Revolution Time For The SPL
Only a few months ago, the Scottish Premier League appointed Neil Doncaster as the Chief Executive to replace Lex Gold who was a long-serving member.
With numerous call-offs in the last few weeks and a dire standard of football in Scotland’s top flight, Doncaster has come in for tough criticism by journalists and managers that are eager to see the SPL and its clubs become more respected in World Football.
The known fact that Scottish Football is in a dying state has been the catalyst for debates and discussions on radio programmes, not surprisingly mainly coming up with the same ideas. Lets be honest, we will never be as good as the top three leagues in the world – The EPL, La Liga and Bundesliga.
So how can Scottish Football become as good as say Holland or France?
Rangers Slumped To A Thumping From Unirea Urziceni
I honestly can’t see any negative reasons for having a complete reformation of the Scottish Premier League. Over the last few weeks games have been piled up for clubs due the inconvenient call-offs because of the winter weather, so surely a winter break is a sensible idea to go for.
It doesn’t have to be 5 weeks like Holland, or 4 weeks like Germany but realistically, a week or two is a sensible idea that would prevent clubs having to lose out on money for undersoil heating and fans braving the worst conditions for the game.
To accompany a winter break, the SPL has to change format. The current one which sees the 12 SPL clubs playing each other 4 times with a split is really poor in terms of varying the opposition and making it more interesting for the paying public.
I propose the idea of a 16-team SPL which would see 30 SPL games to accompany the winter break with the use of European place play-offs and relegation play-offs.
Lee Wallace Now On Verges Of National Side
The Scottish Premier League is currently littered with too many veteran, journeymen type players, especially in the lower clubs like Hamilton, Kilmarnock and St Mirren. Recently though, we have been encouraged by a number of youth players coming into the first-team and producing refreshing displays that is most certainly welcome in Scottish Football.
There haven’t been many at the Old Firm, but most notably, Danny Wilson of Rangers looks a very classy defender playing his stuff like a young Frank De Boer, John Fleck also had a spell in the side and looks a decent player who could play a “No.10″ role and there has also been a few chances for youngsters like Gregg Wylde, Jamie Ness and Paul Caddis of Celtic. Great to see, but still not enough.
Hibernian have been at the fore-front of producing talented youngsters over the past few years including Scott Brown, Kevin Thomson and Garry O’Connor. In present times under John Hughes, David Wotherspoon, Paul Hanlon, Kurtis Byrne and Lewis Stevenson have came into the first-team spotlight in a very creative and ambitious Hibs team.
Across the city at Hearts, we’ve seen the introductions of Craig Thomson, David Templeton, Gordon Smith and Lee Wallace plus the few Aberdeen youngsters making the step up like Fraser Fyvie, Peter Pawlett and Michael Paton backs the idea that there are clubs starting to produce more and more youngsters.
By 2012, there has to be more and more youngsters being blooded into the top tier of Scottish Football which gives Craig Levein the same talented options as a Wales or Serbia who have adopted models that Scotland needs to follow.
Derek Rae of ESPN has been a fresh introduction into the SPL media
After the demise of Irish broadcasters Setanta Sports, the SPL signed deals with broadcasters Sky Sports and ESPN who now share the SPL rights and usually rotate games between each other.
In terms of finances for the Scottish clubs, we have seen with the problems at Rangers that any financial guarantees are most welcome by the clubs. Sadly, its an embarrassing deal which completely under values the Scottish game and its supporters with fans being forced to pay up nearly £40 on subscription fees.
The clubs in the SPL roughly make about a £1m in television money with English clubs reeling in £10m and some instances maybe more. In the year of 2008, Rangers made only £1.5m on TV money compared with Portsmouth who made nearly £30m. Its a sad state of affairs and this investment by Sky should be increased for clubs who really need the money.
With the mediocrity of 2009 now gone and very poor European performances from clubs, there is no doubt the SPL will provide the same excitement between the top two clubs for the title, but on a level up in the Champions League, our representatives will be unable to even compete with lowly Eastern-European clubs who once cringed at the thought of a trip to Ibrox or Celtic Park.
Will we ever see these days again?
Celtic and Rangers fans show their size with almost 80,000 in Seville 2003 and 120,000 in Manchester for Rangers fans.
Topics: Features, Scottish Premier League
Football News 24/7
The SPL will never reach the standard of play seen in France or Holland. No matter how hard the clubs may try.
The bigget hurdle the league faces — population aside — is the challenge of getting a UK work permit. This keeps the Scottish clubs from importing cheap, young players from Africa, South America or Asia. France and Holland, in particular, are renowned for developing African and Brazilian talent.
As far as the schedule is concerned, given the variability of the weather in Scotland, what is a two-week break going to win you? Matches have been cancelled in Scotland in October, November, December, January, February … and so on. The weather is a challenge, but this winter has been especially difficult. It just has to be accepted.
Finally, I see no problems with the way the league is currently organized. Scotland doesn’t have the depth to have 16 clubs in the SPL. The standard of play is already quite weak in the lower leagues of the SPL. Inviting the top four of the first division is only going to weaken the league, not strengthen.
Ultimately, if the Scottish clubs want to remain competitive in Europe, they’ll have to convince UEFA to allow for the formation of regional leagues. The much discussed Atlantic League, for example, comprised of the top clubs from Belgium, the Netherlands and Scotland, would provide the clubs a more competitive schedule and more commercial opportunities.
January 9th, 2010 @ 00:10The Atlantic League proposal won’t happen, its been brought up numerous times as has EPL2 but it looks very likely that the Old Firm will remain in Scotland.
The 12-team league doesn’t provide any variety, its about trying to make it more exciting for the viewing public. Going to St Mirren, Hamilton and Kilmarnock 4 times a season isn’t really worth bothering. There are certainly teams capable of coming in to add to the SPL – Partick Thistle, Dunfermline, Queen of the South, Dundee, Ross County – all have the infrastructure to be in the SPL and are probably more supported than most SPL clubs. The 16-team league would also make the Old Firm derby and Edinburgh derbies actually a bit special instead of having 4 of each every season.
The winter break is needed. The call-offs always come at the same time of the year – end of December to mid-January. About 3 weeks. Every year its the same.
January 9th, 2010 @ 21:54Pathetic. You say Sky should increase their investment to help the clubs out. With all due respect, why should they? To what is their obligation? They owe nothing to the clubs and offer what they deem to be fair. To think that this is a solution is very short-sighted.
Secondly, if the league is of such poor quality now, which you state, then why in hell would you open the flood gates to even more poor quality through the introduction of more teams. That’s what we call talent-dillution. Think about it: a Scottish league of two teams, Celtic & Rangers is of high quality. A league of four temas is of good, quality. The more teams you introduce, the more the lack of quality is shown. Simply put, Scotland does not of enough qality players to make up a league of such size.
Lastly, to want Scotalnd to mimic Holland and France. But there is a massive difference. That being: the talent pool of players, which stems from the level of coaching of these players at younger ages. To better the league overall, the nationla and local talent needs to be addressed. Having some kid play week-in, week-out againts the Old Firm doesn’t make him any better.
February 13th, 2010 @ 04:07My point there about Sky Mark, I’ve probably not explained very well. What I’m saying is why should Rangers and Celtic or the other SPL Clubs for that matter ONLY recieve £1m where as, the Championship and poor Premiership sides get £25m plus every season? These clubs aren’t bigger, or better. Sky are clearly taking advantage of the SPL and the TV deal doesn’t reflect the quality of the SPL.
For example, Saturday on ESPN – Aberdeen 4-4 Celtic. Sunday on Sky, Rangers 3-0 Hibs. Those 2 games televised from the SPL were arguably just as good as any EPL game this season. The overall quality in the SPL isn’t as bad as made out – what makes the SPL appear poor is the awful performance of the clubs in European Competition and I put that down to negativity from managers instead of having a go. If you do attack, like most european nations, you can win games and Celtic had one of the best home European records around.
I’m not the only one who wants the SPL increased. The majority of SPL managers want the SPL increased, the majority of journalists want an increase. Scotland can’t handle 3 divisions of 42 clubs. There should be 2 divisions. Premier League and Division One.
I’m not comparing the national teams of Scotland, Holland and France.
But domestically, the Dutch league is boring and I wouldn’t even open the curtains if there was a game in my back garden. Same with the French.
February 16th, 2010 @ 21:12