Walter Smith wants an 18 team SPL

[fabok77]

The league should be expanded. I know the argument is there that the other SPL clubs would be losing 4 games with the Old Firm, however my argument is that the Old Firm don't fill away grounds anymore, look at Falkirk Stadium this afternoon and a recent St Mirren - Rangers game where there was only just over 5,000 at it, although I know that was a cup game. Whilst Rangers and Celtic still take big crowds to away grounds there is no way that SPL clubs will be losing too much.

We need to take the necessary steps to improve our game. I'm all for democracy and letting the clubs decide but if it's only directed at lining their own pockets then the decision should be taken out of their hands. The greater good should be the main priority.

If the league is expanded and more entertainment is produced with good young scottish players then hopefully better sponsorship, better crowds consistently and hopefully better tv money would balance out the money lost from less games against the Old Firm.

[choco]

I am not an old firm fan but I sympathise here. The current setup is terrible and whilst everyone agrees that change is needed, no-one wants to lose two home old firm matches. Well for christs sake, we cannot have it both ways! Learn to cut your cloth without having to rely on Rangers and Celtic fans coming to boost the coffers, we slaughter the old firm all the time but the reality is that all our other clubs are so badly managed that they NEED those sides.

12 teams with a split near the end of the season is a joke. The chairmen of the other 10 clubs should be embarrassed if what they are really saying is "we can't afford to lose the money". Let one or two of your shite overpaid players go then and bring through some kids. I'm a Pars fan and I'll tell you what, we bring virtually NO talent through. For a club as poor as us surely all the focus should be on youth? The other 10 SPL sides should think like that too.

[craig]

whatever we do, we better not go down the route of the Belgian league

Starting next season (2009-2010) the format of the Jupiler Pro League will be drastically changed. The league will be trimmed down from 18 to 16 teams and next season will see the introduction of Christmas time football and play-offs after the regular season.

At the end of the regular season, the numbers 1 to 6 will play the playoffs for the championship, in which they start with half of the points they reached during the regular season. Numbers 7 to 14 will play playoffs to decide which team can play against the number three of the championship playoffs for the last European ticket. Number 15 and 16 will relegate to second division.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgian_League

[jimmy gomis]

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.

That was before Mark McGhee took over...

[jimmy gomis]

I am not an old firm fan but I sympathise here. The current setup is terrible and whilst everyone agrees that change is needed, no-one wants to lose two home old firm matches. Well for christs sake, we cannot have it both ways! Learn to cut your cloth without having to rely on Rangers and Celtic fans coming to boost the coffers, we slaughter the old firm all the time but the reality is that all our other clubs are so badly managed that they NEED those sides.

12 teams with a split near the end of the season is a joke. The chairmen of the other 10 clubs should be embarrassed if what they are really saying is "we can't afford to lose the money". Let one or two of your shite overpaid players go then and bring through some kids. I'm a Pars fan and I'll tell you what, we bring virtually NO talent through. For a club as poor as us surely all the focus should be on youth? The other 10 SPL sides should think like that too.

United have been doing precisely that for the last 4 or 5 years. We now have some of the best young players in Scottish football: Goodwillie, Dixon, Conway, Kenneth, Hilson, Cameron, Russell, Smith, McCord, Swanson etc...

So you can't tar all SPL clubs with the same brush.

[onemanclapping]

I am not an old firm fan but I sympathise here. The current setup is terrible and whilst everyone agrees that change is needed, no-one wants to lose two home old firm matches. Well for christs sake, we cannot have it both ways! Learn to cut your cloth without having to rely on Rangers and Celtic fans coming to boost the coffers, we slaughter the old firm all the time but the reality is that all our other clubs are so badly managed that they NEED those sides.

12 teams with a split near the end of the season is a joke. The chairmen of the other 10 clubs should be embarrassed if what they are really saying is "we can't afford to lose the money". Let one or two of your shite overpaid players go then and bring through some kids. I'm a Pars fan and I'll tell you what, we bring virtually NO talent through. For a club as poor as us surely all the focus should be on youth? The other 10 SPL sides should think like that too.

United have been doing precisely that for the last 4 or 5 years. We now have some of the best young players in Scottish football: Goodwillie, Dixon, Conway, Kenneth, Hilson, Cameron, Russell, Smith, McCord, Swanson etc...

So you can't tar all SPL clubs with the same brush.

Motherwell too for years have relied heavily on the product of their youth teams, very few SPL teams pay big money either in transfer fees or wages these days.

The financial problems arise because most SPL clubs (with maybe the exception of the OF, Hearts, Hibs, Aberdeen & Dundee Utd) can't fill the home ends of their grounds on a consistant basis. Within Lanarkshire we have Motherwell, Accies, Airdrie and Albion Rovers competing for the business of the few thousand football fans who resist the urge to take a bus into Glasgow every other week and support the Old Firm. There's enough money in Scottish football to support a competitive league, regardless of it's size, if that money is geographically split evenly.

The only hope for football in this country is if the Old Firm finally get their wish and get out of the SPL, the remaining clubs accept that they are playing in a league in one of the smaller countries in Europe and that they are never going to win the Champions league (a bit like Rangers and Celtic) but they can have a competitive league championship campaign every season. Chairmen accept that they have to cut the running costs of the clubs and as a result drop the gate prices to a realistic level, re-introduce standing and give the game back to the working class, where it belongs. Supporters should be looking for a reason not to go to the game on a Saturday instead of of thinking of a reason to justify paying the inflated gate prices.

[DEXTER]

Rangers and Celtic will only get out of Scotland when the European super league is formed. It will consist of the top four from England, Spain, Germany and Italy. Once that is formed the English will beg Rangers and Celtic to join them to give a saleable product.

[onemanclapping]

Rangers and Celtic will only get out of Scotland when the European super league is formed. It will consist of the top four from England, Spain, Germany and Italy. Once that is formed the English will beg Rangers and Celtic to join them to give a saleable product.

Aye, I bet the residents of London, Manchester and Liverpool can't wait to have those coachloads of scumbags draped in Union Jacks/Tricolours smashing their cities up every second week. There might be some begging to join the European super league going on but I fancy it might be Martin Bain and Co. who are on their knees.

You're living in a fantasy world mate, best you can hope for is the English Championship.

[DEXTER]

I don't live in a fantasy world mate. I'm just saying that the only way the old firm will get down south is when they really need us. If Man U, Chelsea, liverpool and Arsenal leave they will need us to make a saleable product to sky. Who gives a turd about the rest, not many. The old firm has a bigger combined support than the rest of the EPL. Can you deny that?

[onemanclapping]

And why would Man U, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal leave arguably the best league in the world? They already play the cream of Europe via the champions league.

Old firm fans labour in this misplaced idea that they are huge clubs, you're not. You are big fish in the small pond that is Scottish Football, you're not in the same league as the majority of "the rest" of the clubs in the EPL you mention. You've done the square root of eff all in europe over the last few years and have dominated a league in which the standard of football would struggle to compare with that which is served up in the English first division.

And let's not mention the fact that after Rangers fans display in Manchester a few years ago the chances of the EPL being even remotely interested in inviting teams, who have a large section of support who simply can't behave themselves, to play in their top division are slim to say the least.