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How to balance the SPL?- thoughts on the league

P

pasion1

Senior Squad
I've been a long fan of scottish football. Love the history, but I have to recognize that things really started to become ridiculous when the SPL was formed. Besides the 97/98 season (where hearts finished of about 6-7 pts behind winners celtic<roughly>), the gap between the Old firm and the rest of the league has been outstanding....almost laughable.

I always try to introduce fellow south americans to Scottish football. But i remember an entire group of Brazilians who went with me to watch the Old Firm derby a few years back (Bellamy, when he was playing, won at Ibrox with 2 games left). And they all spat their beers, fell to the floor laughing when they saw that the Old Firm had about a 21-22 pt gap bw 3rd place Hibs.

I know this isnt new. In the 20s-30s, (besides Motherwell in 32 i believe), the Old Firm dominated the game too. One reason i loved the 1980's was because of Dundee, Aberdeen, Hearts constantly challenging the league.

But is there any way to balance things out?
I know the problems:
1- wages
2- club debts (non old firm cant support, especially when they stretch their budget as it is)
3- Old firm monopoly on best Scottish players.
---------

I've been watching most of the games this year. And i laughed when seeing Hibs in 4th (who are a horrible, horrible team). The rest of the league falls somewhere under them (except maybe Dundee United).
And Aberdeen showed yesterday to be a prime candidate for 3rd place. But how good is that? Will they end up 15-20...or even 30 behind the old firm this season?
 
H

Help?

Fan Favourite
Advertise the league and start getting millionaires to pump money into it. That's the only way.
 
P

pasion1

Senior Squad
I found this response on another forum:
(not taking credit for it, but thought it was worth mentioning)

-----
"There is only one way to balance the SPL.

It doesn't involve foreign businessmen like Romanov "investing" in teams.

It doesn't involve a restructuring of the league.

It simply requires the removal of the Old Firm.

Hearts showed just a few years ago that people will come to watch, in numbers, a side they believe capable of winning something.

Remove the Old Firm and Hearts, Hibs, Aberdeen, Dundee Utd, Motherwell, Kilmarnock and others would have a serious chance at playing in the Champions League, regular UEFA football, Scottish and League Cup victories.

Competition.

That simple and that complicated.

We would also be rid of their odious support and all that they bring to the party.

The major problem with this is that it will never happen because NOBODY else wants them."

Brilliant IMO. I remember when Hibs had more interest and support from their fans when in Div 1 (rather than Premier league where they KNOW they are never going to win anything)
 
H

Help?

Fan Favourite
Yes, we could also put a cap on how many wins the Old Firm can have between them each season, restrict them to only getting players from their youth programs, or make them start every season with -40 points.

Problem is none of those suggestions are realistic, unlike the investment route. And if both FAs do decide to allow the Old Firm to join lower English league, then SPL's popularity and revenue will drop like the american economy and they will turn into Wales.
 
B

Bobby

The Legend
pasion1;2576846 said:
The major problem with this is that it will never happen because NOBODY else wants them."
Click to expand...

Not true, the (Republic) Irish league would be wanking if they had a shot at Celtic playing in their league.
 
N

newbie original

We apologize for keeping the yellow too long
Yellow Card
There have to be a lot of leagues across Europe like this one....a select few teams dominate. Just have to accept it.....
 
F

Fernandez

Team Captain
The SPL, is like the EPL, where there is a domination of the same clubs going to the Champins League and so on. They only way to balance these leagues is to have radical changes to them, which will not happen.
 
S

simo_yes

Senior Squad
im an economics student and one of the subjects i did was economics of sport and i did a study into the feasibility of the old firm joining the epl and long story short is thats not a possibility

there are 2 ways to encourage competition is sporting leagues and they are through promotion/relegation OR through a salary cap... so maybe there could be a way to cap the spending of rangers and celtic or maybe introduce some sort of tax to the earnings over a certain amount that could be re-distributed amongst the other clubs
 
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