Summer football in Scotland. Is it a good idea in principle?

[Forza Fred]

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Absolutely crap idea. I am amazed that Doncaster and Regan haven't already implemented it.

The only Leagues to do so as far as I can see are Ireland, Sweden, Iceland and Norway. Even Russia dumped the idea.

Australia did, years ago.

[pacorosssco]

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As someone who has already lived through a switch from winter to summer football.....I can
promise the world won't change substantially as a result.

I'd much rather expose my self to the elements in cauld weather rather than freezing weather though.

Are talking Auz? If so is there that much a diff summer to winter? Huge difference overall here especially teams further north but rain likely still a problem winter or summer. Was it done for other reason? TV for example? Just curious. Games played at night due to heat?

[heretoday]

I need the summer to get over the stresses of the season.

[Forza Fred]

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Are talking Auz? If so is there that much a diff summer to winter? Huge difference overall here especially teams further north but rain likely still a problem winter or summer. Was it done for other reason? TV for example? Just curious. Games played at night due to heat?

Yep there is a difference winter to summer, but winters are certainly kinder here...mind you I don't think you would have had the Mercury hit the extreme of 45 degrees as we did one day last summer!

Originally it was changed for media exposure...not tv though as they hardly covered it....but the rugby league and AFL seasons provided competition.

All sorts of positives....better pitches, better weather for spectators, and yes, the majority of games are played under floodlights.

I would say that it would never be contemplated moving it back to winter.

[frazeHFC]

Absolutely not. Summer should be cancelled in Scotland, a week in May maybe, unreal amount of rain this 'summer'.

With other activities and holidays I can only see crowds falling massively. Look at Stevenson's testimonial for example. A lot of families I know missed it because they (inc mine) were on holiday as the schools were off.

[PeeJay]

No - Scottish football's problems have nothing to do with the weather ....

[Phil MaGlass]

summer fitba would give us a longer window tae wear oor Hibs tops.
Definitely summer fitba for me.

[theonlywayisup]

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summer fitba would give us a longer window tae wear oor Hibs tops.
Definitely summer fitba for me.

That's probably the best reason yet put forward by the "yes" campaigners

[theonlywayisup]

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I'm a very keen golfer too, but football game takes less than 2 hours and there are 6 other days a week to golf if you can't manage to arrange a game around the Hibs match.

Maybe you should read my post again - it was about the weather not about golf. I could equally have said "As someone who likes to get out a lot......."

Anyway, regarding your "six other days" comment - the majority of competitions are on a Saturday as are the majority of football matches.

[bigwheel]

I'd go to less football if it was a summer sport...I like the summer off ....do different things, travel...makes me look forward to it again when the season comes around...there are hardly any Hibs matches postponed due to weather..and I don't believe the crowds would be any better during holiday periods...so why summer football is considered better, I don't really know


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[jacomo]

No.

Football is close to being a year round schedule now anyhow, so really summer football means scheduling League games in May and June when spectators want to do other things.

[jgl07]

At the moment the season runs from early July till the end of May. Transpose that to the summer and it would run from February to early December. Is that summer football. Then there is a World Cupeveryfour years and a European Championship also every four years. So half the time six weeks in the middle of the season would be written off.

Stupid idea put forward by those who haven't thought things through. It isn't going to happen even with the current clowns in post.

[theonlywayisup]

It's amazing that the large majority of people posting on this thread are against summer football, yet a slight majoity have voted for it.

Can those who have voted for it please explain why?



The best response so far has been that you can wear your football strip in the summer.

[LaMotta]

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It's amazing that the large majority of people posting on this thread are against summer football, yet a slight majoity have voted for it.

Can those who have voted for it please explain why?



The best response so far has been that you can wear your football strip in the summer.

As Brexit proved, people will often vote for things that make very little sense

[lord bunberry]

I used to be in favour of summer football, but with the season lasting so long these days it just isn't practical. Also playing during the school summer holidays would mean missing games due to holidays.

[mayo hibee]

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It's amazing that the large majority of people posting on this thread are against summer football, yet a slight majoity have voted for it.

Can those who have voted for it please explain why?



The best response so far has been that you can wear your football strip in the summer.

OK, I'll bite. You probably won't like it and this post will no doubt get shot down by most of the previous posters, but anyway...

Most regulars on this forum are season ticket holders and die hard supporters. Go to all the games and have done for years. Exactly the group of people who would be most affected by a change to summer football. All the negatives are ones that would hit regular supporters the most - losing new year derby games, nothing to do in January and February if there are no games on etc.

The advantages are harder to see when you're faced with those negatives, and the concerns raised on the thread are reasonable. But here are a few of the likely positives for a bit of balance:

Improved TV deal: Sky and BT Sports are desperate to keep subscribers during the summer, but there's no decent football on so they're left with golf, F1, cricket and rugby league, which far fewer people want to watch. They'd be likely to pay far more for Scottish football than they do at the moment if they could show it during the summer, rather than in the winter as an add on to their English football coverage, which is all that Scottish football really is at the moment. Maybe a TV deal could be reached to rival the Championship TV deal in England? With a bit of clever scheduling you could arrange the fixtures so that there's one big game like an Old Firm or Edinburgh derby, or a game involving one of those teams and Aberdeen every weekend during late May, June and July. Scottish football could get the Super Sunday type coverage it deserves instead of being hidden away on a Friday night or lunchtime kickoff. Having cup finals in October or November when there's only regular league games from other countries on TV would also be a selling point. The extra TV cash would likely outweigh any reduction in season ticket sales, and to be honest I don't think the drop off in ST sales would be as much as is suggested anyway. So you miss one game because you're away on holidays for two weeks? Probably not enough reason to chuck your season ticket.

More cash to pay players/better standard of players: With the extra TV cash clubs might actually be able to pay their players a competitive wage and the likes of Mark Warburton wouldn't be able to raid Scottish teams for the likes of Jason Cummings to warm the bench in the English lower leagues as easily as they seem to be able to at the moment. It might actually take proper bids from EPL teams in order to tempt players away from the league. The exposure of playing in Scotland in the summer when there is no other football on would also probably tempt a better standard of player to the league.

European football: It's 10 years since a Scottish team other than Celtic made the group stages of a European competition. That's just embarrassing if we're honest about it. To put it into context, two League of Ireland clubs have played in the group states of the Europa League in that time. The League of Ireland is a useless league, unloved by the sporting public there, but Shamrock Rovers and Dundalk have still managed to reach the EL group stages mainly because the league plays during the summer. Dundalk even did quite well in the group stages when they got there (despite being managed by Stephen Kenny). There's no doubt Scottish clubs would achieve better results if they were playing European qualification games in mid season rather then pre-season. Someone asked what would happen if the domestic season ended before a team's European run did. If that actually happened it would be major progress for Scottish football. And who wouldn't love to see a few big European nights back at Easter Road again? Completely achievable, but not under the current structure.

So basically the likely positives are that Scottish football would develop, achieve a little bit of European success, more cash would be put into the game and it would get a lot more exposure. It would feel less like a little brother of the English league, which is exactly what it feels like right now with the Championship, League 1, League 2 etc. structure.

The main negatives are that life long supporters would be put out by not having games to go to during the winter and might miss a game or two in a season due to being away on summer holidays.

My view is that Scottish football as it stands is a shambles. One team is dominating domestically while getting absolutely destroyed whenever they play anyone of a decent standard in Europe. The national team are on the verge of completing a 20 year run of spectacular failure. Switching to summer football is unlikely to be a silver bullet that suddenly fixes all the problems with the game here. But it might fix some of them and, if we're honest, the current approach of copying everything the English league does but doing it worse obviously isn't working. So maybe summer football is at least worthy of a bit of consideration?

In reality it has no chance of happening anyway under the current regime - a governing body who just want to brush everything negative under the carpet and pretend all is fine with the game here will never consider something as out of the box as summer football. So you can all rest easy, Neil and his pals have your back.

[LaMotta]

Well done for stepping forward, and you may have a point about improved European results (although im not convinced).

The improved TV deal argument though is surely just fantasy. Very few outside of Scotland care about our league.

If viewers were really desperate for football 12 months of the year why do we not all crowd round the telly for League of Ireland matches in June? The league has TV deals with Irish broadcasters only because the rest of the world couldnt care less about their games no matter when they are played.

And in World cup/ Euros year The Spfl would be under an even bigger shadow than the one the EPL currently casts. What will people be watching? Aberdeen vs Motherwell or Argentina vs Spain?

I think we'd probably end up with a worse TV deal. Combined with less people through the turnstiles = disaster for our game.

[leithsansiro]

The aspect of summer football that I'm definitely in favour of is kids playing when the weather, in theory, is better.

Children don't learn a great deal by standing on a freezing pitch with the rain slashing into their faces. Much better to play on reasonable pitches with a bit of sun on their backs.

[lucky]

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Well done for stepping forward, and you may have a point about improved European results (although im not convinced).

The improved TV deal argument though is surely just fantasy. Very few outside of Scotland care about our league.

If viewers were really desperate for football 12 months of the year why do we not all crowd round the telly for League of Ireland matches in June? The league has TV deals with Irish broadcasters only because the rest of the world couldnt care less about their games no matter when they are played.

And in World cup/ Euros year The Spfl would be under an even bigger shadow than the one the EPL currently casts. What will people be watching? Aberdeen vs Motherwell or Argentina vs Spain?

I think we'd probably end up with a worse TV deal. Combined with less people through the turnstiles = disaster for our game.

Our game is suffering due to the TV deal that's in place in England. Our football is popular outside Scotland but our TV deal is crap. 102 countries take our game and it's time to do something different to promote our game out of the shadow of the EPL

[Craig_HFC]

I've never been able to understand why people think it's a good idea and I don't think I ever will.

[LaMotta]

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Our game is suffering due to the TV deal that's in place in England. Our football is popular outside Scotland but our TV deal is crap. 102 countries take our game and it's time to do something different to promote our game out of the shadow of the EPL

Do you think competing with the Euros and World Cup would lead to a better TV deal?

Why are Sky and Bt not interested in the League of Ireland in the Summer?

[Billy Whizz]

Sitting in the sunshine at Dingwall yesterday, can’t beat it

[Danderhall Hibs]

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Do you think competing with the Euros and World Cup would lead to a better TV deal?

FIFA have scheduled the Qatar World Cup to clash with everyone's Christmas night out in a few years so we wouldn't be competing that year. Maybe theatre work and all the tournaments will get shifted to winter, leaving the summer for us.

[LaMotta]

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FIFA have scheduled the Qatar World Cup to clash with everyone's Christmas night out in a few years so we wouldn't be competing that year. Maybe theatre work and all the tournaments will get shifted to winter, leaving the summer for us.