Over the last few years I have seen a dramatic fall in the quality of football in Scotland. This is along with a fall in attendances at games and also the fact the game up here is so dull.
On the 13th of March 1873 eight teams formed the SFA and agreed to resolve that:
The clubs here represented form themselves into an association for the promotion of football according to the rules of The Football Association and that the clubs connected with this association subscribe for a challenge cup to be played for annually, the committee to propose the laws of the competition
See the term in the above sentence is to PROMOTE football. That is something that has not been done in a long time in Scotland. I don't see much promotion of football when the TV rights are sold to the highest bidder ESPN who are by any means just SKY TV with another name.
When the SPL was formed in 1998 the whole reason this happened was nothing to do with giving the fans a better quality of game or to make the tickets cheaper but only to make more money. Football was sponsored by one company over four leagues and the bigger clubs complained of a drop in revenue due to sharing the money out over 40 teams. So the SPL was born, to make more money.
Yes this should have gave the teams in Scotland more cash to spend on players but it really only lasted a few seasons till the teams started going bust. Four teams went into administration and the debt the SPL had was over £100m. Then TV coverage is taken by Setanta who also go bust and leave the SPL with no chance to take an offer from ESPN that is way lower than before.
So it is time to change the set up in Scotland, I have always been behind a regional league format as the traveling can be so expensive for lower clubs and the competition can be better locally. More derbies can make more money. Four regions where the top team in each region play off for entry to the SPL 2 league. Playoffs make money as well, just look at England. SPL can consist of 10 clubs, no split at the end of the season and one down and another play off for promotion. Team placed 9th in the SPL against the 2nd, 3rd and 4th placed team in the SPL2.
Each SPL league can have its own sponsor and each regional league can have a sponsor as well as the playoffs being championed by other companies. TV money can come in for them as well as gate receipts going up. It is a false economy playing more games to make money; exciting games bring in a crowd.
The Idea of a 14 team SPL is ridiculous, way too many games of no importance. Who wants to see Raith Rovers play St Mirren for who is in 9th spot? In season 74-75 Scotland got rid of the 18 team set up in the top flight due to the same reason. Way too many crap games that mean nothing. Also the amount of people going to the games dropped as well. I would rather see Morton play Falkirk in a playoff for who is promoted or relegated any day.
Frozen Toes and Numb Fingers
Not sure if it is just me but one change to the football set up I think that has never been discussed recently is a switch to summer football. Who wants to go to a game when it is -10. And further to that when the game has a chance of being called off due to snow.
Year after year SPL teams get a kicking in European football and they blame it on the summer close down. Six teams in and five are out before the end of August. Again take Scotland back to the 80s when we had a 10 team top flight and then we had Aberdeen winning silver in Europe and Dundee United getting to a final after that. That shows the ten team league can work in Europe as well. And with a switch to summer football the teams entering Europe would be about half the way through a season.
I would love to watch football in the summer and being at a game in the sunshine at 3pm on a Saturday is something to look forward to. Not in the pissing rain when it is dark at 4pm and into minus temperatures.
Back to Scotland Vs England
It was all stopped many years ago due to violence at the games but we did enjoy the game every two years. And so did the world. Again starting this one off game every two years would ignite a huge amount of passion for football in Scotland and that is way more that the SFA could ever do. The security issues are all resolved now with the modern policing and technology. Tickets only issued to people with a proven background and tickets with names/photos that have to be scanned to get in the stadium. The trouble now would be nothing like it was back in the 70s. Again the football hooligan has died out as well. I have seen them myself try and fight in the east end of Glasgow to then see the locals come out and give them all a kicking.
Scotland Vs England would generate far more money now that it did back in the day. With TV, advertising, kit sales and ticket sales one game could easily make the SFA £5m for one game.
The Future
When Spanish football fans are making banners saying they don’t want their home football to be like ours that hurts. Even more so as Spain are the World and European champions. So they have problems but still manage to beat the rest of the world at football.
The SPL1 and SPL2 set up will be herald in big changes and the best change is more money for the lower clubs. From £600K to £3M for the second tier. The clubs are scared of the set up as relegation becomes more of an issue and no fan or player wants that. But failure should not be rewarded with a place in a league year after year by finishing 11th.
Anyway the future for this set up has been placed on the table and does include going back to 12 teams and possibly even 14 in the future so a little compromise may give some clubs what they want in the future.
Interesting that after the SPL was started Scotland has never made it to a major football tournament. This could help change that.
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