Lonely plan it - SFL will be on their own here

[ian1964 10,546]

IMAGINE Iâ??m the chairman of Shrewsbury Town.

 

Iâ??m having a quiet beer and a sandwich with the owners of Bury and Rochdale.

 

â??Right lads, this Premier League is all well and good â?? but whatâ??s it doing for us?

 

â??Yes, itâ??s the most attractive division on the planet with zillions of wide-eyed viewers.

 

â??Of course, itâ??s just negotiated a £3billion TV contract with Sky and BT for the next three years.

 

â??But, quite frankly, Iâ??m fed up with Chelsea, Liverpool and those pesky Manchester clubs getting the spoils so, Iâ??ve come up with a truly great idea.

 

â??Weâ??re going to reconstruct English right here and now.

 

â??Weâ??ll have a top flight of 22. Letâ??s call it the Premiership League. A second tier of 14 called, er, Premier One. A third tier of 22. Thatâ??ll be Premier Two. Oh and weâ??ll seize control of the Barclays Premier League and bring it back under control of the Football League.

 

â??Thatâ??ll show Roman Abramovich, Sheikh Mansour and the Glazers that itâ??s big clubs like Shrewsbury who really hold the power.â?

 

Sound far-fetched?

 

Well, itâ??s no more bizarre than the scenes witnessed at Hampden this week. While the SFA were off to Luxembourg and the SPL were presumably looking the other way, the SFL announced their plans to revolutionise the game.

 

Three divisions in a 16-10-16 structure with play-offs and a pyramid system. Theyâ??d consume their neighbours at the SPL and form one big, happy, shiny governing body to cure all the ills of our game.

 

Donâ??t get me wrong, there was much to commend within the proposals which won favour with all 30 SFL clubs. The return of end-of-season play-offs between ALL senior divisions is a great idea.

 

So, too, the pyramid system which would allow, say, Spartans, Buckie Thistle or Auchinleck Talbot an opportunity to move into the big time but I reckon Iâ??ve spotted one fatal flaw in the SFL plan. Itâ??s got as much chance of being nodded through by SPL clubs as Hearts players have of getting a Christmas bonus from Vladimir Romanov.

 

One senior SPL chief executive has already laughed off the notion as â??the tail wagging the dogâ?.

 

Ross County boss Derek Adams has publicly outlined his scepticism of the proposals. Youâ??d have thought if any SPL club would give the SFL a fair hearing it would be one which has spent all but four months of its recent history in the SFL.

 

So if itâ??s a â??noâ? from the Staggies, thereâ??s a fair chance itâ??ll be a â??noâ? from all of the top 12.

 

The new SFL plan would reduce home league games from 19 to 15, just what the likes of Hearts need when theyâ??re already struggling to make ends meet. Ah, but the SFL will reshape the League Cup to make up the shortfall in income.

 

Exactly how many fans do they think will turn up for Aberdeen v Alloa or Motherwell v Montrose?

 

If Well canâ??t pull 4,000 for a top-flight clash with Dundee United, the answer to that is â??not too manyâ?.

 

The biggest clubs in the country realise as well as anyone that change must be placed on the agenda.

 

But they wonâ??t agree to anything which will endanger their revenue streams or threaten their profile.

 

Abramovich wouldnâ??t see Shrewsbury or Bury in his way if they rattled sabres and demanded change. I fear David Longmuirâ??s clubs will get a similar response from Scotlandâ??s top 12. Scottish football isnâ??t strong enough to have a top-flight of more than a dozen teams. The top-six split has worked as it has ensured fewer meaningless matches in the spring.

 

With only one team going down, though, it would be great to see the 11th-placed team in the SPL face the Division One runners-up in home-and-away play-offs. Even extend it to 11th v fourth in the SFL and second v third with the winners meeting in a one-off final.

 

Shoving four more teams on to the top flight and take it to 16 would simply dilute the quality.

 

It wonâ??t be embraced by the SPL any time soon.

 

Once again, the Shrews will be eaten by the big cats.

 

By ROGER HANNAH

 

Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/leaguedivision3/4650096/Lonely-plan-it.html#ixzz2CZYfUXjC

[the gunslinger 3,366]

what if chelsea had been thrown into the sfl though what would abrahanovich do then

[Max Rebo's Big Blue Nose 0]

Silly comparison tbh. The EPL is a success story whereas the SPL has been failing for years now. Instead of making the same tired old comparisons with our neighbours, why not take a closer look at other small leagues that are doing well in terms of producing players and in challenging in Europe?

[der Berliner 3,398]

Shoving four more teams on to the top flight and take it to 16 would simply dilute the quality.

 

Dilute quality? What quality? The upper strata of Divi 1 can surely compete with the lower strata of the SPL over the course of the season. For years, the middle strata of the SPL could out-compete the lower strata, but hardly ever the big two. That the Hooped Horrors suffer a - by their standards - dismal run right now will not stop the SPL from being a one-horse race this season. The whole of the SPL has been streamlined to live of the Old Firm, they already start to suffer, even though the business-wise saner clubs (usually of the lower strata) will probably survive longest. Maybe we won't see that many administration, but sure a lack of "quality" is on the cards, starting at the top, not the bottom of the SPL.

[kuznetsov 0]

the sfl were never going to dictate to the spl. it is deluded to think so nor will there be any radical change to the game up here. the authorities have it how they like it. rangers out and celtic dominating.

[kuznetsov 0]

what if chelsea had been thrown into the sfl though what would abrahanovich do then

 

sell up/cut his losses and walk.

[kuznetsov 0]

its also a poor comparison in that the english game works, it is the best and biggest in the world. they dont need change nor do they need rangers or anyone else coming in.

[RANGERRAB 3,367]

I've said b4 SKY will dictate any changes to Scottish leagues

Edited November 18, 2012 by RANGERRAB

[johnnyk 158]

From the DR....

 

WE can today reveal a new set of SPL restructuring plans that will spark a fresh civil war among Scotlandâ??s clubs.

 

The 12-team cartel of top clubs were sandbagged last week by SFL proposals for a total overhaul of the game.

 

However, itâ??s understood SPL teams plan a get-together tomorrow â?? two weeks ahead of their next scheduled general meeting â?? to put their own radical plan on the table.

 

Their idea includes:

 

A new league set-up of 24 teams in two divisions.

 

A 14-game play-off system between the bottom four clubs of the top tier and the top four clubs of the second tier.

 

Binning the now-toxic SPL brand.

 

Their proposal is almost identical to one put forward by former SFA chief executive Gordon Smith nearly a decade ago.

 

The process will involve inviting 12 teams from the SFL to resign and join them in their fresh venture, a move sure to spark a major political battle between factions already at each otherâ??s throats.

 

It will infuriate those behind the SFLâ??s 16-10-16 plan unveiled last week, which included plans for a pyramid structure, play-offs between the top two divisions and a distribution model aimed at enhancing the entire game.

 

MailSport understands a meeting took place on Friday between the chief executives of all three bodies â?? the SFAâ??s Stewart Regan, Neil Doncaster of the SPL and SFL supremo David Longmuir.

 

However, this new proposal was not on the agenda and is certain to meet opposition from the lower-league clubs so outraged by the SPL and SFAâ??s behaviour during the Rangers crisis over the summer.

 

The SFLâ??s counter-plan, though, has no chance of seeing the light of day with strong opposition in the SPL ranks.

 

Celtic and Aberdeen are understood to be vehemently opposed to the plan, although for differing reasons.

 

The top flight will still examine a 16-team model of their own as a fall-back position. The SPL currently has 16 shares, despite only 12 of them being in current use.

 

After two years of all the parties being at loggerheads, itâ??s believed there is finally an understanding that change must come.

 

The danger is the SFLâ??s plan needs consensus, which it wonâ??t achieve, and the SPLâ??s idea will require a mass U-turn from some of the clubs who stood firmly against them in the summer.

 

Itâ??s believed the top-flight hierarchy are depending on the desperation of the full-time clubs struggling in the cash-deprived SFL to forget their morals and jump ship.

 

An SPL source last night said: â??There is a real appetite for change and this is the boldest plan weâ??ve had yet.

 

â??It means wiping the slate clean and starting afresh. The plan is pretty radical.â?

 

Part of that plan is the binning of their name and logo which has become tainted after a summer of chaos.

 

With Clydesdale Bank backing out of their headline sponsorship of the league this summer, the SPL are still searching for a major backer and believe this will help.

 

And on Friday Celtic chief Peter Lawwell told the clubâ??s AGM â??the landscape of football is changingâ? and that it was becoming increasingly difficult for Scottish football to remain viable.

[rbr 1,247]

just a very stupid comparison from a very thick and not the brighhtest card in the deck journo . Hannah is another of yesterdays men and that piece only shows how out of touch he really is .