The big COVID-19 Shutdown

[Cagey]

When is a 5pm deadline not a deadline. When you have 28 days to cast your vote.

[Abernethy Saint]

It is Dundee. “Talks are ongoing”.

[Cagey]

Looks like the future of Scottish football in Dundee's hands. Do they vote against on the slim chance the league will be completed & the even slimmer chance they will get through the play offs & beat Hearts. For the sake of the future of Rangers they have to vote yes.

[RandomGuy]

11 minutes ago, Cagey said:

Looks like the future of Scottish football in Dundee's hands. Do they vote against on the slim chance the league will be completed & the even slimmer chance they will get through the play offs & beat Hearts. For the sake of the future of Rangers they have to vote yes.

This season wont be completed, I think they're angling for a 16 team top flight tbh.

They currently sit 3rd, so a 14 team league wouldnt be enough. So it would have to be 16.

To get the backing of the top flight, all you would maybe have to do is promise only one relegation spot, and 44 league games due to a top 8/bottom 8, and I think you'd get top flight sides backing it.

[blueheaven]

2 hours ago, Cagey said:

Looks like the future of Scottish football in Dundee's hands. Do they vote against on the slim chance the league will be completed & the even slimmer chance they will get through the play offs & beat Hearts. For the sake of the future of Rangers they have to vote yes.

It's absolute madness that they've released the result of the vote before everyone has voted. Dundee should not have been allowed to end up in a position where their vote becomes more important than everyone else's.

 

[Abernethy Saint]

1 hour ago, blueheaven said:

It's absolute madness that they've released the result of the vote before everyone has voted. Dundee should not have been allowed to end up in a position where their vote becomes more important than everyone else's.

 

I think the League are probably a bit surprised they’ve almost won this. Everyone is very surprised that there was only one no vote (with one to come) in the top league, when Hearts and Rangers* both claimed they already voted no.

[RandomGuy]

6 hours ago, blueheaven said:

It's absolute madness that they've released the result of the vote before everyone has voted. Dundee should not have been allowed to end up in a position where their vote becomes more important than everyone else's.

 

Turns out Dundee have voted no, the signed ballot paper is on the BBC.

Their vote, which wouldve seen the proposal fail, wasnt counted due to a "technical error".

This was them ticking the box, rather than doing what everyone has seemingly done and cross it.

The twist? 

The ballot paper asks for you to tick the box...

The SPFL have absolutely ****ed this.

[sleepless]

13 minutes ago, RandomGuy said:

The SPFL have absolutely ****ed this.

That's such a surprise

[Abernethy Saint]

42 minutes ago, RandomGuy said:

Turns out Dundee have voted no, the signed ballot paper is on the BBC.

Their vote, which wouldve seen the proposal fail, wasnt counted due to a "technical error".

This was them ticking the box, rather than doing what everyone has seemingly done and cross it.

The twist? 

The ballot paper asks for you to tick the box...

The SPFL have absolutely ****ed this.

Outstanding!

This should be fun.

[andrew]

53 minutes ago, RandomGuy said:

Turns out Dundee have voted no, the signed ballot paper is on the BBC.

Their vote, which wouldve seen the proposal fail, wasnt counted due to a "technical error".

This was them ticking the box, rather than doing what everyone has seemingly done and cross it.

The twist? 

The ballot paper asks for you to tick the box...

The SPFL have absolutely ****ed this.

Can’t say I’m surprised. The people who control our game are at it. Manipulation? Probably. Bullying? Probably. Untrustworthy? Definitely.

[mainstand]

1 hour ago, RandomGuy said:

Turns out Dundee have voted no, the signed ballot paper is on the BBC.

Their vote, which wouldve seen the proposal fail, wasnt counted due to a "technical error".

This was them ticking the box, rather than doing what everyone has seemingly done and cross it.

The twist? 

The ballot paper asks for you to tick the box...

The SPFL have absolutely ****ed this.

That is not what they said Random. 

The SPFl nofified Dundee they had not received the vote, there is one thought that as they pdf'd the doc they did not get it through the firewall, but from working every day with emails you would have been notified of that.

If Dundee had really sent it why did they not respond with the voting paper saying yes we did here it is here. They didn't as they see themselves now being in a better bargaining position to try and get a 16 team league.

 

[Cagey]

Rangers now wanting Doncaster suspended. After all those years of Doncaster having their back &  bending over backwards for them it would be ironic if they got rid of the useless bandit.

[south inch]

11 hours ago, RandomGuy said:

This season wont be completed, I think they're angling for a 16 team top flight tbh.

They currently sit 3rd, so a 14 team league wouldnt be enough. So it would have to be 16.

To get the backing of the top flight, all you would maybe have to do is promise only one relegation spot, and 44 league games due to a top 8/bottom 8, and I think you'd get top flight sides backing it.

More to the point you would have to promise 44 games to fit in 4 hatefests otherwise the TV companies would just laugh.

Also, when is this packed season going to start?  20/21?  Does nobody watch the various Covid briefings?  It is becoming quite clear that winding down the lockdown will be a slow and careful process.  Anything other than that risks a second outbreak.  So we are going to have to see the various figures peak and then decline with an emerging consensus that the decline to manageable numbers will take longer than reaching the peak.  A staged return to normal will plan for less vulnerable groups having restrictions eased first so that the damage to the economy can start to be repaired.  Social distancing for vulnerable groups could be in place for most of 2020.

So where does football come in the list of priorities?  Second last if it is lucky.

Perhaps it is luck rather than good judgement but I would say the SPFL proposal is the best we can do.  It may have to be followed in a few months by the cancelling of any form of League Cup and then even a truncated season for the present set up.  Rangers*, Dundee et al  are living in their own selfish dream world.

[Papa Jack]

I was all for finishing the games if we could do it before the end of June ish but I just pushing it out into August/September gets too complicated for teams and players

There will be about 6 teams re-signing/signing players or letting players go without knowing what league they'll be playing in. That can't work.

[mainstand]

1 hour ago, Papa Jack said:

I was all for finishing the games if we could do it before the end of June ish but I just pushing it out into August/September gets too complicated for teams and players

There will be about 6 teams re-signing/signing players or letting players go without knowing what league they'll be playing in. That can't work.

The SFA have already knocked that on the head. Players are unable to train until June 10th, and under the SFA restrictions agreed with the medics and Scottish Government they will be unable to play competitive football for 6 weeks. so no games until  22 July. 

Even playing 3 games a week they will not complete the ;league until second week in August at the earliest as the last 5 fixtures could not be set until after 3 games, 4 in saints case. 

If they are to start back just  call league and relegation after 33 games when everyone has played each other 3 times.  

[Havana Saint]

The silence from our pals at Dundee FC is close to deafening. 

[mike_gain]

8 hours ago, mainstand said:

The SFA have already knocked that on the head. Players are unable to train until June 10th, and under the SFA restrictions agreed with the medics and Scottish Government they will be unable to play competitive football for 6 weeks. so no games until  22 July. 

Even playing 3 games a week they will not complete the ;league until second week in August at the earliest as the last 5 fixtures could not be set until after 3 games, 4 in saints case. 

If they are to start back just  call league and relegation after 33 games when everyone has played each other 3 times.  

The 33 game cutoff seems fair enough.....but I also think calculating final points an position based on the method suggested is fine too.

Sucks for Hearts and Partick (and probably Raith and Falkirk) and will impact non playing staff  but as my wife gets up to go to do another 12 hour shift at the hospital I find myself giving very few f***s about 2 clubs who have been awful all season and had ample opportunity to not be bottom of the league in March.

Yeah it might not feel fair to call a season early or base positions on assumed points gained but that's where we are.

The season will not be completed and all suggestions of restructuring are a waste of time and bring with them too many complications (and financial penalties which will impact non playing staff at every club) to be worth the hassle of not delegating Hearts and Partick.

The most pragmatic solution is to call time on the season and prepare for next season....whatever form that takes and put an end to this embarrassing circus we have at the moment where football clubs have it in their minds they have something important to say at the moment, special mention to Statement FC I mean FFS.

In all honesty at the moment i don't care what happens. I've got more on my mind at the moment,along with so many others with whatever this situation has dealt them. I guess I'm just envious of so many others have the time and energy to spare on something so frivolous as football.....and I'm not talking about fans.

[mainstand]

Some tweets this morning from David MacDonald the head of marketing and PR at Ladbrokes telling the keyboard warriors to shut up and haave some perspective on life with their lies and fake news at a time when thousands of families are arranging funerals by zoom. 

Being met as expected by a number of keyboard warriors having a go at him. 

[RandomGuy]

RG Master Plan

Current season - End as is, prize money handed out by position. No promotion or relegation.

Reconstruction agreed for season 2021/22.

Top flight expanded to 16. 44 game season involving split after 30. Bottom relegated, then Top 5 from 2020/21 Championship season added.

Two relegation spots from then on in. Both automatic. 

Tier Two expanded to 16. 9 teams from 2020/21 League One added. Team 10 is 2020/21 League Two champions. Same set up with 44 game season. Top two promoted automatically. Bottom two relegated. 

Tier 3 expanded to 12 sides. Play each other 4 times. 9 from 2020/21 League Two. Team 10 is 10th place from 2020/21 League One table. Team 11/12 are 2020/21 Highland/Lowland League winners.

Challenge Cup scrapped. Betfred Cup reverts back to straight knockout format. Lower tier clubs gain later access to Scottish Cup. This is an attempt to cut down on games.

[blueheaven]

1 hour ago, RandomGuy said:

RG Master Plan

Current season - End as is, prize money handed out by position. No promotion or relegation.

Reconstruction agreed for season 2021/22.

Top flight expanded to 16. 44 game season involving split after 30. Bottom relegated, then Top 5 from 2020/21 Championship season added.

Two relegation spots from then on in. Both automatic. 

Tier Two expanded to 16. 9 teams from 2020/21 League One added. Team 10 is 2020/21 League Two champions. Same set up with 44 game season. Top two promoted automatically. Bottom two relegated. 

Tier 3 expanded to 12 sides. Play each other 4 times. 9 from 2020/21 League Two. Team 10 is 10th place from 2020/21 League One table. Team 11/12 are 2020/21 Highland/Lowland League winners.

Challenge Cup scrapped. Betfred Cup reverts back to straight knockout format. Lower tier clubs gain later access to Scottish Cup. This is an attempt to cut down on games.

I don't really see the point. If clubs thought 16-team leagues were a good idea they'd have brought them in ages ago. It's not as if reconstruction has never been discussed before. I think that in the long term it'll give us boring leagues with meaningless matches, lower crowds, even more cricket-score results between the OF and the teams at the bottom, and a fixture clog. And all done just to placate a handful of clubs in a once-in-a-lifetime predicament.

I think the SPFL needs to be very, very wary of rushing in dramatic structural changes that they will be stuck with for a long time, purely as a knee-jerk reaction to what's going on at the moment.

What I would be in favour of, if this drags on and a normal season 2020/21 becomes impossible, is a one-off shortened competition to fill the gap, perhaps with a regional element to give clubs more derby matches, before everything reverts to normal in 2021/22 (not something I think will realistically happen, but just something I'd personally be in favour of).

 

 

[Cagey]

1 hour ago, RandomGuy said:

RG Master Plan

Current season - End as is, prize money handed out by position. No promotion or relegation.

Reconstruction agreed for season 2021/22.

Top flight expanded to 16. 44 game season involving split after 30. Bottom relegated, then Top 5 from 2020/21 Championship season added.

Two relegation spots from then on in. Both automatic. 

Tier Two expanded to 16. 9 teams from 2020/21 League One added. Team 10 is 2020/21 League Two champions. Same set up with 44 game season. Top two promoted automatically. Bottom two relegated. 

Tier 3 expanded to 12 sides. Play each other 4 times. 9 from 2020/21 League Two. Team 10 is 10th place from 2020/21 League One table. Team 11/12 are 2020/21 Highland/Lowland League winners.

Challenge Cup scrapped. Betfred Cup reverts back to straight knockout format. Lower tier clubs gain later access to Scottish Cup. This is an attempt to cut down on games.

You have too much time on your hands RG. Maybe you could do something more constructive like deliver messages for some old folk.

[mainstand]

1 hour ago, RandomGuy said:

RG Master Plan

Current season - End as is, prize money handed out by position. No promotion or relegation.

Reconstruction agreed for season 2021/22.

Top flight expanded to 16. 44 game season involving split after 30. Bottom relegated, then Top 5 from 2020/21 Championship season added.

Two relegation spots from then on in. Both automatic. 

Tier Two expanded to 16. 9 teams from 2020/21 League One added. Team 10 is 2020/21 League Two champions. Same set up with 44 game season. Top two promoted automatically. Bottom two relegated. 

Tier 3 expanded to 12 sides. Play each other 4 times. 9 from 2020/21 League Two. Team 10 is 10th place from 2020/21 League One table. Team 11/12 are 2020/21 Highland/Lowland League winners.

Challenge Cup scrapped. Betfred Cup reverts back to straight knockout format. Lower tier clubs gain later access to Scottish Cup. This is an attempt to cut down on games.

Can only assume you are scrapping the winter break. We already have too many midweek games and little room for postponed  matches etc. Increasing games to 44 is crazy. 

Is the only reason you are proposing a 16 team league to buy Dundee's vote as I certainly can't remember any clammer for a 16 team top league before. 

[Old Lethamite]

Re the Ibrox lot's posture regarding the current impasse and calls for investigations/resignations at the SPFL, if the

roles were reversed and they were sitting on a 10 point lead at the top of the league, does anyone think 

they would continue to hold the same views?   

[Cagey]

Everyone voted on self interest. It's human nature.

[Cagerf]

Just been listening to Sportsound Roy MacGregor on giving his view and Neil McCann said Roy was wrong on how to plan for the future.  Shows McCann is as good a business man as football manager!