Leaderboard

You won't get into the playoffs unless your ground has bronze level, and you won't get bronze level unless you have floodlights to 300 lux. So there's no chance of winning the HL/LL then taking part in the playoffs just for the gate money, knowing you can't be promoted. I don't think there's any contradiction in the set up at all. One thing the advent of the LL has done for the game is to raise standards so that all the clubs are playing in what is recognised as a 'football stadium'. Just as the separate leagues in the English pyramid have their standards at each level. It's all very well saying that progressive clubs should be able to rise, but not if they are concentrating all their resources on the first team at the expense of developing the rest of the club. The more you look at the licensing criteria, the more sense they make. Some of the clubs left behind in the EOSL are playing in public parks or schools so they will be barred from the Scottish Cup. In the HL you're used to clubs having a proper stadium of their own but down here it's different. For my club, Whitehill, floodlights will be a massive problem to finance, but I accept that they are necessary to play in a national league with midweek fixtures (even though I think a national league for part time clubs is nonsense).

^^^ Went into the ladies by mistake.