SPFL and Covid ( Leagues 1 and 2 to restart )

[TyphoonJambo]

4 minutes ago, John Findlay said:

Chaff.

Showing your roots bud

[Rogue Daddy]

11 hours ago, Newton51 said:

...A source told us: “It’s now really a question of how innovative football can be if we are to find a way of playing this year’s Scottish Cup to completion.

Innovative?!... INNOVATIVE? ...definitely not a word you could use to describe the SFA/SPFL (at least, not in a good or positive way.)

[colinmaroon]

1 hour ago, John Findlay said:

Chaff.

 

 

Thanks mate!  Could I remember it!!!

 

One of the "advantages" of age - the curse of dropping down to the upper stratosphere of Doncaster's brain capacity - never as bad, unless I develop dementia of course.

 

 

[Heartsofgold]

Let's be honest, the SPFL/SFA are NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE AND NEED TO BE REPLACED!!! They are staffed and run by a bunch of 1960s/70s dinosaurs who either appreciate funny handshakes , wear bowler hats and white gloves on specific days/occasions OR they have an affiliation with another Glasgow based footballing culture.

 

And I do not ****ing care if anybody is offended by the above comments.  The truth hurts.

[Rogue Daddy]

40 minutes ago, Heartsofgold said:

Let's be honest, the SPFL/SFA are NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE AND NEED TO BE REPLACED!!! They are staffed and run by a bunch of 1960s/70s dinosaurs who either appreciate funny handshakes , wear bowler hats and white gloves on specific days/occasions OR they have an affiliation with another Glasgow based footballing culture.

 

And I do not ****ing care if anybody is offended by the above comments.  The truth hurts.

No doubting that! I find it staggering that this behaviour has gone on for so long in a 'professional' institution such as Scottish Football. Two clubs run our game for the complete and total benefit of themselves... and (more unbelievably) it's being allowed to happen. Year after year after year.

I really thought last years shenanigans was the catalyst to blow the spfl out of the water. It was our chance. Sadly, not to be... but, make no mistake, they're weak right now. I've said elsewhere in these threads, if there was to be a motion to have an independent investigation into the SFA/SPFL now, it would pass.

[John Findlay]

1 hour ago, colinmaroon said:

 

 

Thanks mate!  Could I remember it!!!

 

One of the "advantages" of age - the curse of dropping down to the upper stratosphere of Doncaster's brain capacity - never as bad, unless I develop dementia of course.

 

 

Lol, what are you like😄

[JDK2020]

28 minutes ago, Rogue Daddy said:

No doubting that! I find it staggering that this behaviour has gone on for so long in a 'professional' institution such as Scottish Football. Two clubs run our game for the complete and total benefit of themselves... and (more unbelievably) it's being allowed to happen. Year after year after year.

I really thought last years shenanigans was the catalyst to blow the spfl out of the water. It was our chance. Sadly, not to be... but, make no mistake, they're weak right now. I've said elsewhere in these threads, if there was to be a motion to have an independent investigation into the SFA/SPFL now, it would pass.

 

 😏  Yeah, last year could have been a catalyst, but... 

[Niemi’s gloves]

14 hours ago, Mikey1874 said:

Don't see the problem. The precedent has been set with the Scottish Cup. 

For us, the issue with playing the Scottish Cup at the start of next season is that it kills any hope of European football next season. And as I have suggested on another thread winning the Scottish Cup this year - if it is finished on time - is potentially much better than finishing third in the premier league. Scottish Cup winners this year get an entry to the play off round of the Europa League. Win that tie and you are in the 32 club league stage of the Europa League next season. Even if you lose, you are in the league stage of the new European Conference. No Scottish Cup (or to be fair, a Celtic or Rangers win) and that prospect presumably reverts to whoever finishes third in the premier league, most probably Aberdeen or Hibs.
 

 

[Newton51]

SCOTLAND’S lower league clubs are confident they will be given the go ahead to resume their season next week.

SunSport understands League One and League Two outfits are expecting the green light ahead of a meeting with the SPFL on February 10.

1

Hampden

 

The campaign will restart in early March and will be extended to mid-May with the possibility of playing into June if required.

All 20 clubs involved have already sent a detailed proposal to SFA chief Ian Maxwell outlining their plans and urging his backing on the matter.

The SPFL are expected to give their blessing to the blueprint which will see every player in League One and Two tested at least once-a-week.

The clubs have made it clear they are willing to cover the cost of all Covid-19 testing in a determined bid to avoid a repeat of last season’s carnage.

 

 

 

1 / 3

 

They are desperate to make sure the campaign is played to a close and that all play-offs games will take place.

The intention is to play every Tuesday and Saturday to squeeze in the remaining matches with more than half of the shortened 27-game programme still to be completed.

---

And with the possibility of the Scotish Cup being shelved additional dates could also be made available.

The bottom two divisions were placed into cold storage at the start of January due to the increased number of coronavirus cases.

 

But it is now looking increasingly likely another disastrous abandonment will be avoided.

---

Keep up to date with ALL the latest news and transfers at the Scottish Sun football page

 

•  

 

 

 

[NANOJAMBO]

7 minutes ago, Newton51 said:

SCOTLAND’S lower league clubs are confident they will be given the go ahead to resume their season next week.

SunSport understands League One and League Two outfits are expecting the green light ahead of a meeting with the SPFL on February 10.

1

Hampden

 

The campaign will restart in early March and will be extended to mid-May with the possibility of playing into June if required.

All 20 clubs involved have already sent a detailed proposal to SFA chief Ian Maxwell outlining their plans and urging his backing on the matter.

The SPFL are expected to give their blessing to the blueprint which will see every player in League One and Two tested at least once-a-week.

The clubs have made it clear they are willing to cover the cost of all Covid-19 testing in a determined bid to avoid a repeat of last season’s carnage.

 

 

 

1 / 3

 

They are desperate to make sure the campaign is played to a close and that all play-offs games will take place.

The intention is to play every Tuesday and Saturday to squeeze in the remaining matches with more than half of the shortened 27-game programme still to be completed.

---

And with the possibility of the Scotish Cup being shelved additional dates could also be made available.

The bottom two divisions were placed into cold storage at the start of January due to the increased number of coronavirus cases.

 

But it is now looking increasingly likely another disastrous abandonment will be avoided.

---

Keep up to date with ALL the latest news and transfers at the Scottish Sun football page

 

 

•  

 

 

 

The clubs have made it clear they are willing to bear the cost of testing ?

 

Didn't they get £500K from the SG for that ? 

[milky_26]

11 minutes ago, NANOJAMBO said:

The clubs have made it clear they are willing to bear the cost of testing ?

 

Didn't they get £500K from the SG for that ? 

nope the 500k was championship clubs, it was lower for L1 and L2 but should still be enough for the testing

[NANOJAMBO]

Just now, milky_26 said:

nope the 500k was championship clubs, it was lower for L1 and L2 but should still be enough for the testing

OK, so we're agreed - they were given money by the SG to cover this.  My point being, the Record doesn't acknowledge this. 

[Newton51]

4 hours ago, milky_26 said:

nope the 500k was championship clubs, it was lower for L1 and L2 but should still be enough for the testing

Yeah it was 150k for league 1 and 50k for league 2. I could see them either reducing the games to 18 games or making it mandatory for clubs to Covid test in the cup including highland and lowland league

[ToadKiller Dog]

Livingston being investigated by the police  supposed were in tony macaroni before Aberdeen game .

Edited February 5, 2021 by ToadKiller Dog

[The Treasurer]

8 hours ago, Newton51 said:

SCOTLAND’S lower league clubs are confident they will be given the go ahead to resume their season next week.

SunSport understands League One and League Two outfits are expecting the green light ahead of a meeting with the SPFL on February 10.

1

Hampden

 

The campaign will restart in early March and will be extended to mid-May with the possibility of playing into June if required.

All 20 clubs involved have already sent a detailed proposal to SFA chief Ian Maxwell outlining their plans and urging his backing on the matter.

The SPFL are expected to give their blessing to the blueprint which will see every player in League One and Two tested at least once-a-week.

The clubs have made it clear they are willing to cover the cost of all Covid-19 testing in a determined bid to avoid a repeat of last season’s carnage.

 

 

 

1 / 3

 

They are desperate to make sure the campaign is played to a close and that all play-offs games will take place.

The intention is to play every Tuesday and Saturday to squeeze in the remaining matches with more than half of the shortened 27-game programme still to be completed.

---

And with the possibility of the Scotish Cup being shelved additional dates could also be made available.

The bottom two divisions were placed into cold storage at the start of January due to the increased number of coronavirus cases.

 

But it is now looking increasingly likely another disastrous abandonment will be avoided.

---

Keep up to date with ALL the latest news and transfers at the Scottish Sun football page

 

 

• One problem with this is the playoffs if the lower leagues don't finish until June.

 

 

 

 

[Fxxx the SPFL]

43 minutes ago, ToadKiller Dog said:

Livingston being investigated by the police  supposed were in tony macaroni before Aberdeen game .

whats that all about.

 

 

[steve123]

14 minutes ago, **** the SPFL said:

whats that all about.

 

 

It would appear the good old SFA have been at it again !!

 

https://livingstonfc.co.uk/club-statement-alleged-covid-19-breach/

[Fxxx the SPFL]

4 minutes ago, steve123 said:

It would appear the good old SFA have been at it again !!

 

https://livingstonfc.co.uk/club-statement-alleged-covid-19-breach/

Celtic's hand all over this get their results against Livvy overturned or just the usual SFA SPFL incompetence

[Rogue Daddy]

22 minutes ago, steve123 said:

It would appear the good old SFA have been at it again !!

 

https://livingstonfc.co.uk/club-statement-alleged-covid-19-breach/

It appears the sfa/spfl/jrg have been moving the goalposts recently. Even Graeme Alexander, Motherwells manager, complained a couple of days ago that there had been changes made that the club hadn’t been made aware of. 

[milky_26]

6 hours ago, Newton51 said:

Yeah it was 150k for league 1 and 50k for league 2. I could see them either reducing the games to 18 games or making it mandatory for clubs to Covid test in the cup including highland and lowland league

I agree reducing to 18 games would be the best idea. Means all teams play home and away and the money they got should easily cover testing

[Nookie Bear]

7 hours ago, Newton51 said:

Yeah it was 150k for league 1 and 50k for league 2. I could see them either reducing the games to 18 games or making it mandatory for clubs to Covid test in the cup including highland and lowland league

 

I think that is a sensible and realistic approach.

[David Black]

The TV money that was held back due to some investigation, has that been released to the clubs yet? Never seen anymore about it.

[Saint Jambo]

12 hours ago, NANOJAMBO said:

The clubs have made it clear they are willing to bear the cost of testing ?

 

Didn't they get £500K from the SG for that ? 

 

As others have said, it wasn't £500k in L1 and L2.

 

It also wasn't for testing. It was to cover loss of earning from not having spectators in the ground. It was general income rather than being ring-fenced so could be spent on anything (possibly with restrictions around player transfers, that has never been fully clarified as far as I know).

 

Given that most of the teams have almost the same cost base as in a normal year (they'll save on some match day costs but also have some additional costs related to the existing covid requirements), the the SG money may already have been committed to other things. There might be some clubs for which they grant has put them in a good position, but others like Partick and Falkirk for who the grant won't come close to covering their lost income. When the SG funding was announced there was no indication at that time that L1 and L2 clubs would need to test.

 

So I think it is fair to say clubs are willing to bear the costs of testing.

[manaliveits105]

1 hour ago, David Black said:

The TV money that was held back due to some investigation, has that been released to the clubs yet? Never seen anymore about it.

Some of it will be going to a leaving gift for Peter Lawell 

[Nookie Bear]

16 minutes ago, Saint Jambo said:

 

As others have said, it wasn't £500k in L1 and L2.

 

It also wasn't for testing. It was to cover loss of earning from not having spectators in the ground. It was general income rather than being ring-fenced so could be spent on anything (possibly with restrictions around player transfers, that has never been fully clarified as far as I know).

 

Given that most of the teams have almost the same cost base as in a normal year (they'll save on some match day costs but also have some additional costs related to the existing covid requirements), the the SG money may already have been committed to other things. There might be some clubs for which they grant has put them in a good position, but others like Partick and Falkirk for who the grant won't come close to covering their lost income. When the SG funding was announced there was no indication at that time that L1 and L2 clubs would need to test.

 

So I think it is fair to say clubs are willing to bear the costs of testing.

 

My back-of-a-fag-packet calculation sees quite a few League 2 clubs actually making money out of this.

 

Albion Rovers average 300. Allowing for an average of £15 per attendee, over 18 home games that's £81k. I assume they would have saved money elsewhere (stewarding, electricity etc)

[Rogue Daddy]

21 minutes ago, manaliveits105 said:

Some of it will be going to a leaving gift for Peter Lawell 

...the rest is going towards 'private surgery' to have dungcaster removed from his arse!

[Saint Jambo]

27 minutes ago, Nookie Bear said:

 

My back-of-a-fag-packet calculation sees quite a few League 2 clubs actually making money out of this.

 

Albion Rovers average 300. Allowing for an average of £15 per attendee, over 18 home games that's £81k. I assume they would have saved money elsewhere (stewarding, electricity etc)

 

I think its possible but fairly unlikely. In addition to ticket sales there will be other matchday related income streams that have been affected - catering, advertising, etc. There are also the cup games that income has been lost from. I think the only way to know for sure would be to have detailed access to a club accounts. A while back I looked for lower league club accounts, but they all seem to make use of the small business exemptions which mean they aren't required to publish much detail.

[Italian Lambretta]

39 minutes ago, manaliveits105 said:

Some of it will be going to a leaving gift for Peter Lawell 

An extraction kit to remove Dungcaster from his back passage?

[FarmerTweedy]

17 hours ago, NANOJAMBO said:

OK, so we're agreed - they were given money by the SG to cover this.  My point being, the Record doesn't acknowledge this. 

They weren't given money specifically to cover testing, simply to help keep them going generally.  Whether they were given enough to keep them going with the added cost of regular testing may be debatable, although I suspect for the part time clubs at least, they probably were.  Maybe more doubtful for the likes of Falkirk and Partick with full time squads to pay. 

[Martin_T]

Could the Scottish Cup potentially work as an end of season tournament? The vast majority of teams will only need to play 1 or 2 games, so it could potentially be played over 3 or 4 weeks?

[GinRummy]

8 minutes ago, Martin_T said:

Could the Scottish Cup potentially work as an end of season tournament? The vast majority of teams will only need to play 1 or 2 games, so it could potentially be played over 3 or 4 weeks?

Not sure if international competitions could put paid to that but reorganising the season to have a league cup competition after all the leagues end would be a fantastic idea to revive a pishy competition.  

[DesertDawg]

6 hours ago, manaliveits105 said:

 

 

7 hours ago, David Black said:

The TV money that was held back due to some investigation, has that been released to the clubs yet? Never seen anymore about it.

 

Last I heard from my local Raith Rovers fan here a couple of weeks ago was........no, and for some reason, nobody wants to talk about it.

[colinmaroon]

10 hours ago, Rogue Daddy said:

It appears the sfa/spfl/jrg have been moving the goalposts recently. Even Graeme Alexander, Motherwells manager, complained a couple of days ago that there had been changes made that the club hadn’t been made aware of. 

 

 

SFA and SPFL - Dumb and Dumber!

 

You'd think that Doncaster, with his extortionate £480, 000 Bribe, would be able at least to administrate.  We all know he's worse than useless in any role other than a glove puppet elsewise. 

 

Maybe the fact that his "boss" is retiring and being replaced by a man SO FAR who seems an efficient, honest guy has got him in a panic?

 

 

Edited February 5, 2021 by colinmaroon

[Newton51]

 

[Newton51]

 

[Tommy Brown]

Must have been put forward by Brechin City.

 

We need less teams in the SPFL, not more. Plus I am anti OF colt sides.  (Anti-OF altogether, actually)

[Geoff Kilpatrick]

4 minutes ago, Tommy Brown said:

Must have been put forward by Brechin City.

 

We need less teams in the SPFL, not more. Plus I am anti OF colt sides.  (Anti-OF altogether, actually)

:Agree:

[graygo]

They knocked this back last year to spite us, they can now gtf.

[Newton51]

12 minutes ago, graygo said:

They knocked this back last year to spite us, they can now gtf.

Year without gate receipts with this offer on the table is a no brainer. Could save Brechin for another year

[section s heart]

Interesting to see if the position of Alloa and Brechin, bottom of their divisions and with representation on spfl boards, has any potential impact on the decision to be made about restarting League 1 and League 2. If L1 was to be null and void, do Alloa stay in the Championship? 

[Saint Jambo]

16 minutes ago, section s heart said:

Interesting to see if the position of Alloa and Brechin, bottom of their divisions and with representation on spfl boards, has any potential impact on the decision to be made about restarting League 1 and League 2. If L1 was to be null and void, do Alloa stay in the Championship? 

 

It's hard to see how they could justify ending the leagues now. They weren't ordered to stop the league by Scottish Government. Scottish Government now talking about some easing of restriction hopefully being possible from early March. Doesn't really seem justifiable to keep the league suspended beyond mid-March unless things get worse rather than better. The SPFL still have the option of reducing L1 and L2 to 18 games before the need to void the leagues. In L1 at least 6 if 10 teams have a very realistic chance of making the play-offs, so unlikely to vote to void the league.

[true-jambo]

13 hours ago, Newton51 said:

Year without gate receipts with this offer on the table is a no brainer. Could save Brechin for another year

Wouldn't Brechin be saved if the Lowland/Highland leagues don't restart, cancelling the playoff for league status

[John Findlay]

The condition will be you can restart, but you must approve the gruesome twosome's colt teams being admitted to League 2. 

Once this is approved then the gruesome twosome will really crank up the pressure to leave Scotland.

[jamboinglasgow]

 

So no lower league or Scottish cup football till at least March. No way will League 1 and 2 be able to play a 27 game season.

 

Surely the Scottish cup cant be played this season.

[Dazo]

Hate to think what this means for lowland, highland and east of Scotland leagues where no testing will be going on. 

Edited February 9, 2021 by Dazo

[Hungry hippo]

10 minutes ago, jamboinglasgow said:

 

So no lower league or Scottish cup football till at least March. No way will League 1 and 2 be able to play a 27 game season.

 

Surely the Scottish cup cant be played this season.

 

Very confused by what is going on as I thought it was purely the football authorities decision to suspend the leagues.

[Mark_Mywords]

Hmmmmmmm

 

[Mark_Mywords]

[jamboinglasgow]

8 minutes ago, Hungry hippo said:

 

Very confused by what is going on as I thought it was purely the football authorities decision to suspend the leagues.

 

Or at least it was decision made with both sides. The statement very much makes it out that the football leagues came forward with plans but the government decided it should still be shut.

[Blackshades]

The government didn't stop the lower leagues .the SFA and SPFL did that themselves the dispensation for sport still stands so why do they need government approval .strange underhand tactics on the go again

Edited February 9, 2021 by Blackshades