The Celtic Star published an article this morning around the imbalances in the current Scottish Premiership league model, with particular attention to the dreaded ‘split’. Something we’ve all had to endure for nearly 20 years now.
We asked the readers to join in a debate started on the Celtic fans forum Celtic Noise. We’ve had some very interesting feedback. Now you don’t want be wittering on do you? You’ll want to hear some of the ideas around how to fix the imbalances in the league programme. As such I’ll pass you over. First of all for those who haven’t seen the original article here it below…
‘Corruption and Fixture manipulation,’ as The Split-Stitch-Up Backfires Badly we ask should Celtic care? | The Celtic Star https://t.co/6J39pedyfH
— The Celtic Star Editor (@CelticStarMag) March 10, 2020
Then Celtic Historian David Potter added his tuppence worth earlier this evening, with some very interesting observations….
Splits and Amalgamations – David Potter’s View | The Celtic Star https://t.co/rSdvbpkQzq
— The Celtic Star Editor (@CelticStarMag) March 10, 2020
Now on to the solutions and ideas from you, our fellow Celtic supporters.
First to respond we had John Scally who clearly feels this issue should never have arisen in the first place.
“Any league reconstruction which involves 2 extra games as happened nearly 20 years ago should have been refused by all Premier League clubs! I know that regular fans at Celtic were unhappy at that time! START AND END OF!”
If that one was short, sweet and straight to the point then Martin McGoldrick, The Praguer who loves Schlager, took a more measured approach to finding a suitable alternative.
“I understand that – outside of playing every team the same number of times home and away – there is no perfect system that would offer a level of fairness to which every team would sign-up. However, there are ways of introducing a ‘fairer’ system even if it remains inherently imperfect.
My solution would be to use the winter shut-down to ensure that all games that might be postponed in the first half of the season are played. If you need to delay your break then so be it.
Further, I would use the first game after the break to play a special extra game as follows: –
Position 1 vs Position 12
Position 2 vs Position 11
Position 3 vs Position 10
Position 4 vs Position 9
Position 5 vs Position 8
Position 6 vs Position 7
Teams in the top half of the league would have the game at home as a reward for success. Teams at the bottom DO NOT get a share of the gate money because of a level of performance that DOES NOT deserve a reward. The purpose of this would be to give teams extra incentive to push hard for a place in the top six.
Continue on to complete the next 11 rounds of matches (this takes us to game 34 as we have the extra game after the winter shut-down).
Thereafter the league could split into four groups: –
e.g.
Celtic
The Rangers
Motherwell
Aberdeen
Livingston
Hibs
St.Johnstone
Kilmarnock
Ross County
Hamilton
St. Mirren
Hearts
Each team in each group would play each other home and away. We don’t lose any games (I think the total should be the same), but the post-split fixtures are much fairer.
There is still some element of unfairness, but I believe this would be a little bit better and offer the potential of an extra Glasgow Derby for TV Sports Channels at the business end of the season.”
Clearly a lot of thought and some ideas worth considering from Martin there. In particular the incentive for those smaller clubs, perhaps comfortable just staying above the relegation zone to strive for the top six brings an interesting angle to the debate.
The issue I believed would be thorny to say the least as raised originally on The Celtic Noise by Spherical Planet, is developed further in a response from James Simpson. James describes himself as an avid Celtic fan based in Hamburg, Germany. Evidence indeed that Celtic fans get everywhere.
Over to James to describe just how he supports and how the idea of club amalgamation could benefit Scottish football and how the supporters’ voices could be better represented.
“I enjoyed your article on league reconstruction. It is as topic that was firmly on the table at the time of the formation of the Rangers, but it seems to have gone off the agenda and we stuck with the 12 team setup.
“For me, some version of a 16 team top flight always resonated, and I feel that this has always had broad support. Clearly you can have top 16 team with some sort of a split, possibly a top six. With a top 6 do those team play each other once or twice during the split?
“I suppose the main objection to a 16 team league is other clubs only getting 3 games against the big two Glasgow team, but the time has come for provincial clubs to stop drinking from that reservoir.
“I agree club amalgamation is essential, but how to make clubs pool resources might need government support. However, I see a great case for the following regions to have merged ‘superclubs’ from 2 or more existing provincial clubs:
1. Stirling (Albion, St Johnstone, Falkirk, Clyde)
2. Inverness (Ross County and ICT)
3. Dundee (Dundee and Dundee Utd)
4. Fife (Raith and Dunfermline)
5. Ayrshire (Killie and Ayr united)
“After clubs being merged we then have only two or three professional leagues, with remaining clubs playing in a semi-pro pyramid league with exciting play-off system
“Even without club mergers we should still plough ahead with a 16 team top flight and an 18 or 20 club second tier as most clubs below the top flight are quite similar in stature and resources.
“Demand for my suggestion is there from the fans, and the fans should have regular voting rights on league structure every 10 years. For example, season ticket holders of all Scottish clubs should get to vote in a referendum style vote on a few big topics such as league structure, kick-off times, matchday experience, grass or plastic pitches and then those decisions implemented by the SFA or Football associations.
“In order for Scottish football to move on then we do need to reduce the number of provincial clubs that is killing the game, and we need an expanded top and second top league that is less reliant on the money from the big Glasgow sides.”
Next to contribute to the debate was Anthony McLeod who believed just a small amount of tinkering with the size of the division could eradicate the problems.
“My thoughts on the league reconstruction is the following:
14 teams, Play each team home and away once. Split.
Top 7 play each other a further twice and bottom 7 play each other a further twice.”
Another from The Celtic Star readers comes from Andy in Coatbridge. It comes with an idea around transparency too. Something I think we’d all welcome.
“In my view the split should be scrapped, it gives a team an unfair advantage, it’s that simple…almost, because it’s Scotland, you have to take a close look to see who gets the advantage and who gets the sticky end of the stick.
Perhaps publish all clubs home/away numbers since the split was introduced.”
We thought this would prove an interesting debate and so it’s proved. We’ve got a few more to share from the Celtic Noise forum that we’ll get out on The Celtic Star site later on.
There’s still time for anyone else who wishes to contribute to ge their ideas to us and we’ll do our best to get them published.
Thank you to all of you who have brought forward some brilliant ideas so far. If you wish to contribute, as always contact us at editor@thecelticstar.co.uk
And if you want to join the debate on the Celtic Noise you can do that here https://celticnoise.com/
Thanks again to all those who have contributed to what is an important and interesting subject.
Niall J
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