League Reconstruction Ideas

Mr_Miscellaneous

Well-Known Member
I know the idea of League Re-construction has been beaten to death, but after having a look through how other European Leagues run their divisions I was wondering how people would perceive this type of reconstruction and what their ideas might be for it.

Proposal:

Three Divisions of 14 Teams.
  1. Premier Division
  2. Second Division
  3. Third Division
Set-Up of the division:

Teams play each other twice. After round 26, each league splits into two groups:

Championship Group (6 teams)
Relegation Group (8 teams)

Championship Group:

Top 6 play each other at home and away. 36 game season overall.

18 Home Games and 18 Away games for each team in a season.

Relegation Group:

Bottom 8 Play each other once post split. Teams Play 33 Games overall.

Teams Ranked 7th-10th after 26 rounds will have 4 Home Games and 3 Away Games.

These teams will have 17 Home Games, 16 Away Games over the season

Teams in 11th-14th Place after 26 rounds will have 3 Home Games and 4 Away Games. Teams at the bottom of the table are not rewarded for poor performance in first 26 fixtures.

These teams will have 16 Home Games and 17 Away Games over the season.

Relegation:

For Premier Division and Second Division, 13th and 14th placed teams are relegated automatically. Replaced with the 1st and 2nd placed team from lower tier.

Only one team is potentially relegated from the lowest tier.

Playoff:

12th placed team in higher division plays 3rd placed team in lower division in two legged game. Winner goes to/stays in higher division.

The current Highland/Lowland promotion playoff structure is retained for entry into the lowest tier.

Changes to League Cup Group Stage:

Top 6 sides in all divisions from previous season qualify directly to League Cup round of 32.

Bottom 8 teams in each division are put into League Cup Group Stage.

Should the bottom eligible team be relegated from Division 3, the team promoted from the Highland/Lowland League will take their place in the Group Stage.

8 Groups of 3 teams.

No seeding in the Group Stages and No Seeding beyond the Group Stages.

Teams play home and away against teams in their group, two home games and two away.

Winners of group progress to round of 32. 4 best runners up in the groups also qualify to round of 32.

Home Games in the League Cup Group Stage must be included on a season book. Therefore ALL teams in ALL divisions are guaranteed at least 18 home games in a season book. (17 if two colt teams are added to the bottom division)

Changes to Scottish Cup:

None.

Changes to Scottish Challenge Cup:

None. Might have to have an invitational for another couple of Highland/Lowland sides or foreign sides to make up for the numbers.

Colts Teams:

Top 6 sides from the previous season are asked whether they would like to register a Colt side for the Lowest division in the next season.

2, 4 or 6 colt teams can be added to bottom division

If 3/6 choose to add colts, the two clubs with the highest finish the previous season will have their colts added to the lowest division

If 5/6 choose to add colts, the four clubs with the highest finish in the previous season will have their colts added to the lowest division

If colt teams are registered for the season:

The lowest division changes to being a simplistic one home fixture and one Away fixture against all sides in the division rather than a split after 26 games

Rules on Colt Teams:

Colts Teams are ineligible for entry into League Cup or Scottish Cup.

Colts Teams are Eligible for entry into Scottish Challenge Cup

Colts Teams are ineligible for promotion into Second Division.

Colts teams are ineligible for relegation from Third division

Bottom 8 full-time sides in a season in lowest tier are put into Group Stages of League Cup. Top six full-time sides in lowest division receive bye to next round.
 
That’s a lot of reading for a Friday night.

I like the idea of a sensible split. As it stands it’s not even handed.
 
The current system is the best one we have.

Any new proposals should be looking to take games out of the schedule, rather than add more.
 
The split is a terrible system, no decent league has such a thing.

I get we might not have enough good teams, and I get teams won't want less home games, but the ideal is a 16 team league playing each other twice. 30 games reducing midweek fixtures now there are so many dates unavailable for international games plus a winter break.

Won't happen.
 
If we must have a split, this is by far the best option. Either the above split or a 16 or 18 team league for me.

The current set up is unfair, lop sided, and just downright idiotic.
 
If we must have a split, this is by far the best option. Either the above split or a 16 or 18 team league for me.

The current set up is unfair, lop sided, and just downright idiotic.

I would rather we went back to a top league of 10 playing everyone else 4 times than keep the split.
And that set up was rubbish.
 
The league was extended to 12 teams to give more teams the revenue from us and the tims visiting.In order to do that we have a league fixture list that is not 100% fair in terms of equal number of home and away games against each of the other teams plus the ridiculous,farcical split.
Then teams like Kilmarnock cut our allocation and reducing their revenue when they can’t even afford a grass pitch.
 
Alternative is 24 team league, split after 26 games (1 home and away)

Split into top 7 - another 12 games and one team rests each week

Keeps the tv 4 games and ensures there’s no lopsided play 3 at home v a team.
 
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The split is a terrible system, no decent league has such a thing.

I get we might not have enough good teams, and I get teams won't want less home games, but the ideal is a 16 team league playing each other twice. 30 games reducing midweek fixtures now there are so many dates unavailable for international games plus a winter break.

Won't happen.
Exactly and next 2 divisions North and south ffs peterhead going toannan and queens going to Elgin is nonsense
 
14 team leagues and splits!? Ew

16 teams. 30 fixtures. 2 up 2 down (with a playoff for 2nd promotion spot)

Add in colts (up to 6) who can advance up the pyramid up to Chamionship level meaning a further 32 spfl split accross 2 more leagues of 16 (Spl 2 and Spl 3) with exactly the same promotion and relegation down to relegation from Spl 3 which would not be automatic but completely based on a playoff system against winners of highland and lowland leagues (in which any other spl teams could potentially enter colts).

People may think that we lack enough good teams to have a 16 team league, but consider that both edinburgh teams and both dundee teams have been relegated in the last decade, we see that room at the top table is VERY limitted!

We would not blink an eye to see Ross County, ICT, Falkirk, Dundee Utd, Dunfirmline, or Partick Thistle because the have all been there in recent years and some are frankly struggling to survive outside of our very limitting top flight. 16 would be easy. An spl 2 would also be Very marketable given it would include 2 of these 18 teams already mentioned in addition to teams with strong history such as QotS, Greenock, Ayr, Alloa, Raith, Airdrionians, Arbroath, and Forfar plus 6 colt teams (meaning our top youth get blooded against men, those men play against players with a higher technical ability, and we get the biggest fanbases in scottish football tuning into the 2nd division regularly in addition to the SPL as they check out their reserves and youth prospects.

A 3rd division of 16 rounds off a lovely wee league.
 
For me the only way any sort of split works is if the teams go into a play-off format like they do in the MLS. For example, a 16 team league splits into two 8's, the top 8 are drawn against one another based on position and play-off for the title, with the bottom 8 playing to stay in the league.
 
How many professional full time teams are there in Scotland? I'd split that over two equal leagues if possible with promotion and relegation of 2 or 3 teams a season with a similar approach for a part time clubs league
 
How could we help make EVERY single match between ALL Clubs more competitive and meaningful? Dangle a tasty carrot in front of them all. Combine League and Cup formats.

14 Clubs playing each other Home and Away on a Cup Tie Aggregate Score way (penalties too if required). Whoever comes out on top gets the 3rd match between them at Home. The incentive of home advantage and extra revenue for the Home game.

So a total of 39 matches. Season Tickets based on 13 Home games. Any extra home games paid extra like a cup game.

So for instance -

Celtic 1 v Rangers 1

Rangers 0 v Celtic 0

Rangers win the right to play the 3rd match at home and thus earned the advantage.

I have no doubts that we would see far more and better competitive games. Spring some of the clubs into going for it and try and get them to play instead of sitting in with 2 banks of 4 and boring us to death on a cold wet winter's night.

And yes some clubs could potentially have much more home games than away games but they would have earned it over the previous 2 matches. I would rather see that than rely on current post split fixtures on a 'computer' which we all know is lies and since the advent of the SPL have benefitted one club. It was designed to.
 
I know the idea of League Re-construction has been beaten to death, but after having a look through how other European Leagues run their divisions I was wondering how people would perceive this type of reconstruction and what their ideas might be for it.

The only thing I would say would that would
Proposal:

Three Divisions of 14 Teams.
  1. Premier Division
  2. Second Division
  3. Third Division
Set-Up of the division:

Teams play each other twice. After round 26, each league splits into two groups:

Championship Group (6 teams)
Relegation Group (8 teams)

Championship Group:

Top 6 play each other at home and away. 36 game season overall.

18 Home Games and 18 Away games for each team in a season.

Relegation Group:

Bottom 8 Play each other once post split. Teams Play 33 Games overall.

Teams Ranked 7th-10th after 26 rounds will have 4 Home Games and 3 Away Games.

These teams will have 17 Home Games, 16 Away Games over the season

Teams in 11th-14th Place after 26 rounds will have 3 Home Games and 4 Away Games. Teams at the bottom of the table are not rewarded for poor performance in first 26 fixtures.

These teams will have 16 Home Games and 17 Away Games over the season.

Relegation:

For Premier Division and Second Division, 13th and 14th placed teams are relegated automatically. Replaced with the 1st and 2nd placed team from lower tier.

Only one team is potentially relegated from the lowest tier.

Playoff:

12th placed team in higher division plays 3rd placed team in lower division in two legged game. Winner goes to/stays in higher division.

The current Highland/Lowland promotion playoff structure is retained for entry into the lowest tier.

Changes to League Cup Group Stage:

Top 6 sides in all divisions from previous season qualify directly to League Cup round of 32.

Bottom 8 teams in each division are put into League Cup Group Stage.

Should the bottom eligible team be relegated from Division 3, the team promoted from the Highland/Lowland League will take their place in the Group Stage.

8 Groups of 3 teams.

No seeding in the Group Stages and No Seeding beyond the Group Stages.

Teams play home and away against teams in their group, two home games and two away.

Winners of group progress to round of 32. 4 best runners up in the groups also qualify to round of 32.

Home Games in the League Cup Group Stage must be included on a season book. Therefore ALL teams in ALL divisions are guaranteed at least 18 home games in a season book. (17 if two colt teams are added to the bottom division)

Changes to Scottish Cup:

None.

Changes to Scottish Challenge Cup:

None. Might have to have an invitational for another couple of Highland/Lowland sides or foreign sides to make up for the numbers.

Colts Teams:

Top 6 sides from the previous season are asked whether they would like to register a Colt side for the Lowest division in the next season.

2, 4 or 6 colt teams can be added to bottom division

If 3/6 choose to add colts, the two clubs with the highest finish the previous season will have their colts added to the lowest division

If 5/6 choose to add colts, the four clubs with the highest finish in the previous season will have their colts added to the lowest division

If colt teams are registered for the season:

The lowest division changes to being a simplistic one home fixture and one Away fixture against all sides in the division rather than a split after 26 games

Rules on Colt Teams:

Colts Teams are ineligible for entry into League Cup or Scottish Cup.

Colts Teams are Eligible for entry into Scottish Challenge Cup

Colts Teams are ineligible for promotion into Second Division.

Colts teams are ineligible for relegation from Third division

Bottom 8 full-time sides in a season in lowest tier are put into Group Stages of League Cup. Top six full-time sides in lowest division receive bye to next round.
The only thing I would say is that it would mean only 3 old firms, so the team with 2 home games would have a massive advantage, if this season is anything to go by
 
How could we help make EVERY single match between ALL Clubs more competitive and meaningful? Dangle a tasty carrot in front of them all. Combine League and Cup formats.

14 Clubs playing each other Home and Away on a Cup Tie Aggregate Score way (penalties too if required). Whoever comes out on top gets the 3rd match between them at Home. The incentive of home advantage and extra revenue for the Home game.

So a total of 39 matches. Season Tickets based on 13 Home games. Any extra home games paid extra like a cup game.

So for instance -

Celtic 1 v Rangers 1

Rangers 0 v Celtic 0

Rangers win the right to play the 3rd match at home and thus earned the advantage.

I have no doubts that we would see far more and better competitive games. Spring some of the clubs into going for it and try and get them to play instead of sitting in with 2 banks of 4 and boring us to death on a cold wet winter's night.

And yes some clubs could potentially have much more home games than away games but they would have earned it over the previous 2 matches. I would rather see that than rely on current post split fixtures on a 'computer' which we all know is lies and since the advent of the SPL have benefitted one club. It was designed to.

Rangers and Celtic could end the season with 12 or 13 home games in a row.
 
Rangers and Celtic could end the season with 12 or 13 home games in a row.
Potentially yes but not guaranteed. Especially if the other teams start stepping up to the plate and fight for every game. Sick of the likes of Aberdeen, etc playing us like it's a cup final all the time. It would force them to play other teams in the same way as us and earn them more home games. Not just turning up when we come to town.
 
The only thing I would say is that it would mean only 3 old firms, so the team with 2 home games would have a massive advantage, if this season is anything to go by

Assuming we are both in the top six after the 26th game it would be four OF games.

Took me a while to figure out a way to expand the league and accommodate for the requirement of four Old Firm games a season.

In Europe, the Danish, Belgian, Romanian and Israeli league have 14 team Leagues. All of them have their own mental parts and all include splits.

This one was based on a bit of a modification to the Israeli league system so it is a bit less punishing to the teams at the lower end of the table.

The Romanian system is fairly good, however they take points off teams in the bottom 8 after 26 games which I think is a bit mad.
 
I know the idea of League Re-construction has been beaten to death, but after having a look through how other European Leagues run their divisions I was wondering how people would perceive this type of reconstruction and what their ideas might be for it.

Proposal:

Three Divisions of 14 Teams.
  1. Premier Division
  2. Second Division
  3. Third Division
Set-Up of the division:

Teams play each other twice. After round 26, each league splits into two groups:

Championship Group (6 teams)
Relegation Group (8 teams)


Championship Group:

Top 6 play each other at home and away. 36 game season overall.

18 Home Games and 18 Away games for each team in a season.

Relegation Group:

Bottom 8 Play each other once post split. Teams Play 33 Games overall.

Teams Ranked 7th-10th after 26 rounds will have 4 Home Games and 3 Away Games.

These teams will have 17 Home Games, 16 Away Games over the season

Teams in 11th-14th Place after 26 rounds will have 3 Home Games and 4 Away Games. Teams at the bottom of the table are not rewarded for poor performance in first 26 fixtures.

These teams will have 16 Home Games and 17 Away Games over the season.

Relegation:

For Premier Division and Second Division, 13th and 14th placed teams are relegated automatically. Replaced with the 1st and 2nd placed team from lower tier.

Only one team is potentially relegated from the lowest tier.

Playoff:

12th placed team in higher division plays 3rd placed team in lower division in two legged game. Winner goes to/stays in higher division.

The current Highland/Lowland promotion playoff structure is retained for entry into the lowest tier.

Changes to League Cup Group Stage:

Top 6 sides in all divisions from previous season qualify directly to League Cup round of 32.

Bottom 8 teams in each division are put into League Cup Group Stage.

Should the bottom eligible team be relegated from Division 3, the team promoted from the Highland/Lowland League will take their place in the Group Stage.

8 Groups of 3 teams.

No seeding in the Group Stages and No Seeding beyond the Group Stages.

Teams play home and away against teams in their group, two home games and two away.

Winners of group progress to round of 32. 4 best runners up in the groups also qualify to round of 32.

Home Games in the League Cup Group Stage must be included on a season book. Therefore ALL teams in ALL divisions are guaranteed at least 18 home games in a season book. (17 if two colt teams are added to the bottom division)

Changes to Scottish Cup:

None.

Changes to Scottish Challenge Cup:

None. Might have to have an invitational for another couple of Highland/Lowland sides or foreign sides to make up for the numbers.

Colts Teams:

Top 6 sides from the previous season are asked whether they would like to register a Colt side for the Lowest division in the next season.

2, 4 or 6 colt teams can be added to bottom division

If 3/6 choose to add colts, the two clubs with the highest finish the previous season will have their colts added to the lowest division

If 5/6 choose to add colts, the four clubs with the highest finish in the previous season will have their colts added to the lowest division

If colt teams are registered for the season:

The lowest division changes to being a simplistic one home fixture and one Away fixture against all sides in the division rather than a split after 26 games

Rules on Colt Teams:

Colts Teams are ineligible for entry into League Cup or Scottish Cup.

Colts Teams are Eligible for entry into Scottish Challenge Cup

Colts Teams are ineligible for promotion into Second Division.

Colts teams are ineligible for relegation from Third division

Bottom 8 full-time sides in a season in lowest tier are put into Group Stages of League Cup. Top six full-time sides in lowest division receive bye to next round.
I like the idea of a top 14 with a split like that, in fact ive been bangin on about it to my pals for ages - gets another couple of clubs into the top flight - and lets be pragmatic, its scotland, its a small country, theres probably around 20 clubs at the moment who are full time with very few outside that who have the potential to go FT. Would mean top flight gets another couple of teams included, fair split of fixtures, potential for really exciting/ difficult last ten games of the season, and extra fixture (plus more security/ easier to get back in if they go down) for the clubs in the bottom half as compensation for less games against the big boys. Think it works for the second tier too however after that i would just include lowland and highland league and split to two regional divisions..
 
I like the idea of a top 14 with a split like that, in fact ive been bangin on about it to my pals for ages - gets another couple of clubs into the top flight - and lets be pragmatic, its scotland, its a small country, theres probably around 20 clubs at the moment who are full time with very few outside that who have the potential to go FT. Would mean top flight gets another couple of teams included, fair split of fixtures, potential for really exciting/ difficult last ten games of the season, and extra fixture (plus more security/ easier to get back in if they go down) for the clubs in the bottom half as compensation for less games against the big boys. Think it works for the second tier too however after that i would just include lowland and highland league and split to two regional divisions..

I think the main issue with a sudden drop off into Highland/Lowland league is if one of the few professional teams has a bad season or two then they might get wiped out.

I think we have a maximum of between 22-25 teams that have the infrastructure to be in the top division without too much of an issue,

I don't think the top division is an issue, it's the second division and what happens with "decent" sides that drop further than that that's the problem.

Make the top tier too strong with too many professional sides and any side that that drops out of it is toast. Make the mobility between the divisions too static and we get the familiarity that breeds contempt. make the second division too big and the sides coming up into the top tier don't have a chance to survive because they spent most of the season horsing amateur sides. It's a finely balanced problem.

The issue seems to be how do you keep the Second division of a good quality but also make sure that if a professional team drops out of it, they can survive in the mostly amateur/semi-pro third division?

In the 14/14/14+colts set-up there is the gradual decline in quality rather than a complete shock moving from one division to the next. Also, through the colts there an inbuilt financial mechanism to help those out who drop down into the bottom tier have the resources to bounce back rather than get dragged into the mire.

Listing it out based on this years performance, The Second division would have Airdrie, Ayr, Dunfermline, Falkirk, ICT, Morton, Partick, QOTS and Raith Rovers along with a few others. All he teams outside the top flight that have the infrastructure and pedigree to play in the top flight, except Clyde and Edinburgh City.

Add in the colts to the bottom tier in which they reside and the attendances/money that they would bring and these sides either power into the middle tier or have enough money to survive as a pro team in the bottom tier along with any-one of the middle tier teams that might drop out.
 
If there must be a split, then split after 2 fixture rounds and then play 2 more fixture rounds against the sides in your half of the split.

At least that maintains the number of home/away games against each team.

14 team league play each other home and away = 26 games. Then Top 6 play home and away against each other = 36 games.
Bottom 8 play home and away = 40 games.
 
If there must be a split, then split after 2 fixture rounds and then play 2 more fixture rounds against the sides in your half of the split.

At least that maintains the number of home/away games against each team.

14 team league play each other home and away = 26 games. Then Top 6 play home and away against each other = 36 games.
Bottom 8 play home and away = 40 games.

I agree that might be better, but the problem in my head is if you have a team like St. Johnstone miles safe in 7th by the 26th game they are going to phone in a decent amount of games as there is nothing really to play for.

Plus, you have the issue of the table looking mental with several teams in the bottom half of the table having more games and loads more points than some of the top 6. Romania get around it by halving the bottom 8's points after game 26 and having them play home/away against everyone else in the bottom 8, but I think that's a bit mental.
 
I agree that might be better, but the problem in my head is if you have a team like St. Johnstone miles safe in 7th by the 26th game they are going to phone in a decent amount of games as there is nothing really to play for.

Plus, you have the issue of the table looking mental with several teams in the bottom half of the table having more games and loads more points than some of the top 6. Romania get around it by halving the bottom 8's points after game 26 and having them play home/away against everyone else in the bottom 8, but I think that's a bit mental.
You're probably right.

The problem is that every season we have at least 1 team aggrieved due to our split fixtures.
 
18 team top flight, 34 fixtures with two automatic relegations and one relegation playoff between 15th and 3rd in the 2nd tier.

12 team first and second divisions, copying the current SPFL format with the addition of more promotion/relegation places.

I’d keep the league cup group stages, they’re a good way to give the smaller clubs a cheap pre-season, all I’d change is the date of the final, I’d move it to March.

The Scottish non-league pyramid is in desperate need of a revamp but I have no idea what to suggest for that.
 
18 team premiership add B teams and regionalise the lower leagues.

Teams need to look beyond making money from the old firm. After all they all said that they didn’t need us and managed without playing us for 4 years.
 
What was proposed a few years back would be the best fit with a fair split.
Two leagues of 12 splitting to 3 leagues of 8 after 22 games, 36 games total, playoffs only for relegation/promotion from/to 2nd league.
 
What was proposed a few years back would be the best fit with a fair split.
Two leagues of 12 splitting to 3 leagues of 8 after 22 games, 36 games total, playoffs only for relegation/promotion from/to 2nd league.
This is far too complicated to outsiders, the league won’t grow if new audiences don’t understand how the league works.

That’s already an issue with the current split
 
OP's suggestion is sound and infinitely better than what is currently in place. Laid out like that it's difficult to find too many negatives tbh. Someone mentioned adopting the MLS system - the description of that sounds similar to what we have here in Australia. Can tell you right now, that system would not go down well in Scotland. You can effectively have the team that finished 6th in a 10 team league winning the 'grand final'. In saying that im looking forward to the GF tomorrow where Perth Glory hopefully prevail against Sydney at a full Optus stadium in Perth.
 
This is far too complicated to outsiders, the league won’t grow if new audiences don’t understand how the league works.

That’s already an issue with the current split

I don't see the complications to be truthful, two twelve team leagues splitting to three 8 team leagues, 36 games, play everyone same amount of times home and away.

Simples
 
The split is a terrible system, no decent league has such a thing.

I get we might not have enough good teams, and I get teams won't want less home games, but the ideal is a 16 team league playing each other twice. 30 games reducing midweek fixtures now there are so many dates unavailable for international games plus a winter break.

Won't happen.

Kinda my thoughts too, although I’d like to then also see us involved in something like a 10 team euro league / division which would give us an additional 18 games. 48 games in total is still less than this season. Use the youth and fringe players for the domestic cups.

If different euro divisions were available you could envisage say 4 or 5 Scottish teams being involved. However the rest won’t ever go for that due to the loss of income. So we’d either need a separate additional tournament for them (which will fail without us and the scum in it*) or some redistribution of the income to shut them up.

*or maybe the non euro teams could get involved in something like the current Irn Bru cup thing, with teams from Wales and Ireland, played in sections to give them at least another half a dozen games.
 
My idea would be two top divisions of ten each and no splits. With two relegation places, one of which would be a playoff.

The rest of the dross and leaches could goto the juniors, lowland, highland leagues or just fold. We are too small of a country to have so many so called top flight teams.

The cups I would scrap the league cup and have no replays in the Scottish cup.
 
Games = money .. People saying it should be 16 or 18 playing twice means we reduce everyone's revenue, makes no sense.

Whatever the system is, it needs to be 36 to 40 games minimum for all.

Personally, I'd just have 2 professional divisions of 14, play twice, split, top 6, bottom 8 play twice.
 
I don’t think there’s enough appetite for a 16 team top tier, and I don’t think the current 42 club setup works either. I don’t wish for any low league teams to go out of business, but they need cut off from the pro game a bit.

idea of SPL1&2:
Two tiers of 12, each team plays each other twice - 22 games.
Split into 3 groups of 8, further 14 games each.
Top 8 - title and European places.
Middle 8 - top four remain/promoted to SPL1, bottom four drop to SPL2.
Bottom 8 - bottom two relegated to the national league.

National league: 18 teams playing each other twice - 34 games. First gains automatic promotion, 2-5 play off for promotion. Four relegated, two to Highland league and two to Lowland league.
Everything below this would be regionalised, starting with Highland/Lowland leagues of 18 teams each. I would add ‘B’ teams to the Highland/Lowland leagues to begin with, but I wouldn’t allow them into SPL2.

In terms of cups, the league cup should return to a knockout competition with final in March. Scrap replays in the Scottish Cup from last 32 onwards. If the challenge cup is to remain, it would be contested by teams outwith SPL1&2, but not Irish or Welsh clubs.

Edit: when the SPL splits into 8s, points in the middle tier go back to zero. In the other two tiers, points gained in the first 22 games would be halved and rounded up - they do this in some European leagues.
The current challenge cup needs refreshed anyway, it should start with groups of four, with ‘colt’ teams involved but also the colt teams separated in the group stage. Currently they go in at round 1 and can get knocked out immediately. Kind of defeats the purpose of their inclusion; put them in a group and guarantee them 3 games prior to the knockout round.
 
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I like the suggestion, although, I think the English play off format is better with no teams from the top division and the final is one single game at a neutral venue.
 
scrap winter football and play during the summer on Grass pitches
no more playing X twice before playing Y once
Home and Away the way it should be
No split when the home support miss out on a game that they may have already paid for and bottom teams miss out on the blue pound that didnt vote us down.
Bring in VAR
 
I like the idea of 14 team leagues but not the 6/8 split. I would much prefer 7/7 so that every team plays 38 games. I also think there should be only 2 divisions in the SPFL, Premiership and Championship. The 3rd Division should be assimilated into the Highland and Lowland Leagues on a regionalised basis with Colt teams added. I have heard objections that this only guarantees other clubs in the Premiership one home against each of Rangers and Celtic thus lost revenue. But that didn't concern them in 2012 when they refused to allow Rangers to play in the top division. And now we have clubs cutting our ticket allocation for their home games thus losing revenue.
 
I like the league of 14 idea playing each team 4 times and then in cups is completely mental
 
To me the structure should be:
16 team top flight.
  • 30 games. (15 home, 15 away)
  • More availability for League/Scottish Cup weekends.
  • Bottom 2 get relegated.
20 team second tier (16 + 4 colt teams)
  • Top team promoted
  • 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th go into a playoff for the second promotion slot.
  • Colt teams can't go any higher than second tier, but can be relegated.
  • Bottom 2 relegated.
4 regional leagues (North, East, South and West)
  • Top 2 from each regional league go into an 8 team playoff with the finalists being promoted to the second tier.
  • The regional leagues are reorganised every summer in order to account for the relegated teams.
 
What was proposed a few years back would be the best fit with a fair split.
Two leagues of 12 splitting to 3 leagues of 8 after 22 games, 36 games total, playoffs only for relegation/promotion from/to 2nd league.
Thought this was a great option when put forward.
Think it was St Mirren and Ross County that voted it down.
Would be competitive as feck after the split. Also gave the relegated teams a half season to get back playing lower premiership teams
 
How could we help make EVERY single match between ALL Clubs more competitive and meaningful? Dangle a tasty carrot in front of them all. Combine League and Cup formats.

14 Clubs playing each other Home and Away on a Cup Tie Aggregate Score way (penalties too if required). Whoever comes out on top gets the 3rd match between them at Home. The incentive of home advantage and extra revenue for the Home game.

So a total of 39 matches. Season Tickets based on 13 Home games. Any extra home games paid extra like a cup game.

So for instance -

Celtic 1 v Rangers 1

Rangers 0 v Celtic 0

Rangers win the right to play the 3rd match at home and thus earned the advantage.

I have no doubts that we would see far more and better competitive games. Spring some of the clubs into going for it and try and get them to play instead of sitting in with 2 banks of 4 and boring us to death on a cold wet winter's night.

And yes some clubs could potentially have much more home games than away games but they would have earned it over the previous 2 matches. I would rather see that than rely on current post split fixtures on a 'computer' which we all know is lies and since the advent of the SPL have benefitted one club. It was designed to.

Way too complex and wouldn’t work .

Football is a simple game
 
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