The Round Ball Game

[scottycelt]

So what you imply then is that Rangers in Div3 is a bit like say Everton playing in the Conference North!

My 'implication' is certainly along those sort of lines ...

[Lateralthinking1]

Who is paying the old club's debts? The taxpayer? I assume the new club under Green will still be at Ibrox. Hopefully it will be like the 300 attendances at Meadowbank some years ago. Costly.

Integrity wins over money. For now. How can SPL attendances fall just because Rangers won't be visiting clubs when they all stand a better and fairer chance of winning - or at least being runner up?

I favour two SPLs immediately, each of 10 teams. Roughly an SPL(N) and an SPL(S) as the bus fares to Inverness and Ross are very expensive. But here's the catch. SPL(N) is extended in a very narrow arrow southwards into the part of Glasgow that specifically includes moneybags Celtic. They can afford to travel. Nices tie there with Aberdeen and probably Dundee Utd. The Edinburgh derby is retained in the new SPL(S) and those teams would get Charles the Millionaire Rangers FC too if they ever recover. At the end of each season, the winners of SPL(N) and SPL(S) to play each other to determine the premier Champions.

Doing this would also enable Rangers to get back to the top flight in two rather than three seasons, not that they deserve it, ie there would only be two lower football league divisions, not three.

Green can have the money for the SPL(N) v SPL(S) winners match at Ibrox each year until Rangers are in a Premiership. But for that privilege, SPL(N) and SPL(S) to continue for at least 5 years after their return so that it isn't all geared around them again.

[teamsaint]

Like your creative thinking Lat.

[Lateralthinking1]

Like your creative thinking Lat.

Thank you teamsaint. I think the main problem with my suggestion is that Celtic, Aberdeen, Dundee Utd, Herts and Hibs would all probably prefer to continue playing every one of the other and not just some of them, that is, until the possibility of a final match.

But that argument isn't wholly convincing. Should, for example, Aberdeen place more emphasis on the gate money receipts from visiting Herts and Hibs fans than they do from having additional home fans because of a greater chance of winning the Premiership title? I don't think so. Then you have to add in the huge amount of extra money to be gained from winning and then being in Europe. Each would have a greater chance of it.

Of them all, the main stumbling block is probably Celtic who will be concerned about losses from the end of ties with Rangers and won't want further losses by not having matches with Hibs and Herts either. I would have thought though they could stand to gain anyway from sponsorship etc by being unequivocally the biggest and richest team in Scotland.

So overall I will stick with my suggestion. A restructuring of this kind, with an all important match at the end of the season, could reinvigorate Scottish football. And if people don't want the final to be at Ibrox, or Hampden which has also fallen to Charles Green, then it could always be a two way final held at the participants' grounds.

[teamsaint]

Thank you teamsaint. I think the main problem with my suggestion is that Celtic, Aberdeen, Dundee Utd, Herts and Hibs would all probably prefer to continue playing every one of the other and not just some of them, that is, until the possibility of a final match.

But that argument isn't wholly convincing. Should, for example, Aberdeen place more emphasis on the gate money receipts from visiting Herts and Hibs fans than they do from having additional home fans because of a greater chance of winning the Premiership title? I don't think so. Then you have to add in the huge amount of extra money to be gained from winning and then being in Europe. Each would have a greater chance of it.

So the main stumbling block is Celtic who will be concerned about losses from the end of ties with Rangers and won't want losses by not having matches with Hibs and Herts either. I would have thought though they could stand to gain anyway from sponsorship etc from being unequivocally the biggest and richest team in Scotland.

So overall I will stick with my suggestion. A restructuring of this kind, with an all important match at the end of the season could reinvigorate Scottish football. And if people don't want it to be at Ibrox, or Hampden which has also fallen to Charles Green, then it could always be a two way final held at the participants' grounds.

you would have to work hard to make scottish football worse....and I mean that in a caring way !
Back in my youth, the English league(Div 1) was full of quality scottish pros. Saints had Eric martin, Jimmy Gabriel and others.There were world class players like Dalglish, Souness etc. What on erath has happened to the talent. I know Scottycelt is baffled !!
(also, what happened to the proposed atlantic league?)

[cloughie]

you would have to work hard to make scottish football worse....and I mean that in a caring way !
Back in my youth, the English league(Div 1) was full of quality scottish pros. Saints had Eric martin, Jimmy Gabriel and others.There were world class players like Dalglish, Souness etc. What on erath has happened to the talent. I know Scottycelt is baffled !!
(also, what happened to the proposed atlantic league?)

In my youth Div 1 was full of English pros also - certain Prem clubs now a minority. There does seem to be a pool of Scottish managers even if a couple of them dropped out last season.

[EdgeleyRob]

Rangers won't be able to use goal line technology for every game next season.
Apparently it doesn't work between 2 piles of jumpers.

[John Wright]

Back in my youth, the English league(Div 1) was full of quality scottish pros. Saints had Eric martin, Jimmy Gabriel and others.There were world class players like Dalglish, Souness etc. What on erath has happened to the talent. I know Scottycelt is baffled !!
(also, what happened to the proposed atlantic league?)

It is baffling. Especially when I remember my years at a Scottish high school in the 1960s, football wasn't on the gym curriculum. We had rugby and basketball! I'm south of the border now, but I'm sure nowadays all secondary schools in Scotland DO play football, but there's no quality coming out.

[John Wright]

Ha, Mr Drogba says his move to China wasn't motivated by money it was motivated by 'the challenge'.

Well, if he wants a real challenge he could come to Coventry City and try playing with a bunch of amateurs!

[EdgeleyRob]

Ha, Mr Drogba says his move to China wasn't motivated by money it was motivated by 'the challenge'.

Well, if he wants a real challenge he could come to Coventry City and try playing with a bunch of amateurs!

or Stockport County.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Rangers won't be able to use goal line technology for every game next season.
Apparently it doesn't work between 2 piles of jumpers.

[scottycelt]

It is baffling. Especially when I remember my years at a Scottish high school in the 1960s, football wasn't on the gym curriculum. We had rugby and basketball! I'm south of the border now, but I'm sure nowadays all secondary schools in Scotland DO play football, but there's no quality coming out.

Maybe it can be part-explained that young boys have so many other interests and don't play 'keep-uppy' and street football like we used to ... after all there are very few world-class English players either, as most of the top players in the EPL are foreign.

Like John, my old school in Glasgow played rugby instead of my beloved soccer, and the only possible reason for this was to be considered on a par with the top Protestant schools ... I've never quite forgiven them for that (not providing soccer facilities. I mean!)

Glasgow was (still is) one of the most soccer-mad cities in the world and this enthusiasm for the game should have been nurtured and exploited by these schools and not snootily ignored because it was apparently considered too common and 'working-class'. Of course, the fact that I detested playing rugby probably had something to do with my own particular anti-establishment attitude as well!

Now they have girls at my old school, so the boys, quite naturally, will have even more interests on their tiny little minds ...

[BBMmk2]

Rangers won't be able to use goal line technology for every game next season.
Apparently it doesn't work between 2 piles of jumpers.

ER, naughty!! Made me laugh though!

[Lateralthinking1]

I would genuinely like to know how the 16 teams for the Olympics football were chosen:

Great Britain (A1), Senegal (A2), United Arab Emirates (A3), Uruguay (A4)
Group B: Mexico (B1), South Korea (B2), Gabon (B3), Switzerland (B4)
Group C: Brazil (C1), Egypt (C2), Belarus (C3), New Zealand (C4)
Group D: Spain (D1), Japan (D2), Honduras (D3), Morocco (D4)

I am not complaining. It is quite an interesting selection but it is also very odd. How did they decide?

[EdgeleyRob]

I would genuinely like to know how the 16 teams for the Olympics football were chosen:

Great Britain (A1), Senegal (A2), United Arab Emirates (A3), Uruguay (A4)
Group B: Mexico (B1), South Korea (B2), Gabon (B3), Switzerland (B4)
Group C: Brazil (C1), Egypt (C2), Belarus (C3), New Zealand (C4)
Group D: Spain (D1), Japan (D2), Honduras (D3), Morocco (D4)

I am not complaining. It is quite an interesting selection but it is also very odd. How did they decide?

They must have just drawn the names out of a hat,there's no other possible explanation surely.