Reinventing the Wheel: Scottish Professional Football League Reconstruction
As you all know by now, the football season is on hold due to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic. With time running out to actually complete the season, and football not looking like it's going to return anytime soon, and right now, it's the least of our worries - stay inside, wash your hands and stay safe, we'll all get through this together. Well, apart for now, but together.
However when this pandemic ends - and if will end - we do have Leagues to return to. And in our particular case, I'll be looking at my own home League - the Scottish Professional Football League - to look at the best solutions for the season, potential reconstruction, and the future of our game.
Firstly, some background to this story. The vote to end the season as is on the points per game proposal has passed in three divisions, but not the Championship. They needed seven votes from the Premiership and got that (Hearts, Aberdeen and the Rangers against), and eight from the Championship. They have seven. Inverness, Partick and Dundee initially agreed to vote against it, but Dundee have withdrawn their vote and are undecided. Basically it is all now down to Dundee to vote to decide the fate of the league. After a weekend spent debating their position, Dundee released a statement saying they don't know what their position is. Right then.
The Scottish Professional Football League, ladies and gentlemen!
So what's our options? The status quo, or league reconstruction. Let's have a look.
Our first option: the status quo.
Four Leagues of 12-10-10-10
This is of course the current setup and under this scenario, it's either a case of calling the previous season null and void, or promoting the current Champions and relegating the bottom teams on a points per game basis. Of course, the latter is likely what we're going to end up with after Dundee changed their minds on voting with Partick and Inverness against the SPFL's decision to call the season on the points per game proposal.
Honestly there's no Winners here and there's going to be a lot of feet dragging and potential legal challenges. Either the season gets called null and void and we've all been wasting out time for the last nine months or so, or the season gets called and teams get Relegated when they still have a chance of saving themselves. Either way, this satisfies no one.
So what's the Alternative? Honestly, Scottish football has needed a good shakeup for a long, long time, from top to bottom. We could go on about the SPFL and SFA being separate bodies for who knows what reason, or the whole not being able to manage a simple vote to decide the season in the first place.
Scottish football is brilliant for the patter on and off the park, but there's a lot of things that do need changing, and the league structure is one of them. They took a step in the right direction by introducing the pyramid to allow the Highland and Lowland League teams a chance to move up into the big Leagues, but the entire structure needs a change.
So: the Alternative Proposal: Reconstruction of the Leagues.
Honestly, we've probably never had a better chance to do it than this, in the horrible circumstances we find ourselves in notwithstanding.
There's several options that I think are possible for the Reconstruction of the Scottish Leagues. In this, I'll look at each one, the positives and negatives, and whether they are potential goers.
Four Leagues of 14-10-10-10
This is probably the easiest one to implement. In this scenario, you simply move the top two from each division up to the next possible division. Dundee United and Inverness Caledonian Thistle would be promoted to the Premiership. Raith Rovers and Falkirk would go up to the Championship. Cove Rangers and Edinburgh City would be promoted to League One, and Highland League Champions Brora Rangers and Lowland League Champions Kelty Hearts would be promoted to League Two. The Highland League would become a 16-team league and the Lowland League would become a 15-team league.
The Championship, League One and League Two would remain the same, for the most part. The Premiership meanwhile would revamp into a 14 team league, with teams playing each other home and away twice, and two potential split methods which would see the top half play each other home and away, and the bottom half play each other home and away.
Split of 6 teams and 8 teams
This could actually be done in two ways, with a top eight and a bottom six, or a top six and a bottom eight. With the top eight, this would mean more teams fighting for European places and would have an extra two games against the Old Firm, which of course is the biggest money spinner, however in an ideal world this wouldn't be the main reason affecting the league structure. The bottom six would play less games but it would allow whomever finishes bottom a fairer shot against the Playoff teams. In the other scenario, top six and bottom eight, the bottom eight would counter the lack of games against the Old Firm with four extra fixtures, but if the playoffs were still in effect, they would have to play 42 games. This could be countered by a straight two down, and allowing the Championship to either play for the second Premiership slot in a playoffs, or to just have the top two teams being promoted at the end of their season.
Split of 7 teams each
This would again see the league play two home and away games, and then split into two separate halves of seven. This would mean 26 games before the split, 12 after, which would give each team 38 games, same as now, and would guarantee the same number of home and away games. Would also likely mean four Old Firm games, which of course the SPFL would want. However, the disadvantage of that would be that one team in each half would miss a game each week. You could counter that by pairing them with a team in the other half who also has a bye, with the team in say the top half being at home for one game and away for the other. This would give you a total of 40 games, however this would also mean that teams are playing some teams more than others. But that happens with the split anyway, so I think this is one of the more intriguing options.
Three Leagues of 14
This is the same scenario that would face the Premiership in the above situation, except all three top Leagues would have this structure rather than just the Premiership.
Three Leagues of 16-14-12
This would see the promotion of Dundee United, Inverness Caledonian Thistle, Dundee and Ayr United. This might be what the key to Scottish football right now Dundee are holding out for, their own promotion. Regardless, this would potentially see the league split into either four groups of four or two groups of eight. The two groups of eight however would mean 40 games.
The four groups of four would mean a total of 36 games and would also mean the league splitting around the time it normally does, rather than earlier in the season. The downside is with the four groups of four, the third group would essentially have nothing to play for. Top group fights for the title and European places, Fifth to Eighth play for the remaining new European place, and Thirteenth to Sixteenth play for relegation.
Three Leagues of 18-12-12
This is the first idea where the split is binned entirely. This promotes Dundee United, Inverness Caledonian Thistle, Dundee, Ayr United, Dunfermline Athletic and Arbroath. I'm almost tempted to go for this option as it means promoting Arbroath, and I'd love to see them in the Premiership. This format means a simple two home and away games against every other team in the league. The downside is it means two less games against the Old Firm, and 34 games total. However, this works in countless European countries, why wouldn't it for Scotland?
Two Leagues of 18-24
This is the same as above, except you combine the two bottom Leagues into a bigger Championship, then the Highland and Lowland Leagues become either a feeder league or a bigger combined third division. For the Championship this would mean 44 games, which has the advantage of more games and more income, but the disadvantage of more games to organise which is trickier as is.
Two Leagues of 20-22/20-24.
This is essentially the English Premiership-Championship model, except without the gazillions of pounds pumped into the league. The top eight from the Championship - Dundee United, Inverness Caledonian Thistle, Dundee, Ayr United, Dunfermline Athletic, Arbroath, Greenock Morton and Alloa Athletic - join the Premiership, while the other two Championship teams, the League One Teams, the League Two Teams, and in the case of a 24 team Championship, Brora Rangers and Kelty Hearts, join the Championship. A simple three up, three down system, with the playoffs between third and Sixth in the Championship.
The downside of this is the same problems with the 18 team league, except with a few more extra games to counter it, however the Championship would have the same problems as above. The other issue is if there is enough quality teams to justify a 20 team league. However, on the other side of this, the regular competition against better clubs may improve the standard of the lower placed teams and improve the quality of Scottish football as a whole.
The other advantage of a bigger league is that games would be less stagnant - you wouldn't be playing the same opposition four teams a season minimum, and that's not even taking the Cup competitions into account, and with just one visit to each ground in the league per season, would make away days better and more of an occasion for visiting fans.
Potential Playoff System
A potential Playoff system could be introduced for the bigger Leagues to counter the number of games played, particularly in the case of an eighteen team league, and could add some late season excitement for the title and relegation. consider an NFL style system where the top two get a bye to the second round, third plays Sixth, fourth plays fifth, then the first seed plays the lowest remaining seed - if Sixth beats Third, First plays Sixth in the Semi-Finals, if Third beats Sixth, First plays the winner of Fourth and Fifth, and Second plays the remaining team. Final at Hampden to decide the Champions.
Same with relegation playoffs, but reversed and it's the losers who continue on, with the two finalists playing at Hampden to avoid relegation.
Summer Football
One final point to make is that this whole situation could revive the Summer Football argument. By the time football kicks off again, we have no idea when that will be. So there is a potential case for reverting the league into a March to December calendar, having games played in the warmer weather for the most part, and making it less likely that games will be called off, easing fixture congestion. This would also mean that for European games, our teams wouldn't be going into games cold, this would help both our club sides in Europe and the national team. There is a potential issue that in the unlikely event Scotland qualify for the World Cup or European Championship, but a month's break could be put into place to counter that, with the season finishing a little later or starting a little earlier to counter that position.
So that's just a few ideas that are possible for Reconstruction, and reinvention of the Scottish game. It is definitely beyond time to change our game for the better. Personally, I'd look at either the 14 or 18 team Leagues with introducing both the Playoff System and Summer Football, I think this would add some much needed excitement to the league and avoid Celtic walking away with the title every single year. Even if you don't introduce the playoffs, league Reconstruction is badly needed.
Scottish football is brilliant, but it's also stagnant.
This is a chance to change that.
Take it.
That'll do it for now, if you have any other ideas for potential league reconstruction, I'd love to hear them.
In the meantime, stay safe, stay home if you can, look after each other. We'll get through this.
Until next time,
Stuart.
However when this pandemic ends - and if will end - we do have Leagues to return to. And in our particular case, I'll be looking at my own home League - the Scottish Professional Football League - to look at the best solutions for the season, potential reconstruction, and the future of our game.
Firstly, some background to this story. The vote to end the season as is on the points per game proposal has passed in three divisions, but not the Championship. They needed seven votes from the Premiership and got that (Hearts, Aberdeen and the Rangers against), and eight from the Championship. They have seven. Inverness, Partick and Dundee initially agreed to vote against it, but Dundee have withdrawn their vote and are undecided. Basically it is all now down to Dundee to vote to decide the fate of the league. After a weekend spent debating their position, Dundee released a statement saying they don't know what their position is. Right then.
The Scottish Professional Football League, ladies and gentlemen!
So what's our options? The status quo, or league reconstruction. Let's have a look.
Our first option: the status quo.
Four Leagues of 12-10-10-10
This is of course the current setup and under this scenario, it's either a case of calling the previous season null and void, or promoting the current Champions and relegating the bottom teams on a points per game basis. Of course, the latter is likely what we're going to end up with after Dundee changed their minds on voting with Partick and Inverness against the SPFL's decision to call the season on the points per game proposal.
Honestly there's no Winners here and there's going to be a lot of feet dragging and potential legal challenges. Either the season gets called null and void and we've all been wasting out time for the last nine months or so, or the season gets called and teams get Relegated when they still have a chance of saving themselves. Either way, this satisfies no one.
So what's the Alternative? Honestly, Scottish football has needed a good shakeup for a long, long time, from top to bottom. We could go on about the SPFL and SFA being separate bodies for who knows what reason, or the whole not being able to manage a simple vote to decide the season in the first place.
Scottish football is brilliant for the patter on and off the park, but there's a lot of things that do need changing, and the league structure is one of them. They took a step in the right direction by introducing the pyramid to allow the Highland and Lowland League teams a chance to move up into the big Leagues, but the entire structure needs a change.
So: the Alternative Proposal: Reconstruction of the Leagues.
Honestly, we've probably never had a better chance to do it than this, in the horrible circumstances we find ourselves in notwithstanding.
There's several options that I think are possible for the Reconstruction of the Scottish Leagues. In this, I'll look at each one, the positives and negatives, and whether they are potential goers.
Four Leagues of 14-10-10-10
This is probably the easiest one to implement. In this scenario, you simply move the top two from each division up to the next possible division. Dundee United and Inverness Caledonian Thistle would be promoted to the Premiership. Raith Rovers and Falkirk would go up to the Championship. Cove Rangers and Edinburgh City would be promoted to League One, and Highland League Champions Brora Rangers and Lowland League Champions Kelty Hearts would be promoted to League Two. The Highland League would become a 16-team league and the Lowland League would become a 15-team league.
The Championship, League One and League Two would remain the same, for the most part. The Premiership meanwhile would revamp into a 14 team league, with teams playing each other home and away twice, and two potential split methods which would see the top half play each other home and away, and the bottom half play each other home and away.
Split of 6 teams and 8 teams
This could actually be done in two ways, with a top eight and a bottom six, or a top six and a bottom eight. With the top eight, this would mean more teams fighting for European places and would have an extra two games against the Old Firm, which of course is the biggest money spinner, however in an ideal world this wouldn't be the main reason affecting the league structure. The bottom six would play less games but it would allow whomever finishes bottom a fairer shot against the Playoff teams. In the other scenario, top six and bottom eight, the bottom eight would counter the lack of games against the Old Firm with four extra fixtures, but if the playoffs were still in effect, they would have to play 42 games. This could be countered by a straight two down, and allowing the Championship to either play for the second Premiership slot in a playoffs, or to just have the top two teams being promoted at the end of their season.
Split of 7 teams each
This would again see the league play two home and away games, and then split into two separate halves of seven. This would mean 26 games before the split, 12 after, which would give each team 38 games, same as now, and would guarantee the same number of home and away games. Would also likely mean four Old Firm games, which of course the SPFL would want. However, the disadvantage of that would be that one team in each half would miss a game each week. You could counter that by pairing them with a team in the other half who also has a bye, with the team in say the top half being at home for one game and away for the other. This would give you a total of 40 games, however this would also mean that teams are playing some teams more than others. But that happens with the split anyway, so I think this is one of the more intriguing options.
Three Leagues of 14
This is the same scenario that would face the Premiership in the above situation, except all three top Leagues would have this structure rather than just the Premiership.
Three Leagues of 16-14-12
This would see the promotion of Dundee United, Inverness Caledonian Thistle, Dundee and Ayr United. This might be what the key to Scottish football right now Dundee are holding out for, their own promotion. Regardless, this would potentially see the league split into either four groups of four or two groups of eight. The two groups of eight however would mean 40 games.
The four groups of four would mean a total of 36 games and would also mean the league splitting around the time it normally does, rather than earlier in the season. The downside is with the four groups of four, the third group would essentially have nothing to play for. Top group fights for the title and European places, Fifth to Eighth play for the remaining new European place, and Thirteenth to Sixteenth play for relegation.
Three Leagues of 18-12-12
This is the first idea where the split is binned entirely. This promotes Dundee United, Inverness Caledonian Thistle, Dundee, Ayr United, Dunfermline Athletic and Arbroath. I'm almost tempted to go for this option as it means promoting Arbroath, and I'd love to see them in the Premiership. This format means a simple two home and away games against every other team in the league. The downside is it means two less games against the Old Firm, and 34 games total. However, this works in countless European countries, why wouldn't it for Scotland?
Two Leagues of 18-24
This is the same as above, except you combine the two bottom Leagues into a bigger Championship, then the Highland and Lowland Leagues become either a feeder league or a bigger combined third division. For the Championship this would mean 44 games, which has the advantage of more games and more income, but the disadvantage of more games to organise which is trickier as is.
Two Leagues of 20-22/20-24.
This is essentially the English Premiership-Championship model, except without the gazillions of pounds pumped into the league. The top eight from the Championship - Dundee United, Inverness Caledonian Thistle, Dundee, Ayr United, Dunfermline Athletic, Arbroath, Greenock Morton and Alloa Athletic - join the Premiership, while the other two Championship teams, the League One Teams, the League Two Teams, and in the case of a 24 team Championship, Brora Rangers and Kelty Hearts, join the Championship. A simple three up, three down system, with the playoffs between third and Sixth in the Championship.
The downside of this is the same problems with the 18 team league, except with a few more extra games to counter it, however the Championship would have the same problems as above. The other issue is if there is enough quality teams to justify a 20 team league. However, on the other side of this, the regular competition against better clubs may improve the standard of the lower placed teams and improve the quality of Scottish football as a whole.
The other advantage of a bigger league is that games would be less stagnant - you wouldn't be playing the same opposition four teams a season minimum, and that's not even taking the Cup competitions into account, and with just one visit to each ground in the league per season, would make away days better and more of an occasion for visiting fans.
Potential Playoff System
A potential Playoff system could be introduced for the bigger Leagues to counter the number of games played, particularly in the case of an eighteen team league, and could add some late season excitement for the title and relegation. consider an NFL style system where the top two get a bye to the second round, third plays Sixth, fourth plays fifth, then the first seed plays the lowest remaining seed - if Sixth beats Third, First plays Sixth in the Semi-Finals, if Third beats Sixth, First plays the winner of Fourth and Fifth, and Second plays the remaining team. Final at Hampden to decide the Champions.
Same with relegation playoffs, but reversed and it's the losers who continue on, with the two finalists playing at Hampden to avoid relegation.
Summer Football
One final point to make is that this whole situation could revive the Summer Football argument. By the time football kicks off again, we have no idea when that will be. So there is a potential case for reverting the league into a March to December calendar, having games played in the warmer weather for the most part, and making it less likely that games will be called off, easing fixture congestion. This would also mean that for European games, our teams wouldn't be going into games cold, this would help both our club sides in Europe and the national team. There is a potential issue that in the unlikely event Scotland qualify for the World Cup or European Championship, but a month's break could be put into place to counter that, with the season finishing a little later or starting a little earlier to counter that position.
So that's just a few ideas that are possible for Reconstruction, and reinvention of the Scottish game. It is definitely beyond time to change our game for the better. Personally, I'd look at either the 14 or 18 team Leagues with introducing both the Playoff System and Summer Football, I think this would add some much needed excitement to the league and avoid Celtic walking away with the title every single year. Even if you don't introduce the playoffs, league Reconstruction is badly needed.
Scottish football is brilliant, but it's also stagnant.
This is a chance to change that.
Take it.
That'll do it for now, if you have any other ideas for potential league reconstruction, I'd love to hear them.
In the meantime, stay safe, stay home if you can, look after each other. We'll get through this.
Until next time,
Stuart.
Just to point out that the Lowland League would not become a 15-team league - they would promote a licensed club from tier 6 like Bo'ness United, currently top of the East of Scotland League, to make sure they run at 16 teams again.
ReplyDeleteAh thanks for the correction. I'm surprised the Highland League is 17 teams and the Lowland 16, always thought they'd be an even number.
ReplyDeleteWell, they were 18 for a while but Cove got promoted last season and the only eligible club in the Highland League area, Banks O'Dee, declined to apply.
ReplyDeleteIMO any reconstruction will eventually need to take into account the fact that the Lowland area of the pyramid has a lot more clubs.
Yeah, that's a really good point. I can see it going to a "League 2 North/South" situation where teams are assigned geographically rather than applying for the Leagues. Only way I can see them doing it. Otherwise it'll just be the Highland-Lowland in all but name, potentially.
Delete