A more competitive league

[andoplzcumbak]

Was talking to a mate about how pointless our league is (and other leagues).
What can our football authorities do to make it more competitive? One suggestion was to have some kind of rule in place to stop teams buying other teams best players just to weaken them and have the player on the bench at best! Difficult to implement I know but surely there will be people at the SFA/SPFL constantly looking into improving league competition and will be able to find a way around these problems.

Yeah I know XD

[donsdaft]

Right.

I just thought of this when I read the title of your thread but it's obvious really.

It's not like it's an original idea.

Handicaps

For the likes of the Scottish league it could apply to the top four or whatever the European qualification number is.

So, the winner of the league gets a ridiculous advantage now with champions league money so any sensible set up wouldn't want to see the same winner too many times.

So, the champions get handicapped tae f'uck.

Let's say they start on -15 points
If they win it a second time then they start the next season on -20 points.

Someone more numerate than me can work out the gradings but let's aim for every team having the same points total come the end of February.

Would seem a bit patronizing to start with but we'd soon get used to it.

The only other alternative is every league having one team so far ahead of the rest that football is unwatchable.

The saddest thing in Scotland of course is that the powers at be would be perfectly happy to accept two teams being so far ahead that football is unwatchable.

[andoplzcumbak]

Funny you should bring up handicaps coz I almost added exactly that to my post.
Another idea I've heard is that at the split, all go back to zero points but keep goal difference.

[donsdaft]

Football is f'ucked, normally I wouldn't touch the idea of handicaps with a barge pole.

Given 10 years with Celtic miles ahead of one particular team and they might come up with something.

Otherwise

Make the Euro competitions knockout, no seeding and just get back to real football.

I realize this is never going to happen, but it needs to happen.

[andoplzcumbak]

Make all cups unseeded.

But I, like yourself, know that none of this or anything that would help the game will ever happen.

It's all about the money.

[andoplzcumbak]

On second thoughts, Deek hasn't the greatest record on high pressure games so bin the back to zero idea XD

[mondo_notion]

I'd like to see the contracts things changed. There is no point to them anymore accept to offer a starting price when negotiations start to buy said player/manager out of it. What about a rule where a player can't be sold to a another club until they are in the last xx? months of their signed up period. It may just lead to everyone signing shorter contracts but at least everyone would know what the script is.

[Pacman1903]

Make the Euro competitions knockout, no seeding and just get back to real football.

.

Absolutley

[Aldo1983]

Ditch televised football as well. It's made it boring. No surprises anymore. By the time the world cup comes along we know who they are and how they play.

[Mason89]

Split the gate 50/50. Aye it’ll f*ck us right up but it might encourage more folk to go. Stop the crazy practice of giving prize money out on league position. Play games on a Saturday afternoon or Wednesday night.

The problem is that Celtic, the SFA, Stewart Milne etc don’t want competition

[Landvetter83]

Split the gate 50/50. Aye it’ll f*ck us right up but it might encourage more folk to go. Stop the crazy practice of giving prize money out on league position. Play games on a Saturday afternoon or Wednesday night.

The problem is that Celtic, the SFA, Stewart Milne etc don’t want competition

That's a decent starter for ten, Mason.

FWIW .... They need to take a look at the techniques used over in America. Although there are NFL teams and NBA teams that are big fish, the competitions are typically won by a variety of teams over the years.

Ideas for Scottish Football to achieve what the thread title asks:

1. Salary Cap. Not a % of turnover - a hard limit in £'s
2. Squad size restriction. A fixed number of players - to get rid of all this loan nonsense.
3. Young Player Draft. Doesn't matter which Academy they were at. Bottom team gets first pick etc.

Something like this is far too scary for the closed minds of not just Scottish Football, but European and World Football.

Pipe dream I'm unlikely to witness in my lifetime but if they want to avoid European football eating itself to oblivion it's something they need to look at.

[rico94]

Once the league splits have a playoff for the league like the mls or nfl.

Celtic would never allow it though.

[The Trading Sheep]

Once the league splits have a playoff for the league like the mls or nfl.

Celtic would never allow it though.

Oh and then there is those voting rights rights that were never changed.

Nothing will ever change in the SPFL when people like it so much as it is. Crowds are up, thats a massive vote of confidence for how the game is administered and run.

Its a game run for 2 teams and two teams only, so much so, you will soon have 4 teams as the colts thing will likely happen. its rigged and corrupt.

[Pacman1903]

Bomb Parkhead when theres a game on. Problem solved. Competitive league

[Jupiter]

Nuke Glasgow, it would be a big improvement.

[mondo_notion]

Bomb Parkhead when theres a game on. Problem solved. Competitive league


Nuke Glasgow, it would be a big improvement.

That's cheating.

[Pacman1903]

That's cheating.

Nae if it wasnt us

[Jupiter]

Get Kim Jong Un to do it

[Aldo1983]

That's a decent starter for ten, Mason.

FWIW .... They need to take a look at the techniques used over in America. Although there are NFL teams and NBA teams that are big fish, the competitions are typically won by a variety of teams over the years.

Ideas for Scottish Football to achieve what the thread title asks:

1. Salary Cap. Not a % of turnover - a hard limit in £'s
2. Squad size restriction. A fixed number of players - to get rid of all this loan nonsense.
3. Young Player Draft. Doesn't matter which Academy they were at. Bottom team gets first pick etc.

Something like this is far too scary for the closed minds of not just Scottish Football, but European and World Football.

Pipe dream I'm unlikely to witness in my lifetime but if they want to avoid European football eating itself to oblivion it's something they need to look at.

Usually it's the same teams that win the NFL.

We should never look at the NFL.

[rico94]

Usually it's the same teams that win the NFL.

We should never look at the NFL.

That’s not even near being true.

Only one team has won the super bowl more than once in the last 10 years.

Edit sorry 2 teams have won it twice in the last 10 years,still more competitive than our league though.

[NaeMairNeeps]

How about 1 instantly rescindible red card, per game, per difference in league position, favouring the lower placed team at time of kick off?

So, as we are second, we can get ours in early, get Scott Brown, or Craig Gordon 'served' wi a full set o studs ( i.e. baith feet ), tae the throat.

Worst case scenario, injured party recovers ... but that would be our assigned assassins fault for ****in up.
Best case, injured party is stretchered aff ... but nae afore two of his team-mates retaliate and get red carded .... and proper sent aff ... whilst our guy stays on via the 'get out of jail free' card.

If we're lucky, 9 man Timmy will be a wee bit hot under the collar, mak a few rash tackles, give awa a few tasty free kicks, and we might even get a pen, maybe even win ... and the three points will be handy ahead o' oor game the week efter v bottom side Dundee ... wi 11 'get oot o jail free' cards :D

[Aldo1983]

That’s not even near being true.

Only one team has won the super bowl more than once in the last 10 years.

Edit sorry 2 teams have won it twice in the last 10 years,still more competitive than our league though.

The North Korean election night is more competitive than our league.

We had this discussion a few years back on here about copying the NFL for the European cup and I made the argument that the same amount of teams have won over the last 30yrs or so.

The NFL is too different to copy for our league. Way too different.

The draft system would never work. Ever.

[actonsheep]

That's a decent starter for ten, Mason.

FWIW .... They need to take a look at the techniques used over in America. Although there are NFL teams and NBA teams that are big fish, the competitions are typically won by a variety of teams over the years.

Ideas for Scottish Football to achieve what the thread title asks:

1. Salary Cap. Not a % of turnover - a hard limit in £'s
2. Squad size restriction. A fixed number of players - to get rid of all this loan nonsense.
3. Young Player Draft. Doesn't matter which Academy they were at. Bottom team gets first pick etc.

Something like this is far too scary for the closed minds of not just Scottish Football, but European and World Football.

Pipe dream I'm unlikely to witness in my lifetime but if they want to avoid European football eating itself to oblivion it's something they need to look at.

Its not closed minds of Scottish, European and World football that would be scared of this - its any footballer, or want to be footballer - they're entitled to the same freedoms as any one of us. That includes the agency to choose their own employer and earn whatever they can. They're not slaves ffs.

[andoplzcumbak]

There's almost a general feeling of f*ck it! That's just the way it is.
It doesn't have to be like this, but the desire to change and maybe take steps backward to go forward needs to be there.

For a start, and before anything can be done, the dinosaurs at the SFA need to go!

[DollyLongstaffe]

I've said this before but what we need is serious, embarrassing, medium term failure in Europe, especially from Celtic. It's easy to come up with great ideas for redistributing cash, but as long as our bigger clubs see domestic football as primarily a springboard to get on the European gravy train they have no interest in a competitive league or fixing the domestic game. Hunco's game plan is also at some point in the future to get onto the gravy train, so they have no interest in fixing it either. Maybe once the Tims are going for 15 or 20 in a row on the back of European cash they will capitulate and admit that they have some common interest with the rest of the Scottish clubs in addressing the lopsidedness, but that's a long way off.

But even Celtic fans will get fed up of European fitba if it just means an entirely predictable horsing from richer clubs every time out. Every half-way respectable result they get in Europe perpetuates the delusion that their proper place in going up against the big boys. That's what the media wants as well: a trip to Munich to report on a Champion's League game makes them feel they matter in a way that a trip to report on Ross County v Kilmarnock can't.

At the moment Celtic have Champions League qualification almost as a right, and access to funds that mean their income will dwarf the rest of the Scottish game, a self-perpetuating cycle that could go on for decades unless something changes. Despite what money obsessives like Milne think, ever greedy for the wee trickle of Euro money coming down to us, that's what will eventually kill the Scottish game.