Now that has come back to bite him.

[tom_widdows]

I seriously doubt Ross County have anything to do with Green & Co

 

 

St Mirren's board on the other hand........

[manc_don]

Weren't Ross county sympathetic to the huns in the summer

[tom_widdows]

cant recall but a club that worked its way up through the league system without relying on tv money, has one of the best youth academies in uk football and lives within its means  thanks to a chairman who asked why the current leagues cannot be maintained but with a fairer share out of the cash and playoffs in each division

 

 

as opposed to a club that has somehow gone from debt free with a brand new stadium in 2009 to being apparently on the brink thanks to the actions of its current board who let us not forget have had rumours about links with green, whyte etc ever since the blue meanies went tits up.

I seriously doubt St Mirrens fans were consulted at all

[bloo_toon_red]

Clubs voted for a change in voting majority from 11-1 to 9-3.

There was no plan b on the table today because they've talked about it for months, filtered out the best bits from plans a-z to come up with a plan that had been agreed upon in principle by all 12 clubs until last week. It's not difficult to understand why there's anger & frustration.

Stuart Gilmour's season ticket assertion is pish and is typical of why traditionalism will continue to prevail over progress. Everyone needs to get it through their heads that the new set-up is designed to reward aspirational clubs. St Mirren have just won a national club competition and yet they are looking backwards? Thank fuck I'm not a fan of that club.

Doncaster definitely has to walk now.

And Rangers can just get to fuck.

[TENEMENTFUNSTER]

Quite a lot of this. ^

[tom_widdows]

Gilmour threatening legal action allegedly. i wonder if I should be worried

[Kowalski]

Aberdeen FC today expressed its intense frustration and disappointment following the extensive period of work undertaken by many to bring forward plans that would have delivered:

 

A single merged league with a substantial increase in meaningful games.

 

A major expansion of play-offs offering greater opportunities for promotion between divisions.

 

A pyramid structure across the entire game.

 

A substantial redistribution of income to the present SFL 1 clubs most in need of that income.

 

Opportunities to fully exploit commercial central revenues to the benefit of the game as a whole.

 

Set out below is the detailed process that led us to believe that the reorganisation proposal would have been unanimously approved by all twelve member clubs on Monday.

 

On September 2012, the SPL set up a reorganisation group consisting of representatives of clubs across the SPL (Aberdeen, Celtic, Dundee, Hearts Kilmarnock and St Johnstone).

 

The group was tasked with the process of bringing forward plans that would bring significant benefits as outlined above to the game at every level.

 

At the very outset all agreed, that matters of league structure, voting and distribution had to be agreed if the proposals were to succeed ie, dealing with voting alone would not lead to compromise and a successful outcome.

 

Our desire, and the final proposal demonstrated, that the correct approach was to reduce significantly protected matters only to those areas that protect all member clubs.

 

Further, ALL clubs would need to compromise to ensure a balanced package was delivered.

 

The resolution on changing the voting on protected matters from 11-1 to 9-3 was deferred on a number of occasions from April 2012, and at the request of the majority of SPL clubs was withdrawn at the meeting on December 3.

 

During these discussions it was agreed by all parties that the key to unlocking the deadlock was to deliver far more meaningful games to the supporters that would also be attractive to broadcasters and sponsors alike.

 

In order to make this possible the reorganisation group agreed that increased promotion and relegation was essential, a risk the clubs were prepared to take for the good of the game.

 

The reorganisation group also agreed that the clubs at the top of the league would need to give up considerable merit payments if a reorganisation was to be delivered.

 

The combination of these two major compromises would have enabled significant sums to be delivered into the lower leagues thereby meaning that relegation from the top division could be managed by clubs that were most at risk as a result of these proposals as well as significant sums into the second tier.

 

The reorganisation group also reviewed all protected matters requiring an 11-1 vote and unanimously agreed these be reduced principally to matters around league reconstruction, any further changes to the financial distribution model (as the top SPL sides had given up considerable sums all recognised any further changes needed to be protected), retention of home gates and limiting the number of home games shown live on television by each club (for which no direct income is received).

 

The latter two principles are vital to protect ALL clubs and maximise the value of central contracts. The reorganisation group also agreed an all through financial distribution model.

 

The working group presented these plans to all SPL clubs at a general meeting on December 3, 2012 and all twelve clubs agreed that the 12-12 (and three 8s) proposal should be taken forward as this delivered the maximum meaningful games and that the restructuring group should discuss these proposals with the SFA, PGB and the SFL management Board.

 

As indicated above it was at this meeting that the majority of clubs agreed to withdraw the resolution with regards to changing the 11-1 requirement on protected matters.

 

Following two meetings with the SFA and SFL the second being on January 9, 2013 which was attended on behalf of the SPL by the restructuring group clubs as well as St Mirren, the three organisation’s chief EXecutives were able to announce that the new structure had been agreed in principle.

 

The SPL clubs met in general meeting on January 28, 2013 for an update and unanimously agreed in principle to take forward the 12-12-18 (the 18 having been the preferred option of the SFL as opposed to two leagues of 10) with the voting and all through 42 distribution model accepted after input from the SFL management board as to the sums involved.

 

This also enabled the vast majority of SFL clubs to agree to move the process forward.

 

Following the above meeting the SPL Board, given the unanimous support for the principles, commissioned legal work to be undertaken to draft agreements and documentation based entirely on the principles reached by the clubs.

 

The time and effort put into this process was huge and the SPL executive, board, restructuring team and legal representatives spent considerable time on this to enable final documents to be sent out to all SPL clubs.

 

Following a further general meeting on March 11, 2013, all SPL clubs agreed that the clubs should reconvene to formally vote on the proposal and the SPL met with the SFA, PGB and SFL on April 2, 2013 to agree a detailed timetable to enable the SPL and SFL Clubs to meet and vote on the proposals to take effect at the start of season 2013-14.

 

Given the level of discussion outlined above and the opportunity for clubs to indicate well in advance of Monday’s meeting where they stood on the key principles of league reconstruction, voting and distribution, we found it difficult to understand why the two clubs that rejected the proposal waited until so late in the day to state they would vote against.

 

Given the serious implications of a no vote, we proposed along with Celtic, that in the event of the new 12 12 (and three 8s) not delivering the outcomes we all hoped it would, then it could be changed by a 9-3 majority ie, future league reconstruction would cease to be a protected matter.

 

We felt, as did others, that this dealt with the barriers preventing St Mirren and Ross County agreeing to back the proposal as they had in the past. Unfortunately, they stated they still could not agree to support this.

 

They did not even agree to allow the member clubs at short notice to vote on the proposal removing league restructuring from protected rights which we find very difficult to understand.

[bloo_toon_red]

I see that Donald Findlay is still a smeg breathed orange poison pusher.

[TENEMENTFUNSTER]

Now then, apparently Scottish fitba is fucked and the quality has never been lower.

 

I was at the Reebok for Bolton (still with a strong shout of the play-offs) against Middlesboro (were early season top 2 and have only won 3 matches this year, those being the Champions Cardiff, Notts Forest and Leeds) and my the fuck it was terrible.

 

Aside from the first 5 minutes the quality was no better than an average SPL game.

 

Total pish and 2 not very good teams, 28 quid for the privilege too and this from the 5th richest league in Europe. Honestly, we're not that bad.

 

Get play-offs into the league structure as it stands and it will be marketable. It's worked for a very average league down south. 

 

[tlg1903]

Barry Glendenning was talking about this last week on football weekly.  He went to see Cardiff not so long before they won the league and said that if they were the best team in the championship then the standard of the league had gone down hugely. 

[TENEMENTFUNSTER]

I'm not sure the standard has declined in the league, its never been THAT good.

 

Boro aren't as good as they were when I saw them a year ago though but Mowbray is trying really hard to make a cunt of it.

 

If they can market this pish successfully then the SPL can do fine.

[manc_don]

Really? I actually think its the teams you're watching. No offence, but Bolton and boro have never been famed for playing football. Having seen a lot more championship football than ive ever seen before,  its generally streets ahead in terms of entertainment. i try to watch the spl on tv, and it is shocking. Not helped by the sparse crowds though.  try watching games that don't involve the dons and you'll see it for what it is.

[TENEMENTFUNSTER]

I was comparing it to average SPL games. A general standard rather than AFC games.

 

I've watched a few Championship games and if Cardiff are the best they have it's not that good.

 

Competitive, tough to get out of and well supported it might be but it isn't very good.

 

The SPL has had some barnstorming games this season.

[maverick sheep]

football in pretty much any league you could name has declined hugely in the last year or 3 (haven't seen much bundesliga so wouldn't be surprised if they're bucking that trend like all the other trends). There's more money about in places like the EPL, but it's papering over the cracks. The bubble's burst. Not even taking into account that almost no top-flight league even had a title challenge this season, it's all been thoroughly boring to watch with very few outbreaks of football.

[Kowalski]

Another meeting today:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/22323637

 

I'm not sure introducing a play-off is a good idea, it could lead to duller games in the SPL if there is a potential extra relegation place, with more teams playing for draws.

[manc_don]

Do you think so? Another threat of relegation needs to be introduced and would at least help both clubs with extra gate receipts.

[maverick sheep]

Never thought about the playing for draws aspect. I'd definitely prefer to see more relegation. Put the bottom six on zero pts/zero goal diff and have them all scrap it out to avoid being 1 of the 3 going down. It'd be like 6 tramps fighting over a bottle of white lightening.

[Kowalski]

The more teams dragged into a relegation battle = the more teams parking the bus at Pittodrie.

[Stewart]

Jim Spence ?@bbcjimspence 2m

Sent from my iPad Ten clubs are ready to quit the Scottish Football League in time for next season and join a new SPFL.

Jim Spence ?@bbcjimspence 51s

ten SFL clubs say they want a 42 club solution but if can't get that, they want to join new Scottish Professional Football League.

Gordon Waddell ?@GordonWaddell 4m

Breaking: 11 clubs about to resign en masse from SFL. All of SFL1, with the exception of Airdrie, plus QotS and Dundee are signatories