First Division clubs breathed a sigh of relief yesterday as league reconstruction plans were given the green light.
A new income distribution model and play-off’s into the top division gives the First Division a new lease of life allowing clubs to plan forward with some confidence rather than constantly looking to cut costs.
Falkirk and Hamilton Accies have both suffered relegation from the SPL in recent times with the lack of cash and opportunity putting their youth development programmes under threat.
The new measures don’t suit every club but with an extra £300,000 heading into the club Scottish Cup semi-finalists Falkirk can tentatively plan for the future.
“It’s a package of measures,” Falkirk chairman Martin Ritchie explained. “Every club will have some element of the plan they don’t like — and I include Falkirk in that.
“During the discussions people talked about what they don’t like rather than the positive aspects.
“There was no expression of ‘Is this better or worse as a whole than what we have or what will be left?’.
“The First Division clubs wanted a single body and the spin-offs for the whole game are positive.
“One of the big dangers of the status quo remaining was that the time for change would have passed.
“We’ve been so close to change and if it didn’t go through then fans and clubs would have thrown their hands up and walked away from the whole process.
“Our fans now have more reason to buy season tickets because there’s a play-off route to the top division.
“The likelihood is that six or seven of the 10 clubs will now be competing right up until the last game to either move up or stay up. That will be brilliant for the fans and the game.”
Ritchie added: “We’ve already taken steps to reduce our cost base. We are playing on an artificial surface from next season and training on our own ground. In the last few seasons we’ve been saved by player transfers and decent cup runs.
“This gives us a bit of breathing space and allows us to keep things as they are, rather than cut more.
“The increase in money does not mean we will be able to pay fees for players, but it does mean that we can, for example, keep an Under-20 side so that players leaving the Academy and not going straight into the first team have another level to play at.
“It’s massive for the fans, as the concern is always how to sustain real interest to the end of the season if promotion is beyond you.”
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Now all we need are some decent people at the top of the SFA and SPL, but, unfortunately, that could take a whole lot longer.
Nevermind Falkirk and such, what is in all of this for Sevco? What, no fast-tracking to the SPL? Surely some mistake. I thought the SFA/SFL/SPL universe revolved around them.
Sevco will not make it out of Div Two this season. Fact!
The only real problem with this reconstuction is that instead of having twp small groups of incompetents running the game in Scotland we now have one big group of incompetents running the game in Scotland.
The fact that everyone’s a winner financially and Celtic seem to be the ones footing the largest, by far, slice of the bill goes a long way to showing just who Scottish football can and cannot live without.
HH
meanwhile over @ the vomitdome, things are expected to get slightly worse next season,will they survive hope not, NOW time to get rid of that phat basket Ballantyne & LONGFACE, OGILVY, AND REGAN