The big COVID-19 Shutdown


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14 hours ago, MySpazz said:

Fine, construct the league in such a way that there is a play off scenario, or whatever it takes but what is clear is this: You cannot just lose 4 months of a year and then carry on as normal. 

 

What's your solution?

You either void the season, or you call it as final. Get the clubs to vote on it. 

Either that or you scrap the Betfred Cup for a season, delay the start of next season and use the first month and a half to play the final 8 games of the league season/final two rounds of the Scottish Cup. I dont see that being possible the longer this goes on.

I dont, and never will, like the idea of a 14 team league. You either end up with a split of 7/7, which is ridiculous as one team is constantly not playing, or 8/6, where one half of the league plays more games than the other, which is daft.

Extending it to 16 isnt possible as you need the four OF games for the TV deal.

Best option is definitely to finish this season before starting the next, without a doubt. Only issue is timing.

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On 3/26/2020 at 1:38 PM, Cagey said:

SPFL Advance Payments.

Celtic ,Rangers & Motherwell £395,000.

2nd Division teams £1,350.

FFS could they not have evened it out a bit & adjust at the end of season.

What is £1,350 going to do for these clubs.

This to me seems so unfair. Why the big difference between Motherwell and Aberdeen for one point? More should have gone to the lower divisions. Why did the top three get so much more than the other 9?  The split is all wrong to me.

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We are in the fortunate position that our only problem is finish top/bottom six. Big deal I know but we should not have relegation to worry about.

The final positions now if it is played to a finish cannot be as it would have been without this hiatus.

Players will need a mini pre-season first, some will not return to the form they were in and it will all be very false.

Will fans have lost heart by then or have new enthusiasm, I wonder.

Just all buy season tickets for next season early to help the club.

 

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15 minutes ago, akuram said:

This to me seems so unfair. Why the big difference between Motherwell and Aberdeen for one point? More should have gone to the lower divisions. Why did the top three get so much more than the other 9?  The split is all wrong to me.

The top 3 are the only ones guaranteed to finish in the top half, so the minimum payment they could receive is higher than the rest. The rest of the money will come when final positions are decided.

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On 3/28/2020 at 7:28 PM, MySpazz said:

Fine, construct the league in such a way that there is a play off scenario, or whatever it takes but what is clear is this: You cannot just lose 4 months of a year and then carry on as normal. 

 

What's your solution?

My solution would be to finish this season's games once it's possible to do so, then have a short break (probably just one free weekend), then start season 2020/21. For 2020/21 I'd scrap the League Cup, Scottish Cup and Challenge Cup, and if it was down to me I'd also scrap next season's European competitions and reduce the international calendar as much as possible. Play the remaining 2019/20 Scottish Cup semi-finals and final in April/May 2021. As a one-off, revise transfer window dates and get rid of the rules around players being Cup-tied.

Alternatively I'd use points averages to calculate what this season's final standings should be, and use that to sort out titles, promotions, relegations, prize money etc. I'd see scrapping the season entirely as a last resort, as I think that's the solution that is most unfair to clubs currently involved in promotion or title contention.

I wouldn't do anything involving league reconstruction. All reconstruction does is shunt the problem on to future seasons. You can't just temporarily increase the league to 14 clubs, without requiring a big relegation the following year to put things back the way they were.

That said, what I think will actually happen is that the SPFL and SFA will wait to see what happens in England, and then just copy that.

Given that this is a global issue, perhaps what's really needed here is for FIFA to step in and tell everyone what solution should be applied across the board. That would take the pressure off the various national authorities, who are worried about the heat they'll get from clubs who feel hard-done-by when things don't go their way.

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I really cant see any other option at present than to forget 19/20 ever existed.The TV people may moan but with all sport cancelled they are not in a position of strength IMHO.

It is hugely unsatisfactory I know,but even if isolation rules are lifted partially (or even fully) by say July,you couldnt just whistle the guys back in and start at the drop of a hat.Many players going out of contract in May,many clubs under huge pressure.Lets just say its a scenario like no other ever experienced and take it on the chin.

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1 hour ago, Kilgour said:

I really cant see any other option at present than to forget 19/20 ever existed.The TV people may moan but with all sport cancelled they are not in a position of strength IMHO.

It is hugely unsatisfactory I know,but even if isolation rules are lifted partially (or even fully) by say July,you couldnt just whistle the guys back in and start at the drop of a hat.Many players going out of contract in May,many clubs under huge pressure.Lets just say its a scenario like no other ever experienced and take it on the chin.

Making the season null & void would be the worst of all the possible scenarios.

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You really really don't just end the season as it is right now. Ok, from a saints point of view, its 6th place vs 7th. A bit of money aside, it means very little, but can you imagine how the fans of certain clubs will react?

Rangers fans will claim the Celtic title is nul and void and celtic will claim it's not. Cue arguments for years to come over number of titles etc, which, while on a personal level, couldn't care less about, you know it will rot away at scottish football. Hearts have an even stronger argument. They are within 2 games of being out of bottom position. Not to mention the ripples down the leagues too.

The push from uefa/fifa to conclude by end of june is over placing for european competitions next year. To solve that, just hand out them based on current positions, but still play out the rest of the season.

So, for example, Motherwell get a European slot, but might actually finish 5th and not qualify. To compensate, say Livi who finish in the European slot, pay them a 'solidarity' payment equal to what Motherwell get.

This way, you can finish the last 8/9 games of the season over say a month, have a couple of weeks off for a 'pre season' and setting up fixtures etc and then play a condensed 20/21 season using midweek slots and ditch the league cup and winter break.

For the conclusion of the scottish cup, find a week and play it like the Euros. Semi's on the midweek and final at Weekend.

To think we need 9/10 full months to play put a season is nonsense. Historically it was so, because of small squad sizes and winter weather, but we can get around this surely. 

 

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The fate of this season and the format for next season will be decided by the TV Companies who at present have the sense to keep quiet whilst they wait for the Covid 19 situation to begin to settle down.  Once they see the future a bit more clearly they will soon lay the law down.  He who pays the piper calls the tune!

The football authorities on the other hand are running around like headless chickens making contradictory statements at every available opportunity.  They are clearly unaware that most of us think they are clueless and in that sort of situation it is better to say nothing than to speak up and remove any possible doubt.

Luckily more important matters are in the hands of two ladies who know what they are doing, Nicola Sturgeon and Catherine Calderwood.

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54 minutes ago, south inch said:

The fate of this season and the format for next season will be decided by the TV Companies who at present have the sense to keep quiet whilst they wait for the Covid 19 situation to begin to settle down.  Once they see the future a bit more clearly they will soon lay the law down.  He who pays the piper calls the tune!

The football authorities on the other hand are running around like headless chickens making contradictory statements at every available opportunity.  They are clearly unaware that most of us think they are clueless and in that sort of situation it is better to say nothing than to speak up and remove any possible doubt.

Luckily more important matters are in the hands of two ladies who know what they are doing, Nicola Sturgeon and Catherine Calderwood.

Oh the Football authorities (the clubs) are aware allright. They just don't care. They don't have to, the only people that can hold them to account are the fans, and, they are not walking away anytime soon.

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20 minutes ago, Indicator said:

Oh the Football authorities (the clubs) are aware allright. They just don't care. They don't have to, the only people that can hold them to account are the fans, and, they are not walking away anytime soon.

It'll be decided by England and Scotland will follow as they've got no balls to make a decision

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11 hours ago, byebyedundee said:

There is no way that can or should be done...

Celtic deserve the League

 

Dundee UTD deserve Promotion

Technically, Celtic and Dundee United don't deserve those things though, because they haven't played all their matches and could both still be caught - surely that's the whole point.

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13 hours ago, byebyedundee said:

There is no way that can or should be done...

Celtic deserve the League

 

Dundee UTD deserve Promotion

Hearts deserve to be relegated

 

1 hour ago, blueheaven said:

Technically, Celtic and Dundee United don't deserve those things though, because they haven't played all their matches and could both still be caught - surely that's the whole point.

Technically, tell you what if they do start the leagues up and play them to the full bet you £ 200 they will still win the titles.You up for it then.

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2 hours ago, sixties saintee said:

Hearts deserve to be relegated

 

In general terms and at the moment I completely agree, however there's no telling what would or could happen over the remaining games and I guess that's where the big problem lies with the teams in or near relegation and promotion spots.

Could you imagine if Saints were in Hearts position, we had just started to turn it around(I know Hearts don't look like they will) and then this all came around, i for one would like the opportunity to complete all the games as I would be convinced we could get out of it.

If we get going by say the start of July-mini preseason starting in June

No idea how feasible any of the following would be and I've no doubt there's lot's of holes in it.

My personal solution would be to go Sat/Wed games to complete this season then 3 week break, within this break complete scottish cup then straight into next season.

Some of the problems with the above are:-

This season and nexts European games, international games, do you have a break at xmas for a month then play all the way to the Euros?

As someone said before money is going to talk, it will be TV and sponsors that dictate how this all goes as however misses out wether it be club TV or sponsor is sure to challenge it.

Edited to add in-Players contracts, they will be coming up for renewal/termination or players leaving, they cant be forced to stay and for the likes of Hearts they could buy their way out.

Edited by perthandproud
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3 hours ago, sixties saintee said:

Technically, tell you what if they do start the leagues up and play them to the full bet you £ 200 they will still win the titles.You up for it then.

No, because I agree that they'd probably win the titles. But that's not the point I was making.

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