The Split

[WDJ87]

 If the top 6 stays the same as it is just now we will have faced 4 out of 5 at home twice already... 

 

 How do the SPFL sort that one out, get this stupid split nonsense to ****

 

 Serious question though, will we end up with 4 away games? Correct me if I'm wrong but we should have at least 2 home games during the split, isn't that how it is supposed to work?

 

 This is most likely to happen because even if you swap two out for Dundee Hibs & Livi we're still in the same scenario.

[Mikey1874]

Yes.

 

2 home games.

 

Depends on the others. 

 

Motherwell should have 3 away games and like us play 4 clubs at home twice before split. 

 

So Hearts v Motherwell for third time is a possibility.

 

Need to check the others. 

[Super_Hans]

It will be Motherwell. They won't care about shafting them. They're not going to upset Celtic or Hibs by sending them to Tynecastle for a third time.

[Watt-Zeefuik]

The split is such an ugly hack. It's hard to believe it's survived this long.

 

So many other ways to accomplish the same goals, not taken. If you really need the split for the 4xOF, make an East and a West division of the top tier, 10 teams each, play once through before the new year. Chop each division in half and combine the top five and the bottom five of each, then play through again with a clean table.

 

Not the only way, mind, and probably not the best, but still a long shot better than The Split.

[Mikey1874]

The last time this happened we were given Rangers away for 3rd time and 20 away games. 

 

Which does happen sometimes. 

[Bazzas right boot]

The split is tin pot.

If they increased the league to a bigger decision so teams played each other twice before the split ( home and away) then again played the post split team home and way it would be less tinpot.

 

Having a uneven fixture list before the split is a farce. It actually goes against all the principles of a league season.

 

[Hungry hippo]

5 minutes ago, Super_Hans said:

It will be Motherwell. They won't care about shafting them. They're not going to upset Celtic or Hibs by sending them to Tynecastle for a third time.

 

I think it's meant to be the lowest team that gets shafted.

[Locky]

Plenty other European countries have adopted the split over time, but they're leagues which are far more balanced. Usually just play twice, then twice again post split. Much more even.

 

Wouldn't be surprised if we end up with a 3rd trip to Ibrox. Seems to have been the case a few times.

[Jambo92]

Fairly sure we have ended up with the 20 away games more often than not in the last 10 years, someone im sure will have the data on it. 

Important we get to the split with some breathing space between us and the rest as they almost turn into cup finals those games when there's still places to be won.

[Watt-Zeefuik]

3 minutes ago, Locky said:

Plenty other European countries have adopted the split over time, but they're leagues which are far more balanced. Usually just play twice, then twice again post split. Much more even.

 

Wouldn't be surprised if we end up with a 3rd trip to Ibrox. Seems to have been the case a few times.

 

Nothing wrong with a split (or an apertura/clausura arrangement like Mexico have) but to have a split after three times round, meaning home games are unbalanced, and not clear the table post-split is just ugly.

[Randy Marsh]

There was a great opportunity to get rid off the split too during that corrupt voting fiasco.  But nah, the other clubs ended up sooking up to Lawell and Celtic.  And also needed the Old Firm pound with the extra potential home match.🤮

[WDJ87]

There could come a time where the league is so tight it becomes unfair no matter what they do. Say 3 teams could win the title and the other 3 all have a shot at a European spot. Whatever they did in that case they'd be up shit creek. I hope it happens sooner rather than later.

[jamtartan74]

If the split is necessary then just do it and then play each other home and away again, more games yes but so what? It’s a new mini league if u like so seems fair enough to me. 

[BackOfTheNet]

Split sucks donkey balls. As does the 3/4 times a season we play teams. I genuinely have not heard an argument I can remotely agree with not to extend the number of teams in the league and play each other home and away. Plenty argue against it though, just not very convincingly in my opinion.

[jamboj]

I like the split, gives the season a bit of interest for those around mid table and potentially makes things more interesting towards the end. Would be better with a 14 team league. But if it must be 12 teams, I'd keep the split. For all its faults at least it's interesting

[Samuel Camazzola]

Increase league, play each team twice with one home tie and one away tie. 

 

Let Rangers and Celtic create an 'Old Firm Cup' over two legs which will give them and the broadcasters their four televised games to keep them happy. They can play it when it doesn't inconvenience any other teams like their postponements did when they went hunting their 'glamour friendlies'. 👍 

[The Treasurer]

In the interest of sporting integrity, I know, I know, any team that had to play a home game bcd should get given 3 home games after the split 

[Aaron78]

The whole split is a nonsense and will be fundamentally flawed until it results in an old firm game where one of them has hosted 3 of them. 

 

Until then, its fixed for the benefit of 2 clubs and will never be fair. 

[sadj]

Pretty sure Rangers have played all of the other top 6 at home first time up

 

Celtic (h) no idea the score

Hearts (h) 1-1

Motherwell (h) 1-1

Hibs (h) 2-1

Aberdeen (h) 2-2

[Thomaso]

3 hours ago, Super_Hans said:

It will be Motherwell. They won't care about shafting them. They're not going to upset Celtic or Hibs by sending them to Tynecastle for a third time.

Hibs won’t be in the top 6

[soonbe110]

Just now, Thomaso said:

Hibs won’t be in the top 6

Was just about to post that. 

[campbell]

Seriously what’s the alternative to this in the current format, let’s be honest Doncaster ain’t going to increase the league any time soon! I don’t like the split but it’s the best option we have if we stick to 12 teams! If anyone has a better option I’d love to hear it as I can’t think of one 

[SUTOL]

8 minutes ago, campbell said:

Seriously what’s the alternative to this in the current format, let’s be honest Doncaster ain’t going to increase the league any time soon! I don’t like the split but it’s the best option we have if we stick to 12 teams! If anyone has a better option I’d love to hear it as I can’t think of one 

 

10 teams with no split or at least 18 in league playing twice.

 

That's probably the only other options. 

 

No fans really want to play the same team at least 4 times a season.

The smaller clubs (and TV) want 4 OF matches, so split is the only suitable alternative to the two above scenarios. 

Edited January 20, 2022 by SUTOL

[Jambo92]

Play each team twice H&A, then split and play the 5 post split teams twice, H&A. 32 games in total.

 

Clubs would never agree to it mind but would make more money in the post split games alone then another round of the bottom of league teams with 100 away fans.

[Shaggy2]

32 minutes ago, Jambo92 said:

Play each team twice H&A, then split and play the 5 post split teams twice, H&A. 32 games in total.

 

Clubs would never agree to it mind but would make more money in the post split games alone then another round of the bottom of league teams with 100 away fans.

I think it was Robbo who came up with 14 teams playing each other twice then splitting. His had a team in each half having a rest week. My tweak would be split the league 6-8 playing home and away giving the bottom 8 teams 2 more home league games. The top 6 are more likely to be involved in latter rounds of cups having previously been in Europe. Therefore games would roughly even themselves out. 

[SUTOL]

3 minutes ago, Shaggy2 said:

I think it was Robbo who came up with 14 teams playing each other twice then splitting. His had a team in each half having a rest week. My tweak would be split the league 6-8 playing home and away giving the bottom 8 teams 2 more home league games. The top 6 are more likely to be involved in latter rounds of cups having previously been in Europe. Therefore games would roughly even themselves out. 

 

I wouldn't be against a team having a rest week each week, but can see it could be an issue for the last round of fixtures and therefore unappealing.

It could be extended to having e.g a 15 team league rather than a 14 or 16, but again I doubt others would be for that. I don't think any leagues are an odd number. 

The 6-8 after the split is a good, viable option.  So it won't happen. 

 

[Getintaethem]

1 hour ago, campbell said:

Seriously what’s the alternative to this in the current format, let’s be honest Doncaster ain’t going to increase the league any time soon! I don’t like the split but it’s the best option we have if we stick to 12 teams! If anyone has a better option I’d love to hear it as I can’t think of one 

Make it a 14 team league, everybody plays home and away - 26 games

 

league splits into two groups of 7, everybody plays home and away - 12 games.

 

still a 38 game season, but everybody plays the correct number of home and away games, and the TV companies still get their 4 OF games.

[BackOfTheNet]

2 hours ago, Samuel Camazzola said:

Increase league, play each team twice with one home tie and one away tie. 

 

Let Rangers and Celtic create an 'Old Firm Cup' over two legs which will give them and the broadcasters their four televised games to keep them happy. They can play it when it doesn't inconvenience any other teams like their postponements did when they went hunting their 'glamour friendlies'. 👍 

Introduce a ‘Super Cup’ season opener. If they’re as good as they think they are they’ll finish top 2 every season and one of them will win the Scottish cup. We’re one of the only countries that don’t have such an opener. That’ll solve their 4 games thing and TV can be happy enough. Only thing they may want to introduce, say if we had a 16 team league, is playoffs for a European place like the Dutch league has. Say teams 4th through 7th. Have multiple relegation places and have a tiered playoff system where say teams positioned 15th and 16th go down automatically, but teams 11th through 14th have a play off to see who will face the play off winner of the Championship. Then all you’d have is teams positioned 8th through 10th in mid-table mediocrity, and you can always have a financial jump between finishing 11th and 10th to compensate for lack of gate receipts.

[1971fozzy]

1 hour ago, Thomaso said:

Hibs won’t be in the top 6

This

[WheatfieldWarrior]

2 hours ago, soonbe110 said:

Was just about to post that. 

 

I think they'll be 6th - Dundee United have fallen off a cliff lately with 5 straight defeats.

[HeartsandonlyHearts]

Have Celtic or Newco ever been screwed with regards to missing home games since the split conception?

Its a stupid thing were a team loses gate money know matter how big or small their fan base is. We really are a $#!tty little footballing nation.

[cosanostra]

I hate the split. We're usually terrible after the split.

[martoon]

First time I heard/read about the split 20-odd years back I genuinely thought it was a leg pull.

 

It screams Mickey Mouse, just like the Austrian League and a few others across Europe.

 

Incredible, in some ways, that the farce is still ongoing but not really surprising, what with the inexhaustible flow of loons that run the game here. 

Edited January 21, 2022 by martoon

[ri Alban]

If they want a split and 4 OF games, make it  a 14 team top division, play each club twice, split into 7 and play each other twice more. A week break for every team can help with injury and any team that wants to play a "glamour friendly" .

 

Oh and play the season through the summer from March to Christmas. Cup finals in May and August. 

 

2 up 2 doon .

 

 

 

Or we could just have an 18 team division and play each other twice. It's nearly 50 years since they stopped this , let's try it again.

[John Findlay]

9 hours ago, sadj said:

Pretty sure Rangers have played all of the other top 6 at home first time up

 

Celtic (h) no idea the score

Hearts (h) 1-1

Motherwell (h) 1-1

Hibs (h) 2-1

Aberdeen (h) 2-2

They beat Celtic 1-0

[John Findlay]

If and I think its a big if the top six is still the same after April the 10th.

Then I think it will workout for us thus.

Celtic,Hibs, and Rangers away.

Aberdeen and Motherwell at home for a 3rd time each. 

It's unfair, but only two teams have ever been treated fairly.

There is no way that Celtic and Sevco will be told to come to Tynecastle for a third time. However any other team would be told to go to either Celtic Park or Ibrox for a third time.

One thing is guaranteed, is it will get messy.

[David McCaig]

6 minutes ago, John Findlay said:

If and I think its a big if the top six is still the same after April the 10th.

Then I think it will workout for us thus.

Celtic,Hibs, and Rangers away.

Aberdeen and Motherwell at home for a 3rd time each. 

It's unfair, but only two teams have ever been treated fairly.

There is no way that Celtic and Sevco will be told to come to Tynecastle for a third time. However any other team would be told to go to either Celtic Park or Ibrox for a third time.

One thing is guaranteed, is it will get messy.

This proposal would see us play Rangers x 3 away and Aberdeen/Motherwell x 3 at home!

[John Findlay]

1 minute ago, David McCaig said:

This proposal would see us play Rangers x 3 away and Aberdeen/Motherwell x 3 at home!

So it will, so it will happen.

[Sherbet]

14 hours ago, Super_Hans said:

It will be Motherwell. They won't care about shafting them. They're not going to upset Celtic or Hibs by sending them to Tynecastle for a third time.

Doubt hibs will be top 6

[Rogue Daddy]

 

2 hours ago, John Findlay said:

If and I think its a big if the top six is still the same after April the 10th.

Then I think it will workout for us thus.

Celtic,Hibs, and Rangers away.

Aberdeen and Motherwell at home for a 3rd time each. 

It's unfair, but only two teams have ever been treated fairly.

There is no way that Celtic and Sevco will be told to come to Tynecastle for a third time. However any other team would be told to go to either Celtic Park or Ibrox for a third time.

One thing is guaranteed, is it will get messy.

This in a nutshell. Although I would phrase it "everyone except two, are treated unfairly". It will be *******ised to ensure neither smeltic or sevco are unduly better off than the other. Fact.

[Rogue Daddy]

4 hours ago, ri Alban said:

If they want a split and 4 OF games, make it  a 14 team top division, play each club twice, split into 7 and play each other twice more. A week break for every team can help with injury and any team that wants to play a "glamour friendly" .

 

Oh and play the season through the summer from March to Christmas. Cup finals in May and August. 

 

2 up 2 doon 

 

Or we could just have an 18 team division and play each other twice. It's nearly 50 years since they stopped this , let's try it again.

Cannae. Too many meaningless games.... it's ok for Italy, Germany, Spain and England to have 18-20 teams... but definitely not good enough for Scotland. No way Jose!

[King prawn]

12 hours ago, Samuel Camazzola said:

Increase league, play each team twice with one home tie and one away tie. 

 

Let Rangers and Celtic create an 'Old Firm Cup' over two legs which will give them and the broadcasters their four televised games to keep them happy. They can play it when it doesn't inconvenience any other teams like their postponements did when they went hunting their 'glamour friendlies'. 👍 

This. 

[upgotheheads]

14 hours ago, Led Tasso said:

The split is such an ugly hack. It's hard to believe it's survived this long.

 

So many other ways to accomplish the same goals, not taken. If you really need the split for the 4xOF, make an East and a West division of the top tier, 10 teams each, play once through before the new year. Chop each division in half and combine the top five and the bottom five of each, then play through again with a clean table.

 

Not the only way, mind, and probably not the best, but still a long shot better than The Split.

 

I'm still for the 24 team SPL with requirement like grass pitches and professionals teams, and a pyramid below.

 

It would start with two leagues of 12, two rounds of fixures, =22 games.

Three way split to three leagues of 8, two rounds of fixtures,=14 games.

 

= 36 fixtures.

 

Top 8 play for championship and Europe.

 

Middle 8 play for position next season in top 12 or bottom 12, that would be quite a meaningful competition because the clubs would in effect be playing for lucrative fixtures against the arse cheeks (and us) in the following season.

 

Bottom 8 would be playing for their lives to avoid relegation/playoffs. I think that would be a brutal 8 to play in and could possibly be the most entertaining of the three leagues, just as the championship is now.

[Percival King]

I thought one of the reasons it was split after 3 rounds of fixtures was so that every team had at least 3 home games in total against Celtic and The Rangers, splitting after two rounds wouldn't achieve that so why would a bottom six club, e.g. Ross County, vote to lose a televised game against Celtic and to have it replaced with a game against Livingston? As we know to our great cost, Scottish football (like probably every league) suffers from self interest so approaching it from the angle of what's best for the game overall will probably lead to disappointment.

[Getintaethem]

31 minutes ago, Percival King said:

I thought one of the reasons it was split after 3 rounds of fixtures was so that every team had at least 3 home games in total against Celtic and The Rangers, splitting after two rounds wouldn't achieve that so why would a bottom six club, e.g. Ross County, vote to lose a televised game against Celtic and to have it replaced with a game against Livingston? As we know to our great cost, Scottish football (like probably every league) suffers from self interest so approaching it from the angle of what's best for the game overall will probably lead to disappointment.

  This is exactly the problem.  With clubs making the decisions it all about self interest, which has been holding back Scottish football for years.  The clubs have too much power now, and the voting structure itself is ridiculous.  Scottish football has been in decline since they abolished the SFL.

[john thomas]

1 hour ago, upgotheheads said:

 

I'm still for the 24 team SPL with requirement like grass pitches and professionals teams, and a pyramid below.

 

It would start with two leagues of 12, two rounds of fixures, =22 games.

Three way split to three leagues of 8, two rounds of fixtures,=14 games.

 

= 36 fixtures.

 

Top 8 play for championship and Europe.

 

Middle 8 play for position next season in top 12 or bottom 12, that would be quite a meaningful competition because the clubs would in effect be playing for lucrative fixtures against the arse cheeks (and us) in the following season.

 

Bottom 8 would be playing for their lives to avoid relegation/playoffs. I think that would be a brutal 8 to play in and could possibly be the most entertaining of the three leagues, just as the championship is now.

Sensible , well thought out system 

No fekkin chance

[Tiger]

The Rangers and Celtic will get their proper split of games, everyone else will just fall in line as per and take what they get and be thankful.

[Pans Jambo]

14 hours ago, BackOfTheNet said:

Split sucks donkey balls. As does the 3/4 times a season we play teams. I genuinely have not heard an argument I can remotely agree with not to extend the number of teams in the league and play each other home and away. Plenty argue against it though, just not very convincingly in my opinion.

Correct.

Just make it 16 teams.

Home & away once = 30 games.

Turn the Scottish Cup & League cup into a 2 leg affairs so minimum of 4 games per club.

Minimum 17 home games per season and more if you qualify for the next round of cup games.

Done!

[I.T.K]

14 hours ago, jamboj said:

I like the split, gives the season a bit of interest for those around mid table and potentially makes things more interesting towards the end. Would be better with a 14 team league. But if it must be 12 teams, I'd keep the split. For all its faults at least it's interesting

 

 

Agreed. Split gives something for all teams to play for especially the mid table teams. 

 

It works well for the current football set up in Scotland, and changing that seems impossible. 

[boag1874]

I like elements of the Belgian model if there HAS to be a split for TV's precious 4 league OF derbies a season (I'd rather bin it altogether & have 18 teams play home & away but they would never do it).

 

Modified for Scotland it'd look something like;

 

Regular season 18 teams play each other Home & Away once. 34 games

 

Points totals are then halved & the league would split into 3 tiers;

 

Top group = 4 teams - Champions playoff - Winner gets league title = Home & Away = 40 games

 

2nd tier = 2 groups of 4, Group 1 = teams ranked 5,7,9,11 - Group 2 = teams ranked 6,8,10,12.

Groups play each other Home & Away = 40 games 

Winner of each group plays each other in a playoff (1 leg, home tie decided by pts total), winner of that playoff plays the team that finished either 3rd or 4th (depending on Coefficient) in the Top Group for the final European Spot (1 leg, random draw for home tie)

 

Bottom 4 = Relegation dogfight - bottom 2 relegated - Home & Away = 40 games

 

Not perfect, the season would be 2 games longer but we could offset that by scrapping the LC group stage & starting the season 2 weeks earlier. Also 3 teams play 1-2 more games than others due to the European Playoff but I think it keeps things interesting & adds more stake to the end of season mid table clashes.

 

It's been a quiet day at work