What's The Answer?

[Steve Diggle]

What are the measures that need to be taken by the SPL to resurrect the game?

 

Poor Attendances, particularly if the games on the telly.

Playing each other 4 times a season

SPL2?

The Split?

The Winter Break?

The Credit Crunch?

The Old Firm Dominance of resources and media.

Self preservation vs The Overall Good of the Game

No decent TV highlight package at a decent hour on mainstream TV.

 

Just a number of factors.

 

What needs to happen guys? or is everything in the garden rosier than we think?

[biggayal0]

The answer?

 

 

Start following rugby, never was into it before but got hooked on watching the 6 nations, what a spectacular finish to the tournament.

 

 

Capacity crowds,

 

Non-segregated – no trouble, non stop singing, brilliant atmosphere,

 

well disciplined players, top notch referees, high scoring games, and pints at the game what more do you want?

 

 

Makes you wonder why we f**kin bother with football

[Well-Made]

Unfortunately it's not just the SPL that need to do something.

 

We need one body to look after Scottish Football and that should be the SFA (with new faces in charge)

 

The SPL and SFL should combine to look after the football leagues as previous but the SFA in overall charge.

 

Next the Leagues need to be revamped completely.

 

We should have a top league of 16 clubs. (Ideally 18)

No criteria to get into it either.

 

A second tier of 18 Clubs (20 Max)

 

So that gives us some clubs to get rid off.

 

This could be accomplished by a couple of clubs going bust Clyde and Livingston. The rest drop into a restructured Highland\Junior League to give us a pyramid system so that we can lose clubs at the bottom of the second tier and keep things fresh.

 

Relegation from the top would be 3 down with the first 2 automatically promoted with a play off place for the next 4 sides up for grabs.

[Mortonhallwell]

Hasn't Henry McLeish been appointed to look at the state of Scottish football and come up with a blueprint for change.

 

Can't wait!!

[Well Up For It!]

Unfortunately it's not just the SPL that need to do something.

 

We need one body to look after Scottish Football and that should be the SFA (with new faces in charge)

 

The SPL and SFL should combine to look after the football leagues as previous but the SFA in overall charge.

 

Next the Leagues need to be revamped completely.

 

We should have a top league of 16 clubs. (Ideally 18)

No criteria to get into it either.

 

A second tier of 18 Clubs (20 Max)

 

So that gives us some clubs to get rid off.

 

This could be accomplished by a couple of clubs going bust Clyde and Livingston. The rest drop into a restructured Highland\Junior League to give us a pyramid system so that we can lose clubs at the bottom of the second tier and keep things fresh.

 

Relegation from the top would be 3 down with the first 2 automatically promoted with a play off place for the next 4 sides up for grabs.

 

Agree 100% with everything said here, although I'd maybe have three tiers and allow a few smaller clubs in.

 

I'd put financial structures in place to ensure clubs from going into admin mid season - similar to Germany!

 

I'd re-do the deal with Live TV - encourage a package that covers all three tiers and stop the OF from taking the vast majority of the money like they do just now (if they don't like it they can fuck off!)

 

I'd add a homegrown rule - that say 5 of the named squad have to be from the youht ranks of the club, and limit foreigners too.

 

Add the much covented winter break over Jan, with Cup games the first game back last weekend in Jan.

 

Dramatically reduce gate prices by pulling in a huge league sponsor, etc. Also possibility of adding a national wage cap in Scotland (say 15k a week).

 

With these rules the emphasis will be on the young guys coming through and will improve competition and the state of our national team.

 

And follow in the footsteps of the Rugby and allow drink to be consumed at grounds - starting by fasing it in at Hampden.

[Burn_Broomfield]

Policing and Stewards cause shit atmospheres and are a big reason why people aren't going. Fuck the police actually cause the unrest in and around the ground!!!!!!!!!!

High Ticket Prices

Crap Product

[rightdodgyman]

i think the problem is mainly the quality of football and the access people have to the prem league down south now. the majority of people are used to watching man utd, liverpool play week in week out now. unless you'vesupported a team all your life i cant think of anything that would make a regular punter want to go and start watching guff like falkirk vs. st mirren

 

making the league bigger would maybe be beneficial in the short term because its something a bit different from what we're used to. whether or not the attendences will stay higher im not so sure.

[Special aka]

What would we do if we were creating a league and cup structure today in 2009 ?

 

Because that is what I believe should happen. Scrap the lot and start again

[brisbaneMFC]

Different types of entertainment available now, all of which are competing for the same money. Meantime you've got clubs not listening to fans on issues, charging away fans full whack regardless of TV.

 

 

 

Wage capping could completely change the OF hegemony, so to my mind it makes sense. Works for the NRL/AFL teams in Australia - no one can achieve total dominance through paying more, encourages stronger teams.

[Tartan_Special]

Bring the 6 + 5 rule in ASAP

[johnstone]

Bring the 6 + 5 rule in ASAP

 

Whats thats going to do to the SPL - most of the teams already adhere to this rule.

 

Two leagues of 18 teams would do fine.

[Special aka]

Bring the 6 + 5 rule in ASAP

Everytime we play Shellick .............. we win 6-5 Excellent

[Tartan_Special]

Whats thats going to do to the SPL - most of the teams already adhere to this rule.

 

Two leagues of 18 teams would do fine.

 

 

Definately!

However im thinking of the overspill of unused talent having to be distributed to other clubs so that players can get first team football would certainly help.

 

A very true article by Gym trainer which is IMO the reason behind the troubles we have.

Clicky

[Wellfan1984]

This could be accomplished by a couple of clubs going bust Clyde and Livingston. The rest drop into a restructured Highland\Junior League to give us a pyramid system so that we can lose clubs at the bottom of the second tier and keep things fresh.

 

I see it now. Junior Leagues say fuck off! The Junior Leagues have no reason to come in from the cold. The SFA have already backed down and allowed them in the Scottish Cup which is an absolute disgrace.

[Well-Made]

I see it now. Junior Leagues say fuck off! The Junior Leagues have no reason to come in from the cold. The SFA have already backed down and allowed them in the Scottish Cup which is an absolute disgrace.

 

 

I know what you mean. However I am pretty sure that the SFA put some funding in place for these teams as well so if they were to threaten to cut that or take it away completely I am sure they'd feel obliged to make the move.

 

Once again having the SFA fully in control off Domestic football would be a good thing. None of this SFJL crap!!

[Tartan_Special]

I know what you mean. However I am pretty sure that the SFA put some funding in place for these teams as well so if they were to threaten to cut that or take it away completely I am sure they'd feel obliged to make the move.

 

Once again having the SFA fully in control off Domestic football would be a good thing. None of this SFJL crap!!

 

 

As long as they changed the board!

[Yir Elder]

There is a lot wrong with the game today, but also a lot right too, its not all doom and gloom.

 

There needs to be stronger links between clubs, authorities and fans to build bridges that have crumbled recently. As the cost of fitba increases so the fun you can have at the game diminishes. The lack of atmos is killing the spectacle, with the cops and stewards to blame.

 

The general cost of following your team has to be realistic too, especially in today's climate.

 

I believe a salary cap similar to what Brisbane suggested would be great too, meaning clubs would be limited to a maximum percentage of their turnover being used for salaries.

[Steve Diggle]

Most of the things that people have put forward are constructive and should be considered. However because there's an elemement of turkeys voting for Christmas most wouldn't get by the suggestion stage.

 

The pot of money in football isn't going to the right people - and fans are funding most of it either directly or indirectly.

 

Admission and season ticket prices have to be significantly cut in my opinion and something needs to happen to limit the money agents take from the game.

 

I'm all for some sort of draft system like they have in America and as someone mentioned Australia for players outwith their contact.

 

I think players should be bracing themselves for signing on fees and wages being 'shrunk' - Not that I'd agree with that entirely but some sort of addressing the imbalance between the obscene wages that some take compared to the pittance some guys take would be beneficial.

 

i think the place will be awash with old firm dead wood at the end of the season as well.

 

i also agree that we need one governing body - but after some form of bloodbath where - old backward thinking spineless codgers have been completely eradicated.

 

Time for some radical new ideas.

[KirkySuperSub]

Hasn't Henry McLeish been appointed to look at the state of Scottish football and come up with a blueprint for change.

 

Can't wait!!

 

Wonder if it will be as successful as Ernie Walker's "Think Tank" of the early 90's...??

 

[Bill Bones]

Some good points raised but what would getting rid of the all the different governing bodies actaully achieve? It is a point almost always raised but the benefits have never been elaborated. the fact that top flight football from England/spain is readily available has almost certainly made the general punter less likely to follow Scottish football. For me the crux of the matter is that for 120 years Scottish football has never solved the problem of having two clubs that are massively bigger in every way to the rest. Only in the 20 years following WWII and the emergance of the New Firm in the '80's has the Old Firm hegemony been challenged. You could argue that the formation of the Premier League enabled the latter challenge but more likely both had outstanding managers. So I am not sure that league reconstruction would achieve much.

[TheLip69]

Wonder if it will be as successful as Ernie Walker's "Think Tank" of the early 90's...??

 

 

 

Have they handed in their report yet?

[Rocky']

16 team league play each other twice, over the summer months.

 

One end/section of the stadium with safe standing/terrace and reduced gate prices.

 

And a total re-think of how fans are policed and stewarded in the grounds and to games,

 

The massive obsession going on to push statistics on football offences/arrests/banning orders needs to stop, 85% of the time there is absoloutly no need for the police presence or OTT rules.

[Kmcalpin]

I don't know if its possible but the SFA should look at cutting back drastically on the number of English Premiership games in Scotland - it creates a false impression and sets the standard for young impressionable fans. The media too must cut back on English coverage and concentrate more on lower league Scots sides.

[TheLip69]

We had an 18 team League and it worked well until Jock Stein came along.

Celtic's 9 in a row was the catalyst for change, only weak leagues in poor countries are dominated by teams in the way Celtic dominated in those years. Change was mooted and we modelled the Premier League or Top Ten on the German Bundesliga,( The Germans swiftly changed back when they realised the cost of relegation to it's biggest clubs) Scotland though plodded blindly on regardless of the cost to our clubs, from being European semi-finalists only a few years earlier, Kilmarnock (Fairs Cup 1967) and Dunfermline (Cup Winners Cup 1969) suddenly found themselves down amongst the also rans.

From being big clubs with decent supports these clubs almost went under and a lot of their fans deserted them, kids weren't interested in going to see Killie or the Pars against Montrose and Brechin, not when their dads had been used to Rangers and Celtic and Hearts and Hibs. A lot of those kids began to look at one or other of the Old Firm, and I dont think those clubs have a hope in hell of getting them back.

In the 19 years between the commencement of the league after the second world war and the first title of Celtic's 9 in a row, Hibs (3 times), Hearts (twice), Aberdeen, Kilmarnock, and Dundee had all won the Leagu title. That was a strong and healthy league, the fact that Celtic would dominate for the next 9 years did not weaken the League in any way shape or form. Indeed during Celtic's 9 in a row Rangers reached two European Finals, Dundee reached the semi-finals of the Fairs Cup, now Uefa Cup, Dunfermline a UEFA Cup Quarter Final in 1966 and a Cup Winners Cup semi-final in 1969, Hibs a Quarter Final in 1973, and Kilmarnock a semi-final in 1967. Within 5 years of the onset of The Premier League in 1975 all of those clubs, Rangers apart unfortunately, had suffered relegation from the Top division.

The Premier League didn't make the football any better, it bloody decimated our clubs. Can we go back to an 18 team League, my heart says yes, but my head says no. We dont have big enough clubs to fill it. We've murdered them.

[Tweed]

I don't believe extending the size of the league is the answer. To me that is going to create a middle order in the top division who will plod on with no chance of going down and limited opportunties of Europe. In England there is enough strength and depth to cope with it as can be seen at the moment everyone is playing for Europe or survival and its only in the enxt two or three weeks that some teams will be winding down to a nothing end of the season - as soon as we start bringing teams like QoS or whatever into the SPL then this season that would mean Killie, Hamilton, St Mirren and co would already be playing for nothing. That can only see attendances dropping in my view.