Rangers manager Walter Smith favours 10-team league

[down-the-slope]

the dinosaurs of the OF and their need to maintain 4 games a seson against each other.....

This is why the radical reconstruction thats needed will never happen

[matty_f]

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the dinosaurs of the OF and their need to maintain 4 games a seson against each other.....

This is why the radical reconstruction thats needed will never happen

A couple of guys were arguing about it on Real Radio the other night. I can't think of anything more boring than a 10 team league, except maybe an 8 team league etc.

[Hibercelona]

10 team league is far to big IMO.

I am however in favour of a 2 team league. With another league on the side where real football teams can play.

[McD]

What the **** has it got to do with him, he's stepping down in a few months, plus all he's gonna do is talk up Rangers demands, not a balanced discussion.

[Diclonius]

Well that's any hopes of a bigger league over. If Uncle Walter doesn't want it, the SFA will blindly follow.

[Phil D. Rolls]

Walter is being generous, I thought the OF favoured a two team league.

[Saorsa]

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the dinosaurs of the OF and their need to maintain 4 games a seson against each other.....

This is why the radical reconstruction thats needed will never happen

I wish everybody else would tell them tae **** off and have two team league

[greenginger]

Can you still have a split with a two team league ?

[bighairyfaeleith]

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Can you still have a split with a two team league ?

with rangers and cedltic, very definitely

[Brads Laing]

Typical

[Sir David Gray]

I would personally prefer an 18 team league but if you look at other European leagues in countries with a similar population to Scotland, most of them have 10 or 12 team leagues in their top division so perhaps Smith has a point.

[Ozyhibby]

The problem we have in Scotland is that we have the whole English league set up in 1 league.
Rangers and Celtic are Premiership sized clubs.
Hibs, Hearts and Aberdeen are Championship size clubs.
Dundee utd are league 1.
The rest are league 2 or non league level.

and they are all competing against each other.

There are not enough clubs of similar size and budget to make it interesting.

[jackhfc]

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The problem we have in Scotland is that we have the whole English league set up in 1 league.
Rangers and Celtic are Premiership sized clubs.
Hibs, Hearts and Aberdeen are Championship size clubs.
Dundee utd are league 1.
The rest are league 2 or non league level.

and they are all competing against each other.

There are not enough clubs of similar size and budget to make it interesting.

Would Motherwell not qualify as a league 1 side atleast?

[Ozyhibby]

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Would Motherwell not qualify as a league 1 side atleast?

Just. Average gate in league 1 is about 9000, Motherwell get about5500.
Killie if they are doing well can be about the same. If we had a full british set up I think these two would maybe yoyo between league 1 and 2.

[Phil D. Rolls]

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The problem we have in Scotland is that we have the whole English league set up in 1 league.
Rangers and Celtic are Premiership sized clubs.
Hibs, Hearts and Aberdeen are Championship size clubs.
Dundee utd are league 1.
The rest are league 2 or non league level.

and they are all competing against each other.

There are not enough clubs of similar size and budget to make it interesting.

I think the biggest problem with our league set up is that it is a closed shop. It's high time we adopted a pyramid system like they have in England. Some teams are in the league here because they were significant 80 odd years ago - Abion Rovers, what's that all about?

[Septimus]

If Walter had eighteen fingers he would probably understand what people are talking about.

[Wilson]

Walter Smith is a pie.

Something needs to change in Scottish football. We have too many teams in too many league divisions. As far as the SPL goes we re playing the same opponent too many times in a season.

There are enough decent sides in the first division to allow for an expanded SPL. 18 teams would be a stretch but with Falkirk, Raith, Partick, and Dunfermline wasting away out of the limelight I see potential for at least 16 credible (as relates to Scottish football) top teams.

We should then have one proper sub division. Its size and how you make enough decent teams out of the dregs of Scottish football is up for debate.

An enlarged SPL and a single proper lower division is more viable and marketable for a country our size.

[heretoday]

I'm not in favour of a ten-team league.

I am in favour of never having to look at or listen to Walter Smith ever again.

[NAE NOOKIE]

10 team league ? No ................ No no no no no no no no no no Aaaaaarrrrgh !!!

16 Team top league SPL 1

16 Team 2nd league SPL 2

Split into 4 leagues of 8 teams which makes 44 fixtures. Sorry .. its the only way.


2 relegated automatically from SPL 1 and 2 promoted automatically from SPL 2.

3rd bottom SPL 1 and 3rd 4th & 5th from SPL 2 in play off for a spot in SPL1 the following season.

Give the teams in Europe a bye into the last 16 of the league cup and permission to play a second string team in that round, if by some miracle they are still in Europe.

A 10 team 1st division and Bobs yer uncle

[ginger_rice]

This whole argument that an 18 club league wouldn't work, appears to me to be a strange one, yes perhaps the clubs who end up in 17th and 18th positions may just be there to make up the numbers, (a bit like the smaller teams in F1), however wouldn't this give up and coming players the opportunity to play at (our) highest level week in week out and thereby hopefully increasing the quality of the players in the league?

Is there a danger that the mid-table teams may show no ambition, after all they are unlikely to be relegated, perhaps but there's nothing to lose by trying it.

I hate to admit it I found myself actually agreeing with Smith a couple of points, especially with "the split has run it's course"

I for one would hate to go back to playing the same 9 teams 4 times a year again, the special games ie the derby, come around all too often for me they are no longer something to look forward to

[Hibercelona]

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The problem we have in Scotland is that we have the whole English league set up in 1 league.
Rangers and Celtic are Premiership sized clubs.
Hibs, Hearts and Aberdeen are Championship size clubs.
Dundee utd are league 1.
The rest are league 2 or non league level.

and they are all competing against each other.

There are not enough clubs of similar size and budget to make it interesting.

In terms of "size" I would agree with that.

In terms of "quality" however.....

[Antifa Hibs]

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I would personally prefer an 18 team league but if you look at other European leagues in countries with a similar population to Scotland, most of them have 10 or 12 team leagues in their top division so perhaps Smith has a point.

Top leagues:

Belguim have 16
Croatia have 16
Holland have 18
Portugal have 16
Austria have 10
Czech have 16
Serbia have 16
Switzerland have 10

We currently have 12, you could easily find another 4 clubs who could hold their own in the SPL. From the top off my head, Livi, Raith, Morton, Dundee, Dunfi, Ross County, QoS, Partick, Falkirk, Airdrie.

Scrap the *****y 6000 seater rule, promote 4 teams next season, 1st and last swap places, 2nd and 2nd bottom play in a play-off. Play each other twice and have a 3-4 week winter break

[basehibby]

I usually find Smith a pretty agreeable guy to listen to but not this time.

We tried the "revolutionary" ten team league in 1975. About fifteen years later NOBODY else in europe had followed suit with this brilliant idea (correction - with the possible exception of Austria & Switzerland) - meanwhile, bored to tears and sick of the sight of each other, the SPL clubs voted to expand to 12 teams precisely to get away from this mind numbing set up.

Going back to this tried and proven FAILURE of a set up would be the height of idiocy IMO.

[HenryMonk]

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Top leagues:

Belguim have 16
Croatia have 16
Holland have 18
Portugal have 16
Austria have 10
Czech have 16
Serbia have 16
Switzerland have 10

We currently have 12, you could easily find another 4 clubs who could hold their own in the SPL. From the top off my head, Livi, Raith, Morton, Dundee, Dunfi, Ross County, QoS, Partick, Falkirk, Airdrie.

Scrap the *****y 6000 seater rule, promote 4 teams next season, 1st and last swap places, 2nd and 2nd bottom play in a play-off. Play each other twice and have a 3-4 week winter break

glad you saved me the bother in pointing that he was talking rubbish.

i agree with your league set up, but would i favour bottom 3 dropping straight out, that would create more interest at bottom half of league.

[Sir David Gray]

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Top leagues:

Belguim have 16
Croatia have 16
Holland have 18
Portugal have 16
Austria have 10
Czech have 16
Serbia have 16
Switzerland have 10

We currently have 12, you could easily find another 4 clubs who could hold their own in the SPL. From the top off my head, Livi, Raith, Morton, Dundee, Dunfi, Ross County, QoS, Partick, Falkirk, Airdrie.

Scrap the *****y 6000 seater rule, promote 4 teams next season, 1st and last swap places, 2nd and 2nd bottom play in a play-off. Play each other twice and have a 3-4 week winter break

Of the countries you mention above;

Belgium has 10 million people.
Netherlands has 16 million people.
Portugal has 11 million people.
Austria has 8 million people.
Czech Republic has has 10.5 million people.
Serbia has 7 million people.
Switzerland has 7.8 million people.

Croatia I will give you, but the rest, whilst they have relatively low population sizes, they still have about double the amount of citizens that we have in Scotland and the Netherlands has more than three times our population. It's not really comparing like-for-like. In fact two of the countries that you have mentioned that are on the lower end of the population scale (Austria and Switzerland) only have 10 teams in their top league, even although they still have a larger amount of people than Scotland.

When I said that most of the countries our size have either 10 or 12 team leagues in their top divisions, I was referring more to;

Slovakia (5.4 million people with a 12 team top division)
Denmark (5.4 million people with a 12 team top division)
Finland (5.2 million people with a 14 team top division)
Norway (4.6 million people with a 16 team top division)
Georgia (4.6 million people with a 10 team top division)
Croatia (4.5 million people with a 16 team top division)
Ireland (4.2 million people with a 10 team top division)

As I said before, my preference would be for an 18 team SPL and I wouldn't be against a 16 team league either but, although I think playing each other twice (once home and once away) is the best way to go, I just think that a 30 match season is too short and that is what you would get if you went with that structure in a 16 team league.

[CropleyWasGod]

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As I said before, my preference would be for an 18 team SPL and I wouldn't be against a 16 team league either but, although I think playing each other twice (once home and once away) is the best way to go, I just think that a 30 match season is too short and that is what you would get if you went with that structure in a 16 team league.

.... which is why there is also a call to bring back the old sectional format of the League Cup. That would give clubs a guaranteed extra 6 games.