Avoiding the Drop

Today we present the third in a multipart series of articles focused on some of the financial problems facing football leagues across the world- especially those in smaller countries. By the end of the series it will become clear that many of these financial problems are the result of a century and a half old organizational model that simply cannot cope with the realities of the modern football and the modern financial world. Having highlighted the ways in which this model has increasingly come up short when faced with the unique problems presented by the sporting and financial landscape of the twenty-first century, we will offer a number of possible solutions which will help to ensure the future stability of the game, both on and off the pitch. As always, we here at Avoiding the Drop look forward to your comments, questions, and criticisms.

Part One of the series can be found here.

Part Two of the series can be found here.

Now we come to the part of my master plan that was the most fun to undertake, but the one likely to make the most people angry. At least initially, nobody, I repeat, NOBODY is going to be happy about this. However, I truly believe that he way to make football in Scotland more competitive domestically, more competitive in Europe, to make the National Team better, and to make the game’s future more stable financially and otherwise is to have fewer, bigger (though not necessarily “big”) teams. With these goals in mind, I present my handiwork. There were no hard and fast rules, but there was a general “rationale” that I used, so here it is:

• If teams were merged, I put them in the league of the highest team involved in the merger with the assumption that the combined club would only get better as a result of the merger. 1 = the SPL, 2 = SFL1, 3 = SFL2, 4 = SFL 3.
• The size of the club didn’t matter. If a small team has generally been competitive and financially stable, I saw no reason to merge them with another team or place them in a lower league.
• Most of the teams that were merged were smaller teams in close geographic proximity to each other or that have demonstrated in recent years an inability to get their financial houses in order even when experiencing success on the pitch.
• Although they were relegated from the First to Third Division as a result of going into administration, Livingston F.C. were given the benefit of the doubtand placed in League B rather than League C.
• The teams brought into the league to fill the spaces in League C created by mergers are those that have been the most successful in the current regional leagues over many decades, not just those teams that had a good year last year or the year before.
• Obviously, within a few years, the leagues would “settle,” with relegation and promotion taking care of any problematic “seeding” on my part.
• The numbers following a teams name show the current divisional placement of the merged teams.
• As I said above, I’ve gone with simplicity in naming the leagues. They could be called “Lion,” “Thistle,” and “Saltire,” or anything else one desired.

League A

1. Aberdeen F.C.

2. Dundee City F.C. (Dundee/Dundee United) 1/2

3. Falkirk United F.C. (Falkirk/Stenhousemuir/East Stirlingshire) 1/3/4

4. Glasgow Celtic F.C.

5. Glasgow Rangers F.C.

6. Heart of Midlothian F.C.

7. Hibernian F.C.

8. Firth of Forth F.C. (Raith Rovers/East Fife) 2/3

9. Kilmarnock F.C.

10. Motherwell F.C.

11. Hamilton Academical F.C.

12. North Lanarkshire F.C. (Airdrie/Clyde/Albion Rovers) 2/3/4

13. St. Johnstone F.C.

14. St. Mirren F.C.

The hope here- on my part at least- is to create more teams that can challenges the Old Firm. On paper I’m not sure that has happened immediately, but the the “second tier” of the league (Hearts, Hibs, and Aberdeen) would certainly be stronger with “Dundee City” likely to join that group and the other merged teams forcing the “third tier of teams (Motherwell, Kilmarnock, etc.) to become more competitive. Realistically, I think “North Lanarkshire” and, to a lesser extent, “Firth of Forth” would be the two teams most likely to be relegated to League B. Although, with the entrance of some stronger clubs to the league, it could be “yo-yo” teams like Hamilton, St. Johnstone, and St. Mirren who cannot compete and drop into League B. The ability of some of these new sides to “sneak” into Europe (in any form) and the possibility of some of the non-Old Firm teams having reserve teams in the lower leagues (combined or otherwise) will likely lead to some teams improving over time. It is also likely that this league- which is clearly better in terms of quality than the current SPL- might earn a better coefficient from FIFA and that could lead to more European spots being allocated to the new league, which could only benefit Scottish football domestically and internationally.

League B

1. Angus Athletic F.C. (Brechin City/Montrose) 3/4

2. Angus United F.C. (Arbroath/Forfar) 3/4

3. Ayr United F.C.

4. Celtic F.C. Reserves

5. Inverness Caledonian Thistle F.C.

6. Fife United F.C. (Dunfermline/Cowdenbeath) 2/3

7. Greenock Morton F.C.

8. Partick Thistle F.C.

9. Livingston F.C.

10. Queen of the South F.C.

11. Ross County F.C.

12. Rangers Reserves F.C.

13. Stirling United F.C. (Stirling Albion/Alloa) 3/3

14. “Combined Reserves F.C.” (players from non-Old Firm teams in League A)

Two reserve sides in a 14 team league are probably enough, but as I said above, the “combined” team is an experiment and relegation/promotion could well see one of these reserves sides dropped out of the division anyway. Perhaps the only team that can make a case for being “hard done by” are Inverness Caledonian Thistle, but they’ve not proven themselves to be an SPL “fixture” for any length of time, so it would be up to them to do a job of work and get themselves promoted back into the top level of Scottish football. The addition of all of the merged clubs as well as the reserve sides from League A certainly improves the quality of this division, with “Fife United” being perhaps the strongest club and the most likely to be promoted. The two new “Angus” sides would be, initially at least, the two most likely candidates for relegation.

League C

1. Annan Athletic F.C.

2. Dumbarton F.C.

3. Elgin City F.C.

4. Queen’s Park F.C.

5. Peterhead F.C.

6. Stranraer F.C.

7. Huntly F.C.

8. Cove Rangers F.C.

9. Whitehill Welfare F.C.

10. Spartans F.C.

11. Dalbeattie Star F.C.

12. St. Cuthbert’s Wanderers F.C.

13. Deveronvale F.C.

14. Gala Fairydean F.C.

The last tier of “league football” is made up of those current Third Division teams not merged under my plan as well as the best of the Highland League and East of Scotland League teams over recent years. This league has been purposely engineered to have a great deal of fluidity, with up to five of its teams changing on a yearly basis (two could go up, three could go down). This was done with four goals in mind: First, to put more teams “in play” for as long as possible every season. With five spots potentially changing each year, and another 4-5 teams potentially fighting to get in or out of those spots, there is a good chance that two thirds of the teams in the league will have “something to play for” until the very end of every season. Second, to discourage the complacency that currently plagues the Third Division. No longer will a team be able to basically finish last for five straight years before facing the possibility of being dropped from league football. Third, with the potential for three teams to be promoted to League C each year, it gives teams in the regional conferences something for which to strive- both on and off the field. The ripple effect created by this new, “true,” pyramid structure, of course, will provide the same motivation for junior and amateur sides looking to grow in size and/or quality. Finally, this reorganization will balance the three regional conferences in terms of numbers and to fully integrate them into the new pyramid system.

Conference Football

Below the League level there has always been a very vigorous footballing landscape in Scotland which, for my purposes here, need only be reorganized geographically and renamed (now “Conferences” instead of “Leagues”) in order to prepare them to be fully enmeshed with “League” football above them and the “Junior Conferences” football below them.

Northern Conference

1. Buckie Thistle F.C.

2. Clachnacuddin F.C.

3. Wick Academy F.C.

4. Formartine United F.C.

5. Forres Mechanics F.C.

6. Fort William F.C.

7. Fraserburgh F.C.

8. Inverurie Loco Works F.C.

9. Keith F.C.

10. Lossiemouth F.C.

11. Nairn County F.C.

12. Rothes F.C.

13. Strathspey Thistle F.C.

14. Turriff United F.C.

15. Brora Rangers F.C.

By virtue of being made up of the Highland League teams not drafted into the new “League C,” this is likely to be the best- at least initially- of the conferences. Perhaps the only mitigating factors would be that Fort William F.C. is generally considered to be the “worst team in Europe,” and several of the other teams (Turiff, Strathspey, and Formartine) only joined the Highland League in the 2009-2010 season.

Central Conference

1. Civil Service Strollers F.C.

2. Edinburgh City F.C.

3. Edinburgh University A.F.C.

4. Heriot-Watt University F.C.

5. Lothian Thistle F.C.

6. Tynecastle F.C.

7. Craigroyston F.C.

8. Easthouses Lily Miners Welfare F.C.

9. Leith Athletic F.C.

10. Ormiston F.C.

11. Stirling University F.C.

12. Preston Athletic F.C.

13. Peebles F.C.

14. Crichton F.C.

15. Threave Rovers F.C.

If you have a decent grasp of Scottish geography (and really, who doesn’t?) you’ll be able to tell that this conference draws heavily on the old East of Scotland League, and more than that, is very “Edinburgh-centric.” I do not believe that either of these will be an issue as will have no impact on the league structure, and the Glasgow end of the “Central Belt” is already well-represented by the conglomeration of league clubs already centered in and around the city This will likely be the second best of the new regional conferences.

Southern Conference

1. Coldstream

2. Selkirk

3. Gretna

4. Eyemouth United

5. Hawick Royal Albert

6. Kelso United

7. Vale of Leithen

8. Abbey Vale

9. Fleet Star

10. Newton Stewart

11. Wigtown & Bladnoch

12. Creetown

13. Nithsdale Wanderers

14. Mid-Annandale

15. Heston Rovers

Most of these sides are taken from the old South of Scotland League, which was the weakest of the old regional leagues, and it is likely that this conference (based mostly in Ayshire, Dumfries & Galloway, etc.) will likely be the weakest under the new system. The towns and clubs are smaller in this area and there are fewer league teams upon which aspiring players can set their sites. As a result, the clubs are smaller, more numerous, and draw on smaller talent pools.

NOTE: Stranraer and Annan Athletic’s both currently field reserve teams in this league, but not under my plan. Under my plan they would most likely be moved to a “mini-tier” within the Southern Conference or into local junior football.

Junior Football

Below the regional leagues in Scotland- those renamed as regional “conferences” under my plan- there is the uniquely Scottish institution of “junior football” (the Scottish Junior Football Association is actually four years older than the Scottish Football League). The “junior” in the name refers to the level of football as compared to the “senior” football played by SPL and SFL clubs as well as the regional leagues (conferences)- not to the age of the players involved. It is essentially and equivalent term to “non-league” football in most countries.

The current Scottish Junior football system is broken into Southern and Western Leagues (w/60-65 clubs in each) and a Northern League (w/35-40 clubs). Each of these leagues is further broken down into 3-5 mini “pyramids” for the purposes of promotion and relegation. Without going into great detail, the changes that would be made here would basically be to redraw the geographical “boundaries” of each league to arrive at a more balanced distribution of clubs (50-55 per league) and to formalize the pyramid places of these leagues as well as placement within them. After reorganization each region of junior football would be matched to one of the regional conferences (Highland, Eastern, and Southern) for the purposes of relegation and promotion.

Amateur Football

Below junior football there is amateur football- everything from pub sides to long-standing and fairly accomplished clubs that simply do not pay their players, and are therefore, “amateur.” The Scottish Amateur Football Association (SAFA) oversees fifty regional associations and the sixty-seven leagues and the tens of thousands of players involved in them. Under my plan the SAFA would be phased out, amateur football would be organized into regions (and likely sub-regions as well), and administered directly by the Scottish Football Association.

The North Caledonian Football League

This is football in Scotland, so of course there has to be a potential “spanner in the works” in terms of trying to organize the game on a consistent basis- in this case it is the North Caledonian Football League. The NCFL is an amateur league, but, inconveniently it would seem, not part of the SAFA system. Fortunately, it instead operates directly under the auspices of the Scottish Football Association- something I’m suggesting should be the case for all of amateur football in Scotland. In the past, the NCFL has been used by its clubs as a way into junior football or the Highland League and by teams in the north as a league for its reserves teams.

END PART THREE

In the next installment on Friday, November 13th:

• The McLeish Report
• Conclusions
• Further readings