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League Expansion


Pride_of_ayrshire

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For me, back to something 'normal'

The split creates stress on teams, players and their livelihoods and prevents youth development.

'back in the day' you'd see the youth players in the teams towards the end of the season for experience - now we're farming them off to other teams and divisions because teams cant afford to risk losing points.

 

Scotland should (IMO) be 2 leagues of 18, with a regional pyramid below it to allow other teams in and out.

For the relegation promotion between top and bottom league you could have 2 automatics and involve 2 or 3 from each division on top of that for a playoff situation.

 

Meaningless games? for TV maybe, but for for the fans and the teams - and the product would improve as 'middling teams' could experiment and speculate a bit with relative safety from relegation assured

 

If you really want to pander to both branches of the big-o-tree, you could do a best of three/five/random number American series style playoff for the top 2 in the top league each year rather than a points resolution.

There's your box office for TV should you need it - and we can all leave them to it.

 

Dump the league cup and have a proper big Scottish Cup with fewer preliminary rounds and all 'big' teams in earlier.

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2 hours ago, dasboag said:

For me, back to something 'normal'

The split creates stress on teams, players and their livelihoods and prevents youth development.

'back in the day' you'd see the youth players in the teams towards the end of the season for experience - now we're farming them off to other teams and divisions because teams cant afford to risk losing points.

 

Scotland should (IMO) be 2 leagues of 18, with a regional pyramid below it to allow other teams in and out.

For the relegation promotion between top and bottom league you could have 2 automatics and involve 2 or 3 from each division on top of that for a playoff situation.

 

Meaningless games? for TV maybe, but for for the fans and the teams - and the product would improve as 'middling teams' could experiment and speculate a bit with relative safety from relegation assured

 

If you really want to pander to both branches of the big-o-tree, you could do a best of three/five/random number American series style playoff for the top 2 in the top league each year rather than a points resolution.

There's your box office for TV should you need it - and we can all leave them to it.

 

Dump the league cup and have a proper big Scottish Cup with fewer preliminary rounds and all 'big' teams in earlier.

Septic played Frimpong and Johnston in the last infirm game ,Tierny .McCorie,Ajier,Demble ,Eduardo and others have all featured in infirm games at a young age .McGinn ,McLean ,Fraser ,McKenna ,Taylor to name but few have all played in the SPL as youngsters .We ourselves played Taylor ,Syme and Kiltie in a relagation play off .Half the Septic team are made up of home grown talent or young player they have signed to devlope.The league certinly doesn't stiffile young talent if they are good enough they will play 

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3 hours ago, dasboag said:

Scotland should (IMO) be 2 leagues of 18, with a regional pyramid below it to allow other teams in and out.

For the relegation promotion between top and bottom league you could have 2 automatics and involve 2 or 3 from each division on top of that for a playoff situation

Agree, premiership and a championship. Trying to sustain too many leagues makes a mockery of Scottish football. Need to cut our cloth accordingly, 2 pro leagues, impose better rules around distribution of money too. 
 

SFA/SPFL seem to be paralysed by the old filth threats to move south. If it was going to happen it would’ve happened by now. The money they both make from merchandise alone dwarfs league prize money, lets use that more wisely to the games benefit rather than just swelling their bank accounts. It’s time for Scottish football to start looking forward and not back.

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Why would the English want them? Just cost 2 English teams a place in the Premier League eventually. And they invariably cause trouble anytime they go down south. EPL hardly need the money. For me they only way they go is if some type of Euro League gets off the ground.

Other Scottish clubs have allowed themselves to be persuaded that they can't/shouldn't do anything without the approval of the Glasgow twins. Is it not the case that voting structures basically allow Celtic and Rangers to veto anything that doesn't suit them?

 

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18 hours ago, Guff92 said:


 

There’s a reason no other league uses this format? It’s a load of pish.

Many other countries have a split. Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Israel, Lithuania, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Ukraine all have some form of split.

I don't think you can argue that the split has been good for Scottish football. But there's no chance of league expansion any time soon

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If you expand the league to 16 you would need to make the Scottish and League cup a two legged competition so the T.V companies could still get their Old Firm matches. In the end that is what it boils down to, how many times you can get them on T.V 

The rest of us are merely there to make up the numbers in broadcasters eyes.

Edited by Bullitt
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I posted this at the end of last season. The current Czech league setup with 16 teams: 

  

On 5/15/2019 at 3:04 PM, Prahakillie said:

I hadn't noticed this before until I realised the Czech teams are playing some play-offs at the moment. 

Usually it was just a 16 team league playing each other twice, 30 games a season. 

Now top 6 and bottom 6 have a play off after that. (an extra 5 games) and middle 4 as well have their own mini league. 

More here: 

 https://www.radio.cz/en/section/curraffrs/czech-footballs-top-flight-set-for-revolutionary-changes-from-2018-2019

 

CZECH FOOTBALL’S TOP FLIGHT SET FOR REVOLUTIONARY CHANGES FROM 2018–2019

Czech football’s first division is set for a major shake-up from the start of the 2018–2019 season. Following 30 rounds of the regular season, clubs will form three groups, with the top one battling for the title and the bottom one fighting to avoid the drop. But what is the motivation for the huge change?

 

There are 16 clubs in Czech soccer’s top tier and they face each other twice a season, as is the usual practice in the sport. 

However, from the 2018–2019 season teams will play several more games – in three different groups. League Football Association chief Dušan Svoboda outlined the changes earlier this week. 

“After the 30 rounds, the title group, featuring the first six teams, will play each other in a round robin system. The number of games they play at home and away will depend on their league position after 30 games.” 

The top three get to play three matches at home and just two on the road. And the points the clubs pick up in the group will be added to those earned in the regular season. 

The mid-table group of four clubs will face each other twice in a playoff, with the winner taking on a lower ranked team in the first group for a Europa League spot. 

The final group will be battling to avoid relegation, again in a round robin system and again counting the points from the regular season. The 14th and 15th teams will then take on the second and third clubs from the second division in a play-off. Whoever finishes bottom in the top flight is guaranteed relegation, just as the winners in the second tier are assured of promotion. 

But why did the clubs vote for such a radical transformation? That’s a question I put to football journalist Karel Häring. 

“I think there are two main reasons. The first is to offer more games for fans and for players. 

“The second factor is they can earn bigger money by selling TV rights with more games.” 

Is there any negative side to this change, from your perspective? 

“At the moment, I don’t think so. 

“Of course some people say that it will be a boring group for teams between seventh and 10th place. 

“But I think the teams in the middle of the table also have smaller motivation at the end of the season.” 

But won’t the season be too long? 

“If you look at other countries like Poland and Belgium [which have similar systems], I think we have similar weather to them. So I don’t think it’s too long.

“I don’t think attendances will be big in the summer months. A lot of people spend their holidays outside the big cities. 

“But I still think the main reason is that Czech players need to play more games.” 

 

 

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On 1/12/2020 at 12:19 PM, Guff92 said:

There’s teams in lower leagues that would bring more fans than 50% of the league teams currently do. Hamilton/St Johnstone etc. There would be more Derby’s as well....

I agree. Im referring to teams wanting more home gates against Celtic / Rangers so less teams means more chances of that. 

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I see people talking about how the structure relates to game time for youth. I’d like to see us implement what they do in Italy. 11 or 12 subs on the bench for a game. If you’re winning by a few goals (One can only dream of seeing a goal at this moment in time) there’s the chance to bring on a couple of youth/reserve players to get them crucial game time. I understand that this may seem a stretch as some teams don’t have as many players as that but it seems a great idea to me. 
 

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