I think that if the club were to be shut down & New Broomfield to be sold off to be made into a housing development scheme would be a terrible sign for Scottish football. As of now Airdrie's playing squad is down to 6 players & unless Steve Archibald gets a miracle underway on Monday the club will be dead in under two weeks. And they won't be the first as I see both Morton & Clydebank being run into recievership & death via the recievers in the next two years. I am left agreeing with Tam Cowan's column in the Daily Record today however. If Celtic were happy to donate money to save Derry City, why don't they throw in a few £ to help save a MUCH more local side? Once again the man from Off The Ball speaks words of wisdom.
LOL@Tam Cowan. Airdrie have been in serious trouble for a while now, so are Morton and Clydebank. I think the problem stems from having too many "professional clubs" in Scotland. Take England, 92 clubs - 50 million population, Scotland, 40 clubs - 5 million. It simply isn't right. The money gets spread out too thinly.
Have I got it right - there's a brand new stadium almost built, but they have used other grounds in the meantime and wasted what money they had on rent etc? Seems very harsh on he club, but Archibald hasn't delivered has he when it came to the crunch? Surely the SFA could step in and do something??
Its tragic, it really is, and no it wont be the last - Morton and Clydebank AT LEAST will follow them down soon, unless something is urgently done. Gio is right though, its a simple logistics problem, we have half the number of pro clubs England has, but only a tenth of the population! Once all our clubs were set up(before it was a money-orientated game), fans had allegiances and now nobody wants to merge - realistically merging is the only way to keep Scottish football alive. Morton and St.Mirren should merge to form a renfrewshire team. Dundee and Dundee United - its absolutely ridicuous, in a town of 150,000 both clubs are literally across the road from each other! Farcicle really, and that should be one team etc etc. Only Edinburgh and Glasgow can manage more than 1 team. As for Steve Archibald, i fell sorry for the guy - at least hes TRYING to help the club, but now he just gets absolute pelters in the press - ironically, if hed stayed back and not done a thing to help hed have a much better public image! Tam Cowan was right, but in fact I think it shouldnt just be left up to Celtic, I think all SPL clubs that have any kinda pulling power (ie the Old Firm!) have an obligation to help out teams like Airdrie, but...its just not happening. AND wheres the hlpe from the government? If they can afford, what is it £300,000,000 to build YET ANOTHER new national stadium in London, cant they afford £30,000 to pay off Airdries main creditor Bill Barr and keep them afloat? Surely the Scottish Executive and the SFA can come up with that money somehow?
But the bigger clubs don't want to know. The goldfish bowl of the SPL is even unimportant to Rangers and Celtic directors (not the fans obviously) except when it comes to European qualification. Thus the move to start a league with Portugal, Holland etc. The ideal set up in Scotland would surely be two divisions with Rangers and Celtic playing home and away ties at another 16 grounds, generating money for clubs like Falkirk or Livingston. With 3 up 3 down then the second division would get a fair crack every now and then (stadiums permitting - This is where the dome money should have gone across the country instead of down the Thames!!!). But it ain't gonna happen is it? The rich are always gonna get richer and they call the tune with TV rights etc.
No no no Im sorry, that is not the way forward. First of all, what would a 16 team SPL look like? The present SPL, plus...Livingston, Ayr United, Falkirk, Inverness Caley? Basically then it would be Rangers v. Celtic for the championship, ONE other team can go for UEFA Cup place in 3rd, and the rest are battling against relegation??? No, only 2 or 3 teams would face relegation, which would mean a completely meaningless existence for 7 or 8 clubs - half the division! Whats the point in paying £15 to see your team play every Saturday, when theyre not particularly entertaining (as we're not) and the match is virtually meaningless?? Attendances would crash and money would evaporate. The Old Firm is not a instant cash bonanza anymore - you saw how only 30,000 went to Ibrox to see Rangers v. Brechin? Well, itd be hard to get 50,000 people interested enough to see Rangers play against, say Ayr United - if Rangers win, thats what was expected, if Rangers DONT win its a disaster! The SPL is boring for OF fans apart from OF matches and the occasional Hibs that comes along. By letting mediocre teams like Ayr and Caley in, it would be evn more boring. Its oK for us being Rangers fans. Imagine you support, say, Motherwell. Its a 16-team league (or even 18!). Its October, season has hardly started. Your playing Falkirk at Fir Park. Neither of you are in any danger of...well, anything really. Neither team is entertaining (Don ****ing Goodman!). DO you want to spend £15 to see it? Easier to sit at home! ------------------ SUPER CALEY GO BALLISTIC, CELTIC ARE ATROCIOUS!
I don't think playing each other 4 times a season where most of the games are already boring and meaningless, is the answer.
I'm in favour of a 16 team SPL, leaving us with 30 games a season - I think 38 league games is too many, as is playing each other 4 times a season. The SPL should also get rid of the pathetic rule requiring all teams in the top division to have a 10,000 all seater stadium - spend millions on the stadium will leave with you with nothing to spend on players/youth/wages, its not as if the clubs are well off is it?
We need a 16-team Premier League, plus a 16-team "First" Division. The argument goes that some teams will play all year for nothing -- well there are about five in the SPL doing that right now. Although the bigger SPL would have a lot of wee "diddy" teams, let's not forget that the Old Firm sometimes slip up against just that kind of opposition, whereas other, more workmanlike teams could end up scoring valuable points off them. Let's be honest -- a lot of these new teams would be cannon fodder, but that in itself is worth seeing, especially if it allows the bigger teams to blood fringe players. The current idea of splitting the league is reminiscent of an idea put forwards many years back -- at a certain point in the season, the top four are entered into a mini-Euro league/cup (almost an "Atlantic " league, eh?) of top teams, and the next four are put into a lesser Euro league, then the next four, etc,etc. These Euro leagues (or maybe cups would be better) run concurrent with the SPL fixtures. Any teams still in Europe would be excepted, giving smaller teams' supporters the incentive to see all our teams do well in Europe. A stretch on smaller team squads? It would certainly be, but the revenues !! Teams like Ayr could have the opportunity to host fairly big continental names (and maybe even beat them). An ambitious idea, this, but one of the targets "small" teams aim for is Europe. This gives everyone (including foreign teams) the chance to get just that.
More teams in the Premier division would spread the money around a bit more and give the smaller clubs a chance at least to improve on their standing. Being totally realistic, when is any other team apart from Celtic or Rangers going to win the League anyway. You could say in August that Motherwell have nothing to play for. Same for the rest of them, but at least more are going to get a share of the money. They already have this new split league in operation to benefit interest for supporters. The jury is still out on this and I can't see it improving the situation.
no - look at the SPL this season Up until a few weeks ago it was Rangers, Celtic amd Hibs for the title. Hibs and Kilmarnock going for 3rd place. St.Mirren, Dundee United and Aberdeen fighting against relegation. Dundee, St.Johnstone,Motherwell,Hearts and Dunfermline all going for a top 6 spot. I would say every club in the SPL has a purpose - even now the league is over Rangers still have to get into second place and stay there for the CL spot.
I like this season's set up, but it is far from perfect. The top 6 thing is over-rated, mainly propaganda from the SPL. All it guarantees for a midtable side is an extra game against the Old Firm, you have to go up another level to get European qualification, and most of the sides can't.
Scottish football only has two teams with potential and England has Manchester United with Arsenal and Liverpool waiting in the wings. To get any competition these top teams need to play each other instead of wasting their time playing St Mirren and Bradford City.
So union Jack - your saying there should be a British league? Or at least a UK Cup? I have to say I agree with at least a UK Cup.
Aargh!! Shades of the old Anglo-Scottish cup, with a skillful St Mirren side being kicked of the pitch by Bristol City, and Rangers being gubbed by the very very lowly Chesterfield. All arguments lead to us wanting more competition with the big Euro names (whether it's Man U, Liverpool, or Real). Europe is what we all want to see -- the domestic stuff is just the motions that we have to go through to get there.
