Walter Smith wants an 18 team SPL

[craig]

Walter smith thinks an 18 team SPL is better than 16.

My vote would be for an 18 team league

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 552328.stm

[Bundy]

18 team league makes more sense but it will hurt some clubs financially. Taking two OF home games away from the likes of Hamilton or Motherwell is gonna be a kick in the wallet.

[onemanclapping]

18 team league makes more sense but it will hurt some clubs financially. Taking two OF home games away from the likes of Hamilton or Motherwell is gonna be a kick in the wallet.

I suppose the hope is that a new league structure injects a bit of new interest in the game, the knock on being those who have been staying away these last 10 years are encouraged to come back, overall attendences rise and the books balance. Something has to happen to bring people back or the game in this country is heading for the wall.

Radio Scotland had an interesting stat the other week, 5 years ago 16000 people were in Pittodrie to watch Aberdeen - Hearts, the attendance last week was just over 8000. The alarm bells must be ringing somewhere at the SPL.

[DEXTER]

18 team league makes more sense but it will hurt some clubs financially. Taking two OF home games away from the likes of Hamilton or Motherwell is gonna be a kick in the wallet.

Thats gonna be the problem isn't it. I can't see too many SPL chairmen wanting to wave goodbye to to two visits of the Old Firm. Same scenario as clubs in EPL not wanting us lot down there. They all want to protect their own immediate interests, the good of the game doesn't matter.

[Eman1703]

if current format continues i dont see much hope of us getting our co-efficient back up in the near future.we need a shake up and im all for any new plan thats put forward.

[johnarob]

The Old Firm cannae win eh......when we say we want out of the current set-up and head for england or wherever we get the other teams fans saying "f**k off we don't need or want you"...but when it looks likely that we're not going anywhere and a possible league reconstruction may be the way forward then we get "we can't lose 2 old firm games for our revenue"...it's time celtic and rangers fans, whilst not boycotting games, voted with their wallets...at away games don't buy merchandise, programmes, pies and bovrils....3000-5000 away fans is a probable revenue of £25000+ to other teams..lets see if they can survive without us.....ps, I guess if walter wants, the hierarchy (establishment) will provide!!

[Spud]

Hard to argue with the wallet power of the bigot brothers but, for the good of the game we all care about, Scottish footballers and ultimately the national team, something has to change in this self-serving SPL setup. Look at teams the length and breath of the SPL full of foreigners, Sellic for goodness sake! Its my belief that a 16 or 18 team SPL would allow more Scottish players to flourish and increase the number of money spinning SPL Derby games.

[onemanclapping]

The Old Firm cannae win eh......when we say we want out of the current set-up and head for england or wherever we get the other teams fans saying "f**k off we don't need or want you"...but when it looks likely that we're not going anywhere and a possible league reconstruction may be the way forward then we get "we can't lose 2 old firm games for our revenue"...it's time celtic and rangers fans, whilst not boycotting games, voted with their wallets...at away games don't buy merchandise, programmes, pies and bovrils....3000-5000 away fans is a probable revenue of £25000+ to other teams..lets see if they can survive without us.....ps, I guess if walter wants, the hierarchy (establishment) will provide!!

Which SPL chairmen are objecting to this proposal on the basis of losing 2 old firms games?

[DEXTER]

The Old Firm cannae win eh......when we say we want out of the current set-up and head for england or wherever we get the other teams fans saying "f**k off we don't need or want you"...but when it looks likely that we're not going anywhere and a possible league reconstruction may be the way forward then we get "we can't lose 2 old firm games for our revenue"...it's time celtic and rangers fans, whilst not boycotting games, voted with their wallets...at away games don't buy merchandise, programmes, pies and bovrils....3000-5000 away fans is a probable revenue of £25000+ to other teams..lets see if they can survive without us.....ps, I guess if walter wants, the hierarchy (establishment) will provide!!

Which SPL chairmen are objecting to this proposal on the basis of losing 2 old firms games?

I would imagine all of them. I know for a fact John Boyle does. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with that, I would be exactly the same if i were in charge of another club. Money is so tight it can be the difference between financial stability and going bust. I think it's called protectionism.

[craig]

His views seem very much in the minority. His two up two down approach sounds decent, but i also think that an expanded league is due

IMAGINE for a moment you're a football coach.

You've struggled to put 11 decent players on the pitch and don't have an ounce of quality on your bench.

The team is a goal down. What do you do? Try to reshape the starting 11 or throw on the three dumplings?

It's a no brainer if you ask me, but SPL chief executive Neil Doncaster might disagree.

In a throwaway remark this week he set the hare running towards a 16-team SPL and trust me, this is one creature that requires a very quick bullet through its head.

I am for anything that will improve our top league, but adding poorer players to the mix simply isn't the answer.

If the SPL is stale these days it's down to the poor quality of footballer punters are being asked to watch.

Did anyone complain when Aberdeen played Dundee United four times a season back in the early 80s?

Doncaster has support though, with Jim Jefferies and Craig Brown quick to back the plan. Jim, who was there when the old 18-team league was carried into the morgue, reckons the current format has run its course, saying: "There are good clubs and facilities in the First Division. If the likes of Dundee, Inverness Caley Thistle, Dunfermline and Partick Thistle were back in the top tier they would get bigger crowds, that's a fact."

He might be right, but I doubt it. Last weekend promotion hopefuls Partick Thistle and Ross County met in Glasgow, the only game in the city that afternoon.

The crowd? Just over 2,000. Are we to believe they'd have got a bigger gate if they had been lying in the lower reaches of a 16-team SPL?

Wee Craig lobbed in another old cliche, insisting: "It would be easier to blood young players in an expanded division because there would be less pressure. Managers near the bottom play it safe because nobody wants to be relegated."

Where is this pressure they always go on about? If we accept that the Old Firm won't be relegated, the rest have a one-in-ten chance of going down.

Generous odds if you ask me. Much better than in England where, if we ignore the big four, three from 16 get the chop.

SPL bosses are only in favour of a bigger league because it makes the odds of a P45 more remote.

Then there are financial penalties that would come with a 16-team league.

Would the two Edinburgh clubs forfeit a home derby each to entertain Ross County or Queen of the South instead?

Dundee United chairman Stephen Thompson reckons the loss of two Old Firm visits would cost the Tannadice club £300,000. How do they recover that shortfall?

Not from the TV companies that's for sure. Would anyone expect the same money for TV rights if two Glasgow derbies were removed from the fixture list?

Those of us old enough to witness the slow death of the top league 36 years ago remember the turgid glut of meaningless games that eventually turned the public off. That was at a time when the quality of player was superior. If Mr Doncaster wants to put a rocket up the SPL he'll put two up, two down on the agenda.

Relegate the bottom club and have second-bottom play second- top of Division One over two legs and we'd have a bit of box office.

Either way, a move to 16 teams would hand the SPL a death sentence. Right now less is more.

http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/scottis ... -game.html