Small or big ideas that could improve Scottish football?

Dr. Strangelove

Dr. Strangelove

Well-Known Member
From the mundane to the almost impossible.

By all means moving Celtic to Ireland would be a nice idea but try to think outside of that.

Ban clubs from playing in the top flight without a grass pitch - much like they used to require a minimum number of seats in stadiums or whatever it was.

Mandatory children go free ticketing for all clubs to local schools when there's going to be thousands of empty seats.

Link football clubs to universities and encourage players to complete some tertiary education. I'm pretty sure that most of the Germany team that won the World Cup in 2014 had some form of university/college education as will most American athletes at the top of their games in their respective sports.

Any other ideas big or small that could better the game here?
 
Ianferguson said:
A public enquiry into 40 yrs of child abuse at the girodome would be a nice start.
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Would closing down the second biggest club in the country really improve Scottish football? As much as it's morally something that should happen, it's probably not something that's going to massively benefit the league - much as our demotion turned it into an even bigger backwater than it was already becoming at that point. I'd like to see one big team formed out of the two minnows in Edinburgh. I appreciate that there are too many people and too much history for it to happen, but there's another special sort of rivalry that comes out of Amsterdam vs Rotterdam that we have no real comparison to in this country. Portugal has Porto vs Lisbon and other countries are probably in the same boat.
 
Give summer football a go. Might be able to attract a slightly better level of TV funding as we'd be competing against fewer other leagues. Better weather in general. Better pitches. Less chance of games being called off, which can really hit teams hard in the lower leagues. We'd be fully into our stride when European qualifiers come around. International team never qualifies for any major finals, so that wouldn't be an issue. Years where there's euros or WC's we would play by ear to adjust.
 
Crouchy said:
I’d make stadiums be filled from front to back.

Try and create some atmosphere.
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I think it seems like absolute common sense that you let children go in for free with their parents/relatives. At worst, you fill some empty seats and they might get a drink bought for them that wouldn't have otherwise happened. At best, they grow up as supporters and start buying tickets. Someone with a better understanding of it can probably tell me why it's a stupid idea and too simplistic, but it seems painfully obvious that it should be the case in most games when there's thousands of empty seats on display.
 
A fucking lot of things
- Two 18 team leagues, regional pyramid below that, 2 automatic promotion/relegation places, 3rd in 2nd division plays off against 3rd bottom in 1st division to see who comes up/stays in 1st division
- Multiball
- Full time refs and VAR
- No more plastic pitches
- Independent TV/streaming deal, which shows every match live OR
- TV deal which shows all derby games of all sizes in the top league, and all games between any 2 of Rangers, Celtic, Aberdeen, Hearts, Hibs
- Squad rules enforcing certain amount of domestically-trained Under23s in matchday squad
- Rip up grassroots football and start again, use continental methods
 
YoungGer97 said:
A fucking lot of things
- Two 18 team leagues, regional pyramid below that, 2 automatic promotion/relegation places, 3rd in 2nd division plays off against 3rd bottom in 1st division to see who comes up/stays in 1st division
- Multiball
- Full time refs and VAR
- No more plastic pitches
- Independent TV/streaming deal, which shows every match live OR
- TV deal which shows all derby games of all sizes in the top league, and all games between any 2 of Rangers, Celtic, Aberdeen, Hearts, Hibs
- Squad rules enforcing certain amount of domestically-trained Under23s in matchday squad
- Rip up grassroots football and start again, use continental methods
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I watched a bit of Kelty Hearts vs Auchinleck Talbot the other night.

There must be some players in that system that are good enough for the top flight system. My immediate question there is, why are there two separate systems in the first place?
 
Stricter officiating against hammer throwers. Imagine being a technically sound footballer and watching a kilmarnock v rangers game on YouTube before making your decision on signing for a team in the spfl. It would put you right off. The other change would definitely be lowering the price of tickets for the smaller clubs. Either that or a buy one get one/two free incentive. When you weigh everything up, it must be terrible for someone outside of scotland to tune in and watch a team kicking the opposition players and the football as high and far as possible, on astro turf in a half empty stadium with limited atmosphere. The league does have potential as it's a nation with passionate fans but the model is completely wrong
 
YoungGer97 said:
- Rip up grassroots football and start again, use continental methods
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Quoting/replying twice but missed this on the first go.

I'm pretty sure Iceland decided that you can try and copy the better systems and fail at it miserably. I'm also fairly certain that when I was younger, they told us that the training things we were doing mirrored the Dutch way of doing it. The problem there was that by the time we were in our teenage years, the best way of doing things was the Spanish way and towards the end of them it was the German way of doing it. Maybe there's more merit in setting up your own system based on your own strengths.

That said, Soccernomics went off on a much more detailed tangent about how networking and replicating the things that others do to succeed is the most important thing you can do.
 
Grass pitches, better standard of ref and consistency of decision making. Cheaper juvenile ticketing. Hammer down on thuggish behaviour by players and time wasting (this would benefit the Scotland side too).

SFA to have equipment to lease out to lower or lesser incomes teams for Cup matches, especially TV matches.

More fitting kick off times.
 
There's so much wrong with the game in Scotland when a player is classed as someone special for putting the boot into Barton. We are all doomed.
 
16 team league, just a 30 game season. Start in March/April and finish October. Let fans go to football when they don’t need 5 layers on and be able to move games for Europe/internationals. Go to Sky/BT and offer a Friday night, Saturday lunchtime and Sunday afternoon game and reap the benefits of giving Sky much needed live coverage during period when England is in closedown
 
I don't know if I'm right but I think that in Germany, when the lower league teams are in the early rounds of the cup, they're automatically drawn at home to the bigger ones to get the extra income and everything that comes with it in those games. It seems like a good idea that's easy to apply.
 
Bluechip said:
Remove all Shettleston's from office, SFA, SPFL, GOVERNMENT, JUDICIARY, PRESS ETC ETC
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I'm sure that'd be great. A majority population removing a sizeable minority from executive roles in sport, government, law and the media. I can't imagine how that'd ever be portrayed as a bad thing, in any way whatsoever. Where do you draw the line on that?
 
TimzRFudz said:
Give summer football a go. Might be able to attract a slightly better level of TV funding as we'd be competing against fewer other leagues. Better weather in general. Better pitches. Less chance of games being called off, which can really hit teams hard in the lower leagues. We'd be fully into our stride when European qualifiers come around. International team never qualifies for any major finals, so that wouldn't be an issue. Years where there's euros or WC's we would play by ear to adjust.
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Been an advocate of summer football for years. First 2 games i went to as a kid all i can remember about them is being Baltic! Plus it could help with the tv deal - schedule 2 or 3 of the OF games during the summer break down south - and help our clubs in the early stages in europe because theyre in their stride.
 
Ban plastic pitches in the top flight.

Root & branch clear out of Doncaster’s,Mulreny’s,Petrie’s etc.

Full independent inquiry into CBC aligned with the govt.

A new flag ship highlights programme with proper pundits and modern analysis.

Full time referees.
 
We should also bring back those wee blue "invalid" (apologies, but that was the phrase used at the time) three-wheeler cars behind the goals, and guys selling macaroon bars. I don't think it's just coincidence that since we've lost them from our game things have gone tits up up here.
 
Roger Daltrey said:
Been an advocate of summer football for years. First 2 games i went to as a kid all i can remember about them is being Baltic! Plus it could help with the tv deal - schedule 2 or 3 of the OF games during the summer break down south - and help our clubs in the early stages in europe because theyre in their stride.
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Is the big argument there not that you're setting yourself up for mediocrity and an out of sorts team in the knockout rounds if you get that far? I'd be interested to see if the data backs that up.
 
Change the league set up to either 14 then split play twice of 16 then split play once to get more of our bigger clubs in the top flight and make the run in more exciting. Actually put pressure on the BBC to promote our game positively instead of the negative drivel on sportscene by a couple of clowns. Allow and actively encourage safe standing. Stop comparing ourselves to the richest and best marketed football league in the world next door and compare ourselves to realistic contemporarys, and actually realise, for all its faults, there is a huge football culture and history in Scotland and start to recognise and celabrate that
 
Kubala said:
From the mundane to the almost impossible.

By all means moving Celtic to Ireland would be a nice idea but try to think outside of that.

Ban clubs from playing in the top flight without a grass pitch - much like they used to require a minimum number of seats in stadiums or whatever it was.

Mandatory children go free ticketing for all clubs to local schools when there's going to be thousands of empty seats.

Link football clubs to universities and encourage players to complete some tertiary education. I'm pretty sure that most of the Germany team that won the World Cup in 2014 had some form of university/college education as will most American athletes at the top of their games in their respective sports.

Any other ideas big or small that could better the game here?
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16 team league, play each other twice (30games) split 2x8 play each other twice (14games) making it a 44game season and bin the league cup it serves no purpose and hasn't since the European place was removed from it.
 
Kubala said:
Is the big argument there not that you're setting yourself up for mediocrity and an out of sorts team in the knockout rounds if you get that far? I'd be interested to see if the data backs that up.
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i
Well it is a fair argument and you wont know til you try it i think. But weve got clubs like Aberdeen getting pumped rotten every year , theyve got bigger crowds, should have a bigger budget than the teams theyre getting beat by. I know summer football isnt the only reason but it should give us a better chance of the smaller clubs at least hitting the ground running.
 
YoungGer97 said:
A fucking lot of things
- Two 18 team leagues, regional pyramid below that, 2 automatic promotion/relegation places, 3rd in 2nd division plays off against 3rd bottom in 1st division to see who comes up/stays in 1st division
- Multiball
- Full time refs and VAR
- No more plastic pitches
- Independent TV/streaming deal, which shows every match live OR
- TV deal which shows all derby games of all sizes in the top league, and all games between any 2 of Rangers, Celtic, Aberdeen, Hearts, Hibs
- Squad rules enforcing certain amount of domestically-trained Under23s in matchday squad
- Rip up grassroots football and start again, use continental methods
Click to expand...
I know where you're coming from about VAR but I don't see it helping us at all tbh. I can see every Rangers goal being analysed for the minutest foul, offside handball
 
1.Two leagues of 18
2. Relegation from both leagues and pyramid system to come into league
3. Grass surface only in top 2 leagues
4. Binning of league cup.
5. One governing body only.
6. Reserve league of 18.
7. Pool of professional referees from any country
8 Clubs to negotiate own TV deal
 
To improve Scottish football regardless of club affinity ?

50% of every clubs tickets income of the previous year go into a pot and each club gets back an equal share of the pot (including any club tv revenue) to qualify each club spends an agreed percentage of turnover on youth development.
10% of every transfer sale from a Scottish club goes into a put and gets shared 12 ways

No plastic pitches
 
Calderwoodloyal said:
16 team league, just a 30 game season. Start in March/April and finish October. Let fans go to football when they don’t need 5 layers on and be able to move games for Europe/internationals. Go to Sky/BT and offer a Friday night, Saturday lunchtime and Sunday afternoon game and reap the benefits of giving Sky much needed live coverage during period when England is in closedown
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Couldn’t go 4 or 5 months without football!!
 
Kubala said:
Would closing down the second biggest club in the country really improve Scottish football? As much as it's morally something that should happen, it's probably not something that's going to massively benefit the league - much as our demotion turned it into an even bigger backwater than it was already becoming at that point. I'd like to see one big team formed out of the two minnows in Edinburgh. I appreciate that there are too many people and too much history for it to happen, but there's another special sort of rivalry that comes out of Amsterdam vs Rotterdam that we have no real comparison to in this country. Portugal has Porto vs Lisbon and other countries are probably in the same boat.
Click to expand...
I'm not interested in closing the Tim's down but they must be held accountable for the abuse of children in their care. Any sympathy for anyone connected to the Tim's that has not abused a child is gone due to neglect of duty. The club have claimed it's not their problem and their fans have let them so they all must share the blame. Any organisation can fall victim to rogue sexual predators , but not SIX with one allowed back to re offend , that's plain sinister.
 
TV companies should be showcasing more home games at Ibrox & the piggery. Rangers at home v the sheep, spoon burners and jambos , similar for the unwashed. Keep showing all our away games but most of these grounds are terrible, doesn't make the league look very appealing. Too many clubs in Scotland and not enough of them relevant. Hundred odd years old and never achieved anything other than staying afloat.Kids shouldn't be paying any more than £5 a game.
 
On the pitch....bin the split
Off the pitch....let the fans have a beer in the ground like they do down south ( no chance of that happening )
 
Less jakey tims running it into the ground.
Multiball.
Ban on plastic pitches in the spfl.
Other clubs banning fans for abuse of players (we do it consistently).
 
RabsterWATP said:
TV companies should be showcasing more home games at Ibrox & the piggery. Rangers at home v the sheep, spoon burners and jambos , similar for the unwashed. Keep showing all our away games but most of these grounds are terrible, doesn't make the league look very appealing. Too many clubs in Scotland and not enough of them relevant. Hundred odd years old and never achieved anything other than staying afloat.Kids shouldn't be paying any more than £5 a game.
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Pretty sure there's a law that only allows 4 home games for each club to be shown on tv each season. We have the 2 old firms then usually another 2 at the tail end of the season
 
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Force the cloggers out tje game.

Be more strick book them send them off and minimum 10 game ban.

So players will need to learn how to play football not just barge into players and hoof em 6 fit in the air.
 
GMC1 said:
Pretty sure there's a law that only allows 4 home games for each club to be shown on tv each season. We have the 2 old firms when usually another 2 at the tail end of the season
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New TV contract should mean new rules. Let's do more to promote the game and league in Scotland.
 
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