I know this is done to death but I wasnt on yesterday so bear with me..
So Ross County and St Mirren are to be 'applauded' for listening to the fans?...personally that argument does not wash.
This was little to do with the fans and more to do with protection.
It is a little convenient that 2 clubs - one new to the SPL for little over 1 year and another that is trying to be sold (on the market for 3 years) - feel that fan power is the reasoning behind the change?
It seems that protecting the base was the name of the game. one has reached the SPL and doesnt want to go, the other is trying to sell an asset in a market that has no wish for it, and cant take the chance of the club falling down a tier and reducing the price further....
While we can argue about the structure all day long - 10, 12, 14, 8-8-8 etc the fact is that this setup was designed to distribute money to the 1st Div allowing clubs that do come up a fighting chance to get better players and possibly survive the promotion in the first place and the potential for relegation with a larger cash pot to help sustain in the event of a drop.
Ask Dunfermline is an extra £150k would help them right now....
Partick will (sadly for the Ton) be promoted this year but with Dundee hopelessly out of their depth this year - yet able to thrash morton in the cup - the ability already for Partick to hold their own is looking slim.
Likewise Dundee go back to a league with fewer full time teams. The Dundee city looses a derby a even more money for the club.
The league was a busted flush. It still is. Reconstruction was not going to suddenly make the battle for SPL glory more feverish - those days are far far away - this was about money. About giving some teams the chance of survival and generating a little interest at a point of the season where we typically all know what the outcome will be in December.
Lastly - why would teams such as St Johnstone, Kilmarnock and even Dundee - perennial teams that would be fighting in that middle 8 structure - be supportive of it if it was such a bad deal for the fans?
Listening to the Supporters...
posted on 16/4/13
My point was that I won`t go repeating myself, but if it helps.................
in my opinion, the shuffling of the deck will make no difference, so I don`t believe that 12-12-18 is any worse, or better, than the current setup. We have too many teams.
The Swiss ditched it, yes, but for what? Anybody here checked? They have 2 leagues of 10, playing each other 4 times a season. We say we don`t want that, but the Swiss say that it has helped their game. Do we still want to accept their opinion, or only the bits that we don`t like?
Our game might not be great, but it will never die, thanks to the fans. Yes, the clubs should listen to the fans, but I think anyone who believes that St Mirren and Ross County made their decisions based on fans` opinions is very naive.
posted on 16/4/13
"In real terms you are closing the gap between the Partick Thistle, Morton, Falkirks of the world and the Dundee, Killie, St Mirren's etc."
Explain to me then how a big league of 18 or 20 cant do that also??
posted on 16/4/13
Would having all these teams in one league, with the same redistribution of wealth, and all getting old firm gate receipts into the bargain, not spread the wealth even more??
posted on 16/4/13
The thing is that the "Mcleish" report c.2010 proposes to leagues of 10. Yet after doing all the work on this HE now decides this crazy structure is for the greater good!
Strange that nobody seems consistent!
Apparent fae "I wont quit" Doncaster
posted on 16/4/13
To be honest this whole thing stinks of the same bullying and blackmailing tactics of the 5 way agreement. The SPL clubs were the driving force behind that too.
Language like now or never, take it or leave it and all or nothing is hardly what i would call fair and open discussion.
Never mind the fact that it sounds more like the dialougue from 1990's action movies.
posted on 16/4/13
posted on 16/4/13
Explain to me then how a big league of 18 or 20 cant do that also??
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Why don't we just do a massive round robin between all 42 clubs? Spread the wealth perectly even between all clubs.
We have too many club in this country to begin with. Making our top league 20 would be insane. There isn't any other countries with a population near ours that has 18 or 20 top league. Belgium is double our population and they cut it from 18 to 16. Switzerland has 2m more than us and they cut it to two league of 10 with regionalised leagues underneath. Comparable Scandanavian countries like Denmark and Finland have 12 top league teams. Sweden has 4m more people than us and went with 16.
I don't want a bigger league and I wanted the 12-12 8-8-8 to go through. Apparently the vast majority of fans want a bigger league but listening to the fans goes against what works in every single other small nation in Europe.
posted on 16/4/13
I don't want a bigger league and I wanted the 12-12 8-8-8 to go through. Apparently the vast majority of fans want a bigger league but listening to the fans goes against what works in every single other small nation in Europe.
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Sometimes listening to the fans isnt the right way to go. This may have been made worse by the fact very little accurate info was realised regarding reconstruction.
Fans want one governing body, cap on ticket pricing, summer football, fairer voting rights....am I missing anything?
I said earlier that the league format is very little impact on the overall standard of the game.
posted on 16/4/13
realised = released*
posted on 16/4/13
There's 53 countries with leagues in Uefa
20 team top division:
England, France, Italy, Spain
18 team top division:
Germany, Holland, Romania, Turkey
16 team top division:
Belgium, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Serbia, Sweden, Ukraine
15 team top division:
San Marino
14 team top division:
Albania, Cyprus, Finland, Israel, Luxembourg, Moldova
12 team top division:
Azerbaijan, Denmark, Iceland, Montenegro, Macedonia, Northern Ireland, Slovakia, Wales and SCOTLAND
11 team top division:
Belarus, Faroe Islands, Lithuania, Ireland
10 team top division:
Austria, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Malta, Slovenia, Switzerland
8 team top division:
Andorra, Armenia
7 team top division:
Lichtenstein
Including us, 24 out of the 53 countries in Uefa have a 12 team top tier or less, about 45%
Nordsjælland, BATE and Celtic were the only clubs from these leagues that made it into the Champions League this season
FC Copenhagen, Basel and Maribor where the only other clubs form these leagues that made it to the Champions League play off round.
Young Boys, Copenhagen, Basel, Neftchi Baku, Maribor, and Rapid Vienna were the only tesam from these leagues to make it to the Europa League proper
Hearts, Dila Gori, Midtyjlland, Horsens, Dudelange, Motherwell, Mura, Ekranas, Lucerne and Zeta were the only other clubs from these leagues to reach the play off round of the Europa League
So from these leagues,with 42 Champions League places to fill, only 3 made the groups and 3 made the play offs.....14% of Champions League playoff and groups stage teams came from these smaller leagues
and out of 79 Europa League places to be filled, 6 made the group stages, and 10 made the play off rounds. 13% of Europa League group stage and play off stages teams came from these leagues.
At International level, according to the FIFA world rankings, only Switzerland, Denmark and Montenegro are in the top 20 UEFA teams and top 30 in the world