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Ozyhibby
30-11-2012, 05:32 PM
http://sfunion.net/?project=cska-moscow-and-dynamo-kyiv-add-support-to-cis-league

Another merger of two European leagues. Over the next 5 years I expect we will see a lot more of this. Will Scotland be ready and more importantly will Hibs be ready to make sure we are involved? Especially if we are the only team from Scotland's capital.

lucky
30-11-2012, 05:40 PM
The only logical solution in terms of merger of leagues for Scotland is a British one. But the English and top Welsh sides don't need us.

JeMeSouviens
30-11-2012, 05:49 PM
The only league we could realistically merge with is England.

UEFA doesn't like invitational leagues, they like to pretend there's still fair play and a meritocracy. So to provide a route up and down into a multi-national top league you need a pyramid underneath.

The thing you never hear mentioned in relation to pyramids when the oh-so-knowledgeable legions of Scottish football punditry talk about an atlantic league etc is that pyramids have to allow for rebalancing as is done in regional English leagues below the Football League. Say you have a top league with 2 down and promote one each from the North and South feeder leagues. Now what happens if 2 North clubs go down? North now has 2 more clubs than South. So the pyramid needs rebalanced: you take the team from North geographically closest to the boundary and shift them into South. Everything's even again.

This just about might work for an Anglo-Scottish league or maybe even a British Isles league. It's not going to work for a Scotland-Holland-Portugal setup though.

This idea might just have legs as it will allow UEFA to shut up the moaning big clubs in small leagues and might stop a breakaway invitational league. There are 2 other factors that could push it along. A smaller one, what if Cardiff or Swansea get strong enough to push for a CL place? And a much larger one, what to do with Barca if Catalunya breaks from Spain.

Expect to see Celtic pushing hard in this direction. Would be rather nice to get Hibs involved, especially if we could steal a march on the Sevconian hordes. :wink:

.Sean.
30-11-2012, 05:56 PM
The only league we could realistically merge with is England.

UEFA doesn't like invitational leagues, they like to pretend there's still fair play and a meritocracy. So to provide a route up and down into a multi-national top league you need a pyramid underneath.

The thing you never hear mentioned in relation to pyramids when the oh-so-knowledgeable legions of Scottish football punditry talk about an atlantic league etc is that pyramids have to allow for rebalancing as is done in regional English leagues below the Football League. Say you have a top league with 2 down and promote one each from the North and South feeder leagues. Now what happens if 2 North clubs go down? North now has 2 more clubs than South. So the pyramid needs rebalanced: you take the team from North geographically closest to the boundary and shift them into South. Everything's even again.

This just about might work for an Anglo-Scottish league or maybe even a British Isles league. It's not going to work for a Scotland-Holland-Portugal setup though.

This idea might just have legs as it will allow UEFA to shut up the moaning big clubs in small leagues and might stop a breakaway invitational league. There are 2 other factors that could push it along. A smaller one, what if Cardiff or Swansea get strong enough to push for a CL place? And a much larger one, what to do with Barca if Catalunya breaks from Spain.

Expect to see Celtic pushing hard in this direction. Would be rather nice to get Hibs involved, especially if we could steal a march on the Sevconian hordes. :wink:

That has always puzzled me, now I know!

NAE NOOKIE
30-11-2012, 07:48 PM
The only realistic league expansion open to us is with Ireland.

England doesnt want / need us so bringing clubs in from the biggest Irish population centres is the only option. With the old firm around that screws up that idea .... who wants Celtic playing in Belfast or Rangers ( Sevco ) playing in Dublin.

The apathy from fans in Scotland at the moment is really getting to be a worry though. The crowd at St Johnstone on Wednesday was nothing short of miserable, especially when you consider that about a third of it was away fans ... considering how well St Johnstone have been doing the turn out from the home fans was dissappointing, even given the current economic climate.

The radio have just said thet ICT havnt sold all of their allocation for the cup tie in Dingwall .... considering the size of Inverness, the fact that ICT are going really well and the fact that its a 15 minute car journey from Inverness to Dingwall thats poor.

We wont sell out on Sunday ... though I have to say our overall support has held up pretty well considering. But its still not great that we wont sell all our tickets for this game.

Perhaps Engerlund would accept some Scottish clubs in their league, but it wouldnt be a merger thats for sure. It would have to be an act of pity if it became obvious that Scotland couldnt sustain more than 5 or 6 full time professional clubs any more. That might happen if we cant shake people out of their armchairs on a Suturday.

I intend no offense to the supporters of Scotlands clubs who do turn out .... respect to them.

Ozyhibby
30-11-2012, 08:45 PM
The only realistic league expansion open to us is with Ireland.

England doesnt want / need us so bringing clubs in from the biggest Irish population centres is the only option. With the old firm around that screws up that idea .... who wants Celtic playing in Belfast or Rangers ( Sevco ) playing in Dublin.

The apathy from fans in Scotland at the moment is really getting to be a worry though. The crowd at St Johnstone on Wednesday was nothing short of miserable, especially when you consider that about a third of it was away fans ... considering how well St Johnstone have been doing the turn out from the home fans was dissappointing, even given the current economic climate.

The radio have just said thet ICT havnt sold all of their allocation for the cup tie in Dingwall .... considering the size of Inverness, the fact that ICT are going really well and the fact that its a 15 minute car journey from Inverness to Dingwall thats poor.

We wont sell out on Sunday ... though I have to say our overall support has held up pretty well considering. But its still not great that we wont sell all our tickets for this game.

Perhaps Engerlund would accept some Scottish clubs in their league, but it wouldnt be a merger thats for sure. It would have to be an act of pity if it became obvious that Scotland couldnt sustain more than 5 or 6 full time professional clubs any more. That might happen if we cant shake people out of their armchairs on a Suturday.

I intend no offense to the supporters of Scotlands clubs who do turn out .... respect to them.

Whatever other problems Scottish football has it's not a lack of supporters.
Fact is more people go to football in Scotland per head of population than any other country in the Europe.
The problem is that with a small population we have a small media Market. The big Five leagues in Europe are getting an increasingly larger share of the pie. Clubs in smaller countries are getting left behind. Ten years ago it was only the old firm complaining about this, now there are clubs and leagues all over Europe are looking for solutions.
As far as Inverness goes, show me a club in England who play in a town the size of Inverness who get as big crowds?

StevieC
30-11-2012, 09:04 PM
http://sfunion.net/?project=cska-moscow-and-dynamo-kyiv-add-support-to-cis-league

Another merger of two European leagues. Over the next 5 years I expect we will see a lot more of this. Will Scotland be ready and more importantly will Hibs be ready to make sure we are involved? Especially if we are the only team from Scotland's capital.

I will ask my FC Dnipro mates what they think of it. Probably going to mean that a lot of decent supporters will end up missing out on away games because of distances and visa restrictions.

SMAXXA
30-11-2012, 09:12 PM
One thing I dont get and dosnt seem to get mentioned much when we talk about this is how the hell could fans afford to travel to away games. Folk can afford to go to home games necer mind get a train, plane or ferry to some places to watch an away game. Its a crazy idea and will never happen in Scotland IMO.

Ozyhibby
30-11-2012, 11:54 PM
One thing I dont get and dosnt seem to get mentioned much when we talk about this is how the hell could fans afford to travel to away games. Folk can afford to go to home games necer mind get a train, plane or ferry to some places to watch an away game. Its a crazy idea and will never happen in Scotland IMO.

Less than 10% of fans bother with away games anyway.
The distance from Edinburgh to Helsinki is less than the distance Barca travel to play Tenerife.

Jones28
01-12-2012, 01:07 AM
If this were to happen in the future I would rather see us in a Northern European league than involved with England! Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Scotland - even the Faeros could enter. Not sure how it would work but would prefer that to playing in league 1 of the English structure