[Jonny]

Rumours are that the other 10 teams want to form a breakaway...

Surely it's 2 years notice? Or is it one rule for Old Firm and...

Oh and another suggestion was to expell the Old Firm for the SPL...yeah and we'll sue the league for all it's worth. Done nothing wrong people.

WATP

ChelseaBear

 

[The Judge]

I can't say that I'm surprised by their decision based on what I have read at the weekend but it is going to be interesting to see just what happens next.

 

[cam]

I think the best & most honest thing the greedy Glasgow giants can do (GGG from now on, not Old Firm) is get the hell outta Scottish football. A league with out the GGG would generally get less cash in a TV deal, yet the wee teams wouldn't need so much money as they aren't trying to fight with the Old Firm in spending capacities, & also have to less teams to share the cash with (unless they do the sensible thing & increase the league to 16 (or 18) teams.) & so the money will go further. The whole league will become about 1000 times more competitive, with about 8 teams all with a realistic chance of winning the league, thus making it more interesting for the neutral.

I would rather not have the GGG in the league because everyone would benefit. The only reason they threatened to join this "Phoenix League" was to try & get a larger percentage of the Sky cash, by scaring the small clubs. Thankfully these teams were not so foolish to fall for this bull, Sky pulled out, & now the GGG are sulking, realising they can probably survive 1 season with out a TV deal whilst the other 10 teams cannot.

It's a travesty & I demand that they get kicked out. Greedy cvnts.

 

[adam2k1]

Yeh i agree Cam.

The GGG should be expelled from the Scottish league, they've been wantin out for years so i assume they wouldn't mind. But wait, they wanna stay in the SPL til somethin better comes along. Well Fúck them, they can take wot is here, or píss off.

A league without the GGG would, short term, be poor, but more competitive. The question is, would this decline in football be balanced out by a competitive league? Gradually, teams would grow to be stronger, which they cant do whilst the GGG are about

 

[gildea]

Heck i've been wanting rid of them for years. In the long run it would be for the best.

 

[Jonny]

There would be no long run, clubs rely on that TV money and will be suffocated out of existence without it.

Scotland needs the Old Firm but the Old Firm doesn't need Scotland, face up to it guys.

 

[gildea]

You're young so i'll go easy on you.

First of all the old firm DOES need scotland, sorry to break it to you but for too long the old firm fans have harboured this fantasy that they are the saviours of scottish football. Lets get real the european league idea has been dead in the water for sometime and england don't want you. Sorry to break it to you but if the epl did want you, you'd be there by now or at least ready to move but they don't, deal with it. So without scotland you've basically got yourselves playing each other 36 times a season (with the glasgow contasbulary service going into overtime.)

Now second of all yes the clubs like that tv money. But there will still be some tv money after the old firm have departed perhaps it might even end up as more (respectively) as it would then be shared fairly. If not it don't matter too much because every club would be able to give up on their silly game of not-quite-catch-up-but-get-as-many-3rd-rate-europeans-in-hope-of-3rdplace/cup-run style they have been playing. Thirdly they could finally re-structure the league to something close to entertaining because the insane 'must play old firm twice at home' mentality will have been forcibly removed. Then (and bear with me on this) on average gates will rise for clubs in the central region. for instance at me beloved saint mirren we generally experience a 100-200 increase when rangers are away from home. Now imagine if both teams had to travel down to england every second week. Do you really think fans can afford that trip so frequently? Sure the tv will show it some of the time but nothing beats the thrill of live football. So its either go watch celtic vs bolton on the telly or go see a top of the table clash with hibs and killie.

Then there are other 'ancillary' benefits of the old firm leaving :
-less violence at grounds
-no clubs trying to/powerful enough to manipulate tv/league set up for themselves
- more european football for other clubs
-less chance of old firm buying up promising scottish talent and ruining them (kenny miller springs to mind)
-perhaps more varied coverage in the scottish press
-people commenting on a hearts vs motherwell game would have to talk about hearts and motherwell
- and referees would be fairer and not get their religions called into question!!!!!

 

[adam2k1]

Yea that was a point i meant to bring up Gildea.

The departure of the GGG (i'm carrying this on Cam) would be the best way to kick bigotry out of Scottish Football.

The GGG are not the saviour of Scottish football. They are the ones who are ruining it, with their huge wage demands and rejection of Scottish youth players. Okay, they bring in all the money to the other 10 clubs, but the reason the 10 EssPeeEll clubs need the money so desperatley is to pay rediculasly high wages to compete against the GGG.

As i said before, clubs wouldn't need to bring in overpaid imports, instead they would rely on the young talent who dont get the chance in this Glasgow based league.

The GGG dont need the EssPeeEll? no-one else bloody wants them!!

Atlantic League - Rejected.
Premiership - Rejected.
Phonix League - Yea, its coming along nicely, isn't it?
Worthington Cup - will no longer exist after next year.

I dont see what the problem is? The GGG have been moanin to leave Scotland for a while now, and no-one else in our country want them, so, why dont they go? After all, they dont need the EssPeeEll, do they ChelseaBear?

 

[cam]

Well not really much I can add here, seen as Adam & Gildea have perfectly summed up my feelings.

And ChelseaBear, talking about getting suffocated of television money, well that's what's happening with the 10 SPL sides at the moment anyway isn't it? And that's with the GGG being here. It's quite sickening.

And no more GGG would also see a decrease in football violence in this country, & a decrease in disgraceful bigotry. Maybe a little would go on between Hearts & Hibs, but that's nothing compared to the lovely GGG fans.

 

[The Judge]

Thanks guys, I would have struggled to say it better myself.

 

[annax]

Are the Old Firm not basically doing what the other 10 SPL teams did a couple of years ago to the rest of the Scottish League?

As for SPL-TV it would have been a disaster commercially i believe, but they should have aired these doubts far before now and not taken the planning of it along so far

 

[Badge]

Nobody has mentioned the Scottish National Team yet. What would happen to it if the Old Firm went off their seperate ways? I would imagine it would suffer a lot

 

[The Judge]

In what way?

 

[cam]

Well the GGG generally contribute sh!t all to the NT, with a couple of exceptions (Rangers have 3 home grown players in the squad against Nigeria, Celtic have 1). The wee teams would not be competing with the Old Firm so would not be forced to buy 3rd rate foreigners (see Livvy & Dundee), instead getting to play their 3rd rate Scots. And amongst this collection of Scots there will be the odd gem like Kenny Dalgliash & Dennis Law.

Getting rid of them will improve the national team, I have no doubts about that.

And annax, who said any of us were happy with what the SPL teams did the SFL sides? However they were not having to share their TV cash with the Division 2 & 3 sides, but the GGG & the other 10 teams do get the TV cash from the same source. If this is not sorted out soon Scottish football is going to go into a horrible mess. GET RID OF THE GGG NOW!

 

[Badge]

"Getting rid of them will improve the national team, I have no doubts about that. "

Not even the slightest doubt??? I'd say your NT would sink even further downhill.

 

[adam2k1]

No way would the national team suffer. Actually, can it get any worse than the state its in now??

The departure of the GGG would simply allow teams to play Scottish players who are good enough to compete, which can only improve the NT team.

And, as a few ppl have said before, they contribute little to the NT anyway.

 

[Badge]

"Scottish players who are good enough to compete"

such as???? Dont Scottish teams have to have a certain amount of home grown u21 players in their squads (I may be wrong here). So if the OF went off somewhere else they could abandon this policy , get rid of ALL their Scottish players and leave all these "Scottish players who are good enough to compete" to play against one another for Aberdeen, Livingstone etc. Then when they go into international games they will not used to playing at a higher level and will get cuffed.

They could of course do what Irish players do and go to the Premiership. But we all know what happens to the Anglo-Scots when it comes to International team selections.

"they contribute little to the NT anyway.!"

Out of curiosity (not being sarcy) could you gimmee the selecton for the France game and take away the Old Firm lads and let me know who was left.

 

[The Judge]

Although there is a stipulation on the number of under 21 players in the matchday squad i.e. 2, I think they can be of any nationality.

As for the France line up of the top of my head...

Sullivan, Dailly, Crainey, Weir, Caldwell, Matteo, McCann, Lambert, Cameron, Crawford and Freedman.

So take away Crainey, Lambert and McCann.

 

[Badge]

And Barry Ferguson if he was fit. So 3 or 4 out of 11 is not considered a contribution. Fair nuff. Best of luck with the other world beaters that are left.

 

[Eck RFC]

Do you know what would help Scottish football............ if Bill Gates took a shine to Scotland and the SPL, he then gives every club outside the Old Firm money to clear there debts and 20million to improve there stadiums, youth structure's and teams, also he sets ups a television channel and buys the rights to show live games from the SPL,Seria A,La Liga and EPL making the best sport channel ever and offering it to the whole world. Of course he then hands this channel and the annual budget it needs to the SFA to share out the subscription money to help everybody in the whole of Scottish football.


That is 1 way to make the SPL better and not far fetched one bit.