Juan Kerse

Yea so what we need is a prize draw for a car...

It does but it goes back to playing some teams 4 times. It also involves any budding title challenger having to go to Glasgow 4 times which offers little to no chance of sustaining a challenge. Repetitveness and competitiveness are the two main issues. A 14 team league does little to solve either. A 16 team league addresses both. The 7 game split proposal makes it commercially viable.

I have thought about a 1 game round split in a 16 before, but if you are first at the split you get say 2, 4,6 at home, 3, 5 , 7 and 8 away. The key being you deserve to get your closest rivals (i.e. 2nd) at home. Otherwise the Old Firm, if finishing 1/2 couldn't argue as the 'leader' gets the home game. You could perhaps sort it so that everyone at least plays the 'rival' below them at home. Anyway, it crucially gives more games for clubs and SKY, less 'hard' games than playing big teams 4 times so more title challengers plus the sweetner of an extra Old Firm game than just 2x15 rounds for some clubs and TV money. And SKY don't give a shit where the Old Firm/Edinburgh Derby is played. Nice wee solution this Steve but clearly it makes too much fucking sense for Scottish Football.

Perhaps not but it is worth a go. Crowds at the moment are dropping like a stone. If we go to a 10 team league many of us have already said we are out for good. Think of the knock on effect of that, friends, families future generations all as a result not going to the football. The game is over in a 10 team league. Boring, repetitive, Old Firm winning everything. If a 16 team league offers even a 10% chance of bringing more title challengers, more expressive and attacking teams and more fans in as a result then it is a chance worth taking.

Me too 1104 already. I have never known so many regular attenders being a baw-hair to packing it in, all over Scotland. The 10 team will be the straw that breaks the camel's back. Game over up here. Scottish punters taking in a few quality games in the Premiership a season might become a culture we have to get used to.

and they have won the title in the last 20 odd of 10/12 team seasons.

Great post Cloudy and something I hadn't even thought of. This '£1,000,000 Loss' is clearly a scare tactic by Doncaster. And even if clubs do lose money, as I and Jay and others have said - who gives a fuck? If the SPL becomes a breeding ground for teenagers on a few hundred a week in preperation for the English leagues then fine. (not far off it anyway) The fact that there are less 'hard' games for most of the clubs will allow this to work AND offer a great chance for the 'bigger' SPL sides to amass points and challenge the Old Firm - as they have less games against them and each other. Add to that there is less repetition and more fans interest. And as someone else said, if clubs, fans all want a bigger league then it really is easy, resign from the SPL, tell the OF to bolt and run to the SFL - they will easily reshuffle and fire up 2 big fuck off leagues of 20 if we want them to. But that is pipe dream stuff, as magic as it would be!

Yes more teams won the league outwith the Old Firm and there were less Old Firm domination, other teams finishing second etc.. Look it up. Eh, yes. With the games meaning more as teams will be able to mount a title challenge I am sure we can live with 'only' 30 games. In the NFL they only have a 16 team league regular season and the fans are chomping at the bit for every game, less is more, as they say...

See I don't buy this ' we have too many teams in Scotland' Yes there are 42 'senior' teams. This means fuck all. At least 15 of these 'Senior' teams have equivilents in terms of player wage, grounds and attendances in England in villages and leagues you have never heard of. Nothing wrong with two 'big' leagues of 16 and then a regionalised pyramid system thereafter. Less teams to look after in the 'senior' set-up will be a good thing. Germany, Spain etc.. all have only 2 or 3 at most 'senior' leagues then a regionalised system underneath. Why we still 4 leagues is beyond me.

A daft thing I've always thought was if a game ends 0-0 (or any draw) but especiallu 0-0 (I hate 0-0s) both teams get one penalty each. If they both score it ends 1-1 and obviously it can stay 0-0 or a team wins 1-0. At least the fans see some action, nothing wore than a 0-0!! Anyway as for the 10 team pish. Are they actually TRYING to shut the door on Scottish football!! Do these people know that we are fed up (actualy they do, due to numerous surveys and polls) and can easily get our football fix on channel 401-405 for the rest of time if it gets any worse! 16 team is a no-brainer! For an absoulte certainty it would mean more chalenging at the top as teams don't have to play the Old Firm so much. This in itself would create more excitement never mind ridding of the ridiculous situation of playing the ame teams over and over. Yes there will be less TV money, who cares - the players take a wage cut. If this means a lesser 'quality' of player then whatever - hardly champions league stuff at the minute. There will always be 11 geezers wanting paid to play SPL football...

That's not what I said at all. If we get to the final I'll be there, obviously. How is not going to the 4th round game in January saying I won't be at a final if we get there? The apathy surrounding Scottish football and Motherwell is immense at the moment, I am not alone!

+1 There was about a 10% chance I would have made the effort purely as it is the Scottish. But tbh it isn't exactly a quality 3rd(4th) round game, like Stranraer or what Inverurie should have been. The game on telly just makes the decision even easier. A no brainer.

Managed to catch the game on Alba without knowing the score beforehand, tell you what McCall's going to have to go some to get me along to another 'Well game this season. I just cannae be arsed spending time and money to go and watch that garbage anymore. These guys can't string 3 passes together!! When you think you can pay 20 Euros to watch Barca play, or 15 Euros for just about any Serie A game you want!! Far, far too many other things to spend money on than the pish Motherwell and the SPL in general is serving up. I'm out.

That's bizzarre, 6 of us just went there on Tuesday, just for the crack and a swally really. Tidy ground, if a bit monotonous though. 3 sides are basically Tynecastle - right down to the look of the canteliever roofing and metalwork. What I liked though is the 'new' stand is only about 1/3 the size of the others in terms of seating area but due to a row of exec boxes, space for a future row of executive seating and the pitch of the roof the height of the stand is the same as the other 3. That website there is cracking though - plenty of inspiration to draw from. Although I am now edging towards the camp of just binning the POD and East, having a 'building' on the main side with exec boxes and a small enclosure of seating and throwing up a Hibs East/ Jackie Husband from Thistle/Hearts Weatfield and be done with it.

^^^^^^^^ Same here. Dad's whole family are Rangers fans but all of them to a man hardly ever went to games. I used to nag him like mad to go to Ibrox as a kid and we went once or twice a season when I was about 9 or 10 or something. Then my High School (moved from the southside to the 'Shire) started giving away free tickets, the first one was during that £5/£1 scheme, the Dundee Utd game and I was up in the South Stand for my first ever 'Well game to watch Kye Nyssonen score the winner in a 1-0 win! Pretty much hooked after that, the school gave you a ticket for a £1 for the next couple of seasons and after that my Dad and Sister started coming and are now both die-hard 'Well fans - away to chuffing Nancy and everything while I was stuck at work! Who knew!

Shocking patter.

I think it has to be a little deeper than you suggest. I doubt the bookies would publicise such a routine and automatic action. By going to the press they are effectively highlighting unfair and illegitimate football matches in one of their key markets - hardly going to bring the punters in is it?

Good work Flowdo. Believe it or not, actually saying nothing is better than not saying anything at all... That's quite profound - i like it...

I just LOLed.

I think we can appeal on Hypocritical grounds alone. Watch the replay and you can clearly make out O' Reilly mouthing 'Get tae fuck'! That, in my eyes, would immediately null and void a sending off and resulting ban for using 'Foul and Abusive' language on a football park!!!

Police investigating 'irregular betting patterns' on a red card. On SSN the now.

Great thread. Must admit I though I would need my Tin hat when I said pretty much that it was game over for Motherwell this season for me in the other thread. Seems I am not alone!! Like I said before, me and my mate have been picking and choosing for a while now, but probabally becasue we both live away from the shire. I have to treat football like a day out. Each to their own but how punters can leave the house, travel to FP, part with twenty quid at the gate, sit in silence on a freezing plastic pitch and watch young guys on £100,000 a year struggle to string 3 passes together and be home for 5 O' Clock and do this religiously every two weeks is beyond me now. An away game, on the train with your mates getting lagered up and in the pub pre-match for a couple of hours will always be a different story! Although we, for a while, have even been taking Motherwell out of this equation and just firing in other teams for somewhere to go! Going down to England you can stand at some grounds, enjoy a pint at half time and generally watch much better stuff. You can be in Newcastle in an hour and a half from Edinburgh, the magnificent stadium is right in the city centre and at half time you can sit in a lounge, sip a beer and watch the telly - talk about different gravy!! Although, it is true that you don't even have to have anything on to take Motherwell's place these days. The popular culture of a 'Jeff Afternoon', sitting in a boozer with your pals with a coupon on, spending your £22 gate money on 6 pints or so is a fine way to spend a Saturday. In all, Scottish Football is indeed fucked. If guys like myself and many on here just can't be arsed any more it needs revolutionised right now (yea like a 10 time league, haud me back!). Or, maybe we will all just merge in with the English or European leagues, either going to the odd games or being brainwashed by SKY and you favourite old Scottish team will end up being something you merely check in the paper.

To be fair, I've been half arsed about it all for a couple of years - perhaps more to do with living away from the shire right enough, but you won't be alone. Sadly though, and I do mean sadly, there will be 2,000 fans who would pay double their Season Ticket price just to have something to do, so if you think that anything will change by you, me and most of the punters you know giving up and sitting on our fannies all Saturday you are mistaken. What's Matt's book called again?

What, for tapping him on the shoulder to get his attention? If you thought that, why are you still watching football? Like I have read elsewhere, if a Celtic player had got sent of for that there would be a full enquiry (and resulting strike...) that would last for months. What will be said of this. Fuck all because it is only a wee pointless diddy team. He should be sacked. End of. Making stuff up to fit your own ego is not his job. Making objective calls in a game of football is. The red card was purely personal, nothing objective about it. He was chocking to show the players/fans/fellow refs who the big man was all game and took the slightest excuse to do it.

Hate to be the propet of doom but the rest of the season os pretty much a write off. We will never catch Hearts in 3rd - they are motoring. We should just be thankfull Broon got us up the league and away from relegation zone and the next guy can just take the rest of the season as preperation. Of course, we still have the cups but a few players need to get the finger out for any joy there, Reynolds for starters, Humphrey needs to turn up at FP and Gow can just go away, he is gantin!