Scottish Football

annan, the club that was voted in after gretna went bust in 2008, have said that regardless the lose of money rangers newco should be in div 3. the lose of money to annan would be about £60,000 part of the £2m payment from SPL if Rangers newco should be voted into div 1.

(07-07-2012 21:55 )Scottishbloke Wrote:  What an absolute fucking disgrace that we have to wait until the 13th Juy until this matter with Rangers and and who will become club 12 in the SPL is resolved. The season kicks off on the 2nd August, just how the hell is either Dundee or Dunfermline going to have a squad in place that is good enough to compete fairly in the SPL with only 3 weeks to do so. Out of this shambles that is Scottish football hopefully in the long term our game up here will begin to prosper again. World Cup 2014 we need to have Scotland there, I'm fed up having to miss the big party time and time again.

They could start the season at a later date, as that would give teams more time to prepare

From a financial point of the view I am desperately hoping that it's Dundee that are invited to make up the rest of the SPL. But serious consideration should be given to delaying the start of the new season with that I'd propose that we scrap the winter break.

The idea of Rangers having to start off life in Division 3 is still very surreal to me and sure it will have a novalty factor about it. I think the general feeling is that Rangers will simply win each league at the canter and then take their place once again in the SPL, if only it was that easy for them. 3rd and 2nd Division I'd imagine they might win with relative ease but then comes the 1st Division, a notoriously difficult league to escape from which is why it is nicknamed alcatraz.

My Dundee United team were relegated from the Premier League at the end of season 1994/95 and everybody including us thought we'd win it no problem, as it turned out we only got back up by the skin of our teeth after defeating Partick Thistle after extra time was required in May 1996 via the play off's by finishing 2nd. Dunfermline pipped us to the championship that season.

Rangers and their supporters have no idea just what waits in store for them.

(09-07-2012 14:47 )Scottishbloke Wrote:  From a financial point of the view I am desperately hoping that it's Dundee that are invited to make up the rest of the SPL. But serious consideration should be given to delaying the start of the new season with that I'd propose that we scrap the winter break.

The idea of Rangers having to start off life in Division 3 is still very surreal to me and sure it will have a novalty factor about it. I think the general feeling is that Rangers will simply win each league at the canter and then take their place once again in the SPL, if only it was that easy for them. 3rd and 2nd Division I'd imagine they might win with relative ease but then comes the 1st Division, a notoriously difficult league to escape from which is why it is nicknamed alcatraz.

My Dundee United team were relegated from the Premier League at the end of season 1994/95 and everybody including us thought we'd win it no problem, as it turned out we only got back up by the skin of our teeth after defeating Partick Thistle after extra time was required in May 1996 via the play off's by finishing 2nd. Dunfermline pipped us to the championship that season.

Rangers and their supporters have no idea just what waits in store for them.

I didn't know Scottish football had a winter break, I thought like in the Premiership, they play matches during Christmas

Remember, a few posts back, about the idea of the SPL adopting the Belgian League format, well here's a better idea at what it is like. I got this from wikipedia

Each of the 16 competitors in the Pro League plays each of its 15 opponents twice in the regular season, once at their home stadium and once at that of their opponents. The regular season thus comprises 30 matchdays of 8 matches each, played between July and March. A win earns three points since the 1995-96 season and a draw earns one point (no points are awarded for a loss). Teams are ranked by total points, then by total wins and finally by goal difference, number of scored goals, number of away goals and number of away wins. If teams are still level, a test-match is played in two legs to determine the final order in the standings.
A playoff phase is then played from March to May. The top 6 teams from the regular season enter the playoffs 1, with each team playing their opponents twice. The point system in the playoffs 1 is the same as during the regular season, except that each team starts with half of the points they won in the regular season. Points are rounded up to the nearest integer. At the end of the playoffs 1, the first-placed team becomes the champion of Belgium. If some teams are level in the ranking, any points added due to rounding are first withdrawn from their total points if applicable, before other criteria are taken into account. Teams ranked 7 to 14 after the regular season enter the playoffs 2, with teams ranked 7th, 9th, 12th and 14th entering the group A and teams ranked 8th, 10th, 11th and 13th entering the group B. In each group, each team plays each of its 3 opponents twice. The winner of each group plays the final game in two legs, to determine the winner of the playoffs 2. The winner of the playoffs 2 then plays a home and away game against either the fourth-placed or fifth-placed team from the playoffs 1 for the final Europa League ticket, with the opponent depending on the fact if the Belgian Cup winner ended in the top four of the playoff 1 or not.
Teams ranked 15th and 16th after the regular season enter the relegation playoff. It consists of 5 games between the 2 teams. The 15th-placed team starts the playoffs with 3 points whereas the 16th-placed team starts from zero. The loser of the relegation playoff is relegated to the second division. The winner of that playoff enters the Belgian Second Division Final Round with 3 teams from the second division. The winner of this Final Round plays in the First Division the season thereafter.
Matches are usually played on Saturdays at 20.00. Some matchdays are played on Wednesdays, however. Furthermore, in recent years, some games are played either on Fridays or during the weekend at different times (e.g. Saturday at 18.00 or Sunday at 13.00 or 20.00), as decided by the owner of television rights. Each team playing the Pro League must have been granted the Belgian professional football license guaranteeing the club has no excessive debts, has a secure stadium, etc. This was introduced in season 2001-02 to decrease the number of teams in the division and ensure a higher level of professionalism in the clubs playing in the top flight of Belgian football. Originally, clubs that could not get the license were supposed not to be replaced (and sent to the third division). However, it is still not effective as, for example, KSK Beveren finished 18th (last) in 2001-2002 but were saved as KSC Eendracht Aalst (17th) and RWD Molenbeek (10th) were refused their license.

The Dutch league format is also an option for the SPL to follow. I got this from wikipedia also

The top division consists of 18 clubs. Each club faces every other club twice during the season, once at home and once away. At the end of each season, the bottom club is automatically relegated to the second level of the Dutch league system, the Eerste Divisie (First Division), with the champion of the Eerste Divisie automatically promoted to the Eredivisie. The next two clubs from the bottom of the Eredivisie go to separate promotion/relegation playoffs. The playoffs are played in two groups. Each group has one Eredivisie club and three high-placed clubs from the Eerste Divisie. In both promotion/relegation playoff groups, each club plays a home-and-away series with the other clubs. The winner of each playoff group plays in the following season's Eredivisie, with the other teams going to the Eerste Divisie

Looks like Ranger's demise could have financial implications for Celtic, as Neil Lennon said he may have to sell one of their star players

the sfa have blocked international clearnce for 5 ex rangers players from joining their clubs, charles green has told english clubs that the players are in breach of contract. pfa scotland have said that they have spoken to employment and sports lawyers and none of them agree with charles green. when a company goes bust existing contracts are no longer valid and under tupe (transfer of undertakings (protection of employment)) the newco that comes out of the old one have to offer old staff contracts and they are not obliged to accept the contract. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18771127

Could another team other than Celtic win the title this year

SPL voting not to let Rangers newco into the league has been sold as the SPL having sporting intergity, when in reality it is more like lets pass the buck for the future of Scottish football to the SFL clubs, let them be blamed if it goes down the pan.

Even Subbuteo don't want Rangers anymore

http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/...buteo.html