Scottish Football

[Sande_Man]

As I said in the OP teams will get results against them on an odd occasion and last season it was us that did best against them but overall it is a drop in the ocean. They are now dominating more than they ever did. They dominated greatly in the early part of last century but post WW2 Scottish football must have been great to watch with so many teams outwith the Old Firm doing well such as the great Hibs and Hearts teams, Motherwell and ok admit it Dundee, Killie as well! The Old Firm took a grip again until Aberdeen and ourselves broke the stranglehold in the 80s but it is farcicle that only they have won our top division for darn near 40 years. For a long time it was the gates situation that was in there advantage bringing in funds, still is, but now with the Euro cash and the way they can manipulate the SPFL to there will following Aberdeen's shameful cosying up to them to keep the ludicrous voting arrangement when there was a chance to break their hold, means they have powered on so far ahead that we will never catch up. It is truly depressing.

It’s depressing but it’s the same in quite a lot of leagues:

PSG - will win the league 9 seasons out of 10 (should really be 10 out of 10 and most likely will)
Bayern - will win league 9 seasons out of 10 (going for 11 in a row)
Juve/inter/Milan - will win 10 out of 10 (Juve won 9 in a row)
Madrid/Barca/Atletico - will win 10 out of 10 (Atleti winning 2 titles in last 8 years is almost miraculous)
Benfica/Porto - will win 9 out of 10 (sporting winning was miraculous)
PSV/ Ajax - will win 9 out of 10 (feyenoord was a miracle too)

It’s not just Scotland that has suffered from money ruining the game.

Follow the Brazilian league if you want a league that can be won by 4 or 5 different teams each year.plus there’s about 20 derby games! Braw!

Or the NFL….salary cap and draft system means teams don’t dominate for long (patriots was a complete perfect storm)

[pertharab]

It’s depressing but it’s the same in quite a lot of leagues:

PSG - will win the league 9 seasons out of 10 (should really be 10 out of 10 and most likely will)
Bayern - will win league 9 seasons out of 10 (going for 11 in a row)
Juve/inter/Milan - will win 10 out of 10 (Juve won 9 in a row)
Madrid/Barca/Atletico - will win 10 out of 10 (Atleti winning 2 titles in last 8 years is almost miraculous)
Benfica/Porto - will win 9 out of 10 (sporting winning was miraculous)
PSV/ Ajax - will win 9 out of 10 (feyenoord was a miracle too)

It’s not just Scotland that has suffered from money ruining the game.

Follow the Brazilian league if you want a league that can be won by 4 or 5 different teams each year.plus there’s about 20 derby games! Braw!

Or the NFL….salary cap and draft system means teams don’t dominate for long (patriots was a complete perfect storm)

I agree largely with your post but in the past 40 years or so, apart from the brief early period where Aberdeen and us got the better of them, the Old Firm have totally dominated our League, winning something like the past 35 or 36 themselves. In the same period there have been 7 Spanish, 7 German, 7 Italian and 10 French teams winning their top Division. Portugal is the closest to our League regarding domination by a few teams with only 5 teams winning their top league since it started in the 1930s, two teams only once and the rest split 37/30/19 between Benfica/Porto/Sporting and these teams have dominated the second and third places too. I totally agree that these Leagues are being increasingly dominated by fewer teams and the future winners, likely, are as you predict.

The NFL have at least tried to even things out with their salary cap/draft situation which does work up to a point. Well run teams like the Patriots, the Cowboys and 49ers in the 90s etc. seem to be able to work around the system to build winning dynasties and the poorly run teams continue to bomb (like my team the Dolphins since their heady days of the 80s; high hopes for this season though!). The draft, of course, is an irrelevance to football here but a salary cap could work up to a point if there were ever a cat in hell's chance of it being voted in (thanks again Aberdeen F C).

Still depressed.