Something for the weakened

[ian1964 10,625]

IF Costa coffee serves you a weak latte you ask for an extra shot of espresso, right? You donâ??t add more milk.

So who in their right mind believes a 16-team SPL will improve the quality of football in Scotlandâ??s top flight?

Listen, if you were asked to come up with a number that would sink the SPL without trace, 16 would do perfectly.

That number of clubs playing 30 games would halve the number of derby matches and add more meaningless games, featuring poorer players than the lot weâ??re watching right now.

You couldnâ??t sell that idea to the village idiot. Yet that was the model SFL chief David Longmuir brought to the league reconstruction table at Hampden this week.

At a time Rangersâ?? absence from the SPL is killing top-flight clubs, Longmuirâ??s people want them to sign up to fewer home games and less gate money. You couldnâ??t make it up.

If the stunning success of the Champions League is an indicator, fans want to see the best playing against the best.

Thatâ??s why Michel Platiniâ??s daft plan to expand UEFAâ??s flagship competition to 64 teams was quickly laughed out of town. You canâ??t improve anything by diluting its quality.

Celtic Park has sold out on Champions League nights because Hoops punters knew they were paying to watch the best.

That applies in every sport. Is anyone bored watching Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray winning every tennis tournament between them? No chance.

When Eubank, Benn and Collins were slugging it out, boxing fans couldnâ??t get enough re-matches.

Put Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy on the first tee together and golf fans would watch it every day of the week. Itâ??s down to competition and quality.

In my time the SPL was smaller. Just ten teams, but interest didnâ??t wane because Aberdeen had Gordon Strachan and Peter Weir, Dundee United fielded Paul Sturrock and Graeme Payne, Rangers boasted Davie Cooper and Bobby Russell, while Celtic produced Charlie Nicholas and Paul McStay.

They were worth the admission money and in an era when Jim McLean and Sir Alex Ferguson were beating the Old Firm, the competition was never healthier.

Crowds held up because punters were getting value for money.

Not now. Rangersâ?? exile has removed any competitive edge and the quality of football has slumped.

Supporters wonâ??t pay to watch players who canâ??t pass, control or cross the ball and we have too many of that type.

Adding another four clubs to the league wonâ??t address the real problem â?? a lack of entertainment caused by playersâ?? poor technique.

Against this backdrop supporters are demanding a bigger league.

When the SPL last bowed to the mob they cut Rangers loose, a decision now costing the league £11million a year. Clever eh?

Marching under the banner of â??sporting integrityâ?? bolshie punters promised to turn up in bigger numbers, then disappeared like snow off a dyke.

The sporting integrity line takes a bit of beating. That was the SFLâ??s mantra when dumping Rangers in Division Three.

Now we have lower-league clubs bumping up admission prices and over-selling tickets to make a quick buck from Rangers. Integrity?

The SFL put Rangers in the bottom league because greedy lower-league chairmen all wanted a slice of the Ibrox outfit as they made their way back up. It had hee-haw to do with integrity.

Clubs with an average gate of two men and a dog couldnâ??t believe their luck when the SPL passed the buck their way. It was a lottery win for them.

In time, the move to put Rangers in the Third Division will be seen for what it is. The most damaging and divisive decision ever taken in Scottish football. Dundee United chairman Stephen Thompson is first in line for payback with Rangers boycotting the Scottish Cup tie between the clubs.

He wonâ??t be the last. This sore will fester for years unless the SPL makes its peace with Rangers, League reconstruction offers Neil Doncaster a means of doing that.

For all his grandstanding, Charles Green would bite Doncasterâ??s hand off for a quick return to a rebranded top-flight.

Green and fellow investors will make their fortune when Rangers are back in the Champions League and the Yorkshireman wonâ??t allow a grudge to get in the way of a profit.

If the SPL have the balls theyâ??ll include the Ibrox club in plans for two new leagues of 12.

That will have the sporting integrity mob up in arms again but they should be ignored.

Had they been blanked last summer the SPL wouldnâ??t be lying with its throat cut.

 

 

Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/scotsol/home...#ixzz2EVdsAMhR

[bossy 0]

Quite apart from the fact that both the SPL and SFL reconstruction plans will not work ......

 

I have this vision of a light suddenly being switched on in Provan's head with the realisation that Scottish football - and especially the SPL - needs Rangers, is fecked without us and that we will exact our vengeance on the bassas.

[EDGE 0]

The biggest compliment that I could say to SFL3 is that I could hardly tell the difference between the quality of opposition from last season to this season.

 

Also, when Provan talks about the SPL having 16 teams, he neglects the need to compare our top flight with other countries top flights. Does the EPL suffer because you don't have 4 x Manc derbies? Well.... No.

 

The problem we have in Scotland is that the 2 big Glasgow sides have dominated Scottish football for so long that other clubs fans don't go to see their teams because they perceive that their chosen sides have no chance of winning anything because of the strength of the big Glasgow sides. This inherent problem then discourages a pessimistic father to take his son/daughter to see their side play and thus, their child likely goes on to support someone else in Scotland OR, as seems to be the case nowadays, an EPL side.

 

Our problem up here is that there is a general apathy when it comes to fans going to see their teams, indeed this has spread to Celtic fans this season in the SPL, where they 'expect' that their team will win the SPL at a canter, as such their "7m worldwide fans" have decided not to go to Parkhead, well all bar 20k of them. At this present moment time though, in celtic aren't and as such, traditional SPL diddy sides are seeing increased crowds, because they perceive that their heroes 'have a chance'.

 

I think that I speak for everyone in Scotland bar the Tims when I say that I'd love to see anyone win the league bar Celtic. Just for the novelty factor in general terms and latterly because no one likes them in broader terms.

 

I'm still pished from last nights 140 year party (mum&dads anniversary really) so apologies if I've not made sense so far.

 

But MY BIG POINT IS..... I think that the SPL should have an end of season cup style showdown. A 16 team league then at the end of the season the top sides play each other home and away with a final held at the national stadium. This, I feel would increase interest in the game and give other teams a chance of winning.

 

Rangers and Celtic are too big for the current set up and it distorts the competition up here so much that other teams fans chose not to follow their teams.

 

Apologies for rambling on. I was up to 3am and the weans have just woke me up and I am still steamin'.

Edited December 9, 2012 by EDGE

[Bluedell 5,473]

I'd agree with all of the OP apart from the third last line.

[chilledbear 16]

They never mention the Scottish media, who encouraged the 'sporting integrity' line.