ICT to block move to 10 team SPL ?

[Harry Chibber]

Would the SPL this season really be that much better for having St Johnstone, Hamilton Accies, Ross County and Clyde in it?  If you increase the number of teams in the league and reduce the number of games you are simply bringing poorer sides into the league and reducing the money for teams to try and build better clubs. 

I think that the current set up is fine.

to be honest I'm sick of us playing he same team up to 6 times in a season... if you are playing a team only twice in a season it makes that  game more exciting because you wont know the other team inside out like we do just now.  More managers more ideas on how to play football, more players more chance of the cream rising to the top. 

[CaleyD]

.....More chance of upsets and more teams to steal points off each other reducing the "6 pointer" factor which allows a team to so easily run away with the league.

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

The current set up in terms of numbers appears fine - It is the relegation and promotion farce that gets me. Why dont we just simply go back to the two up - two down system.

[Johnboy]

You would change yer feckin' mind about that if we finished 2nd bottom.....  :023:

[CaleyD]

Not enough teams in each league to warrant 2 up/2 down IMO.  And with the razy SPL stadia criteria you'd just end up with half the teams being refused entry or going bust in an attempt to comply - which is a whole other argument.

[alimci]

I agree with Harry. And post split, with nothing much to play for, is even worse. Whoopee, Dunfermline again  :017:

I'd also like to see a bigger league, with teams playing home and away only, and more promotion/relegation slots. The current format of the Scottish league system is a joke. We don't need four divisions. Two bigger 'main' leagues with feeders from below, would be a huge improvement. Okay, the same teams might still top the leagues, but at least the season is more interesting for supporters/players etc.

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

So what about a 12 team SPL and two further leagues of 16 each.

[Caley Fish]

I don't think there's enough good teams in Scotland to justify an 18 team league. 16 definetly seems like the ideal amount of teams 30 games is just too few to play and a split brings about too many meaningless end of season games so I don't know how that would work although Scotty's suggestion is the best solution so far.

We also need a pyramid system set up with a 16 team SPL, 16 team 1st div with two up two down and/or end of season playoffs and then maybe a 12 team conference league that will again have a two up two down system depending on if the teams meet stadium criteria of the first division with the bottom one or two being relegated into their regional leagues (north, east or west) with playoffs between the top teams of theregional leagues to decide who is promoted. The only problem I can see with the regional league is that from what I've heard non-league football in the west is rather poor and the juniors are unikely to want to give up their independence and join senior football.

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

Ach - as has been highlighted before - theories are fine until they collide with the OF and the spondoolach counting.  :007:

[clacher_holiday2]

whichever of the above systems that offer ict the best chance of staying in the top flight and earning the most cash

[Alex MacLeod]

I'd have 16 team, no split. 30 league games + SPL cup competition. Teams in groups of four play each in group twice. Group draw on a seeding basis based on previous season league positions. Group winners to semi finals. 36 games in total for all teams + semi final and final for lucky few. Leave other cups as they are

[Libero]

I'd have 16 team, no split. 30 league games + SPL cup competition. Teams in groups of four play each in group twice. Group draw on a seeding basis based on previous season league positions. Group winners to semi finals. 36 games in total for all teams + semi final and final for lucky few. Leave other cups as they are

That sounds pretty good to me, the only addition i would say is to be one automatic relegation place for bottom placed club and one play off position to be played between the second bottom club and second top club in the first division

[maimie]

so far I'm the other....

Gordon Smith came up with a good suggestion - a bit complicated on the face of it but...

He has been talking about the Austrian-Swiss set up an eight-four split with two tiers of twelve teams.

The top eight would fight for the championship and European places and the bottom four join the top four of the other twelve in a play off for promotion and relegation issues, sounds like it could work, its been very successful over there, and it must be better than what we've got.

:021:

so no one thinks this one is a good idea?

[chris123]

Would the SPL this season really be that much better for having St Johnstone, Hamilton Accies, Ross County and Clyde in it?  If you increase the number of teams in the league and reduce the number of games you are simply bringing poorer sides into the league and reducing the money for teams to try and build better clubs. 

I think that the current set up is fine.

to be honest I'm sick of us playing he same team up to 6 times in a season... if you are playing a team only twice in a season it makes that  game more exciting because you wont know the other team inside out like we do just now.  More managers more ideas on how to play football, more players more chance of the cream rising to the top. 

exactly

i also like the thought of more varied away days and even the chance of finally getting to play county competitively again

also you could have one team automatically going down and the two teams that finish second and third for bottom having a playoff at a neutral ground (that isn't hampden :017:), while having one automatic uefa cup place and then a playoff for the other at a neutral ground(that could be hampden, we all saw that other teams outside the old firm can fill it)

i personally think that it is things like this that could make scottish football far more exciting  then it currently is

my one last suggestion is to boot the two teams that qualify for the champions league (you know who i mean) out of the CIS cup

[Alex MacLeod]

The big problem in Scotland is the uneven fanbases. Both OF can command 40k+ Edinburgh clubs around 15k each. Aberdeen 10 - 12k and the rest well below 10k for the majority of games. Teams like us need the OF cos they fill our stadium. Teams like Dunfermline, St Mirren, Falkirk etc dont bring enough fans, nor do we take many to away games. The revenue is unevenly distributed so clubs like us are not going to vote for a bigger league because of the reduction in revenue, nor will we vote for a smaller league because it would be a lot more difficult to stay in it.