Scotland teams to vote on the reconstruction of their football league

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When the ballot involving top-flight clubs in Scotland comes up in the following week, St Mirren has threatened to vote against the reconstruction of the league. The proposal will be put in front of a 12 Scottish premier league clubs, and is designed to merge the Scottish football league, and introduce a 12-12-18 structure.

The Paisley Club has stated that after studying the Articles of association, structure and shareholders agreement, The St Mirren Board Members have declined to support the motion set up in the proposal, which will be tabled on Monday.

The joining of the Senior Football League, and the Scottish League, into a single organisation is supported by the Saints Chiefs. Despite their perceived support for this proposal, they have expressed disdain at some of the terms which the SPL leaders want to put into place before the start of the next season.

A case in point is the proposal to split up the two divisions at the top of the league into 3 groups, with eight teams. These concerns are not just shared by the Saints Chiefs, but also by fans and coaching staff, who were included in the deliberations.

Although they support the proposal to have a new league structure, a single governing body, and a new model of distribution is one that is well thought out. But the way that the proposal is presented will not have the desired effect of promoting Scottish football.

The proposal outlays plans to have teams play 22 games before splitting into 3 groups of 8 teams. However, the middle 8 will lose all the points that they had won in the first round, and this will serve to demoralise players, and affect the game. The system has been tried in other countries and rejected for this reason. The fans would also have to get rid of their season tickets, a fact that will not go down well with them.

Neil Lennon hailed as the greatest manager ever in Scottish football

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Peter Lawwell has recently made the announcement that he thinks that Neil Lennon is the greatest manager that Scottish football has ever seen. Mr Lawwell is the Chief Executive of Celtic football club and he has stated that he feels the manager is so notable because he has so successfully put up with the various threats that have been made to his life over the past decade.

Mr Lawwell made the comment that he feels no one in the history of Scottish football has had to endure as much abuse as Mr Lennon has. He commented, “He has faced an extraordinary amount of pressure that no one should have to go through.

“It is a testament to his strong character that he can deal with these problems and continue to work in a completely professional manner. We are grateful to the police for all of the efforts they have made to protect him and I feel this in part is one of the reasons why he has just been able to get on and succeed.”

As well as being sent bombs through the post, Mr Lennon has also been attacked during sporting fixtures. Mr Lawwell continued, “Over the last two years the pressure has been particularly extreme as he has had to deal with different attacks from numerous different people.”

Mr Lennon commented, “These last few years have been a very difficult time for my family and I. I am very glad that it is all over with the arrest of the people who were responsible for mailing me nail bombs.

The police have been incredibly professional and I am grateful that they have successfully brought these individuals to trial. No one deserves attacks like this, they are disturbing and cowardly. I still feel privileged to hold the position of Celtic manager.”

Plan for the future from Scottish football Fans

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Plan for the future from Scottish football Fans

Plan for the future from Scottish football Fans

Football supporters have a unique vision for league football in Scotland, and it includes larger attendance at games, better methods of funding, and increased competition.

The Scotland trust Supporters Direct Scotland aims to implement some of these changes by publishing their directive, The Fans’ Plan,’ that is filled with recommendations to help make league football more entertaining for fans in the country. The information contained inside is the result of two years of surveys conducted among fans and supporters.

The Fans’ Plan calls for:

greater competition within Scottish league football structures

equal funding for each team in a league

support for clubs by central league management to increase the average attendance by 20% by 2016, and achieve an average stadium capacity utilisation of 65% within 10 years

two leagues of 16 teams, and a qualifying league of 10 or a feeder league of 16

re-introducing the League Cup, with a mini-league qualifying format structured on a geographical basis with four teams in each group

improved training and professional development for all players including greater use of Modern Apprenticeships and post-career planning

the establishment and implementation of a strong club licensing scheme

SDS spokesperson, Alan Harris commented: “The future of Scottish league football lies in the hands of its supporters and Supporters Direct Scotland has gathered the views of fans for the past two years: the most comprehensive surveys of football supporters in recent times. Fans are clearly telling us, we want more competition, more even distribution of the available funds, investment in the game, especially developing its talent from grassroots, and a greater say for supporters in clubs and national football.”

Alan Harris added: “Our approach is fairly simple. It’s about creating a virtuous circle for the long-term benefit of Scottish football. Too much of the present has been driven by short-term fixes and quick wins. However, that approach is unravelling at every level of the game. The time is right to re-build the foundations of the game in Scotland. We are proposing that a combination of league re-structuring, a re-formatted League Cup and more even distribution of funds, can continue to attract the all-important television sponsorship, create more competition between clubs and widen the game’s attraction to bring supporters back. This is our path to more sustainable development of Scottish league football.”

 

All Scottish sides knocked out of the European club

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All Scottish sides knocked out of the European club It is not a good time for Scottish football. All Scottish sides have been knocked out of the European club competition rounds, and this is the first time this has happened in history. Celtic and Rangers were both eliminated in the play-off’s showing a complete failure of Scottish football, and they joined Hearts, who were relegated earlier in the competition.

In the first leg of the competition Hearts had already taken a beating, losing to Tottenham five nil. Playing at home later they regained a tiny amount of pride by managing a draw, 0-0. Ranger’s managed a 1-1 draw against the Slovenian champions, Maribor. The Scottish team however lost the match on aggregate. Celtic lost in Switzerland by 3-1 and defender, Daniel Majstorovic was sent off in under a minute. All of the teams’ managers are facing a lot of criticism for the losing streaks of their various teams.

Ally McCoist, the new manager of Rangers, has had a dismal start to his time with the club as he has suffered only losses when playing in Europe. McCoist has, understandablym been criticised and has commented, “I feel disappointed mostly, for the fans and the players especially,” when asked whether he felt under more pressure after the losses he said, “No, it’s just disappointment, I don’t feel under more pressure.”

McCoist’s team have lost 24 out of the 25 matches they have played in Europe. Such a figure indicates that this problem is not just down to bad management. While McCoist cannot be held solely accountable he is certainly facing a lot more scrutiny. The manager has gone onto say, “We have been having some serious problems converting the chances for a win into an actual victory. The second half of the match in Maribor was a disappointing performance.”

Scottish Football set for big changes

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Scottish Football set for big changes A unanimous vote was taken in favor of a complete restructuring of the Scottish Football Association (SFA). The SFA president George Peat had commissioned the report and is stepping down from his position. Stewart Regan, SFA chief executive said that it was an historic day for the SFA and he is delighted that the members also share the vision for the future.

The entire 93 members of the SFA clubs at the meeting in Hampden voted to implement the entire package of recommendations in an attempt to modernize the way the game gets governed in Scotland.

The main changes are the SFA board get reduced from 11 to seven and will include an independent member. The SFA says the board will act more strategic than representative. Two additional boards will be created to work under the main board with one for the professional game and one for the non-professional.

The maligned disciplinary procedures will be entirely rewritten with a compliance officer deciding if cases will be heard by the new semi autonomous judicial panel. The different SFA committees will be disbanded immediately and an audit committee will be formed in order to ensure an efficient organization is operated.