17 May 2015 10:12:30
So guys is our game in need of reconstruction? If so what can we do? I personally think it does, I would increase the league to 16 starting season 2016/17, but we need to be more innovative than that also, get people interested in our game from the outside for the right reasons. How about introducing a bonus point system for any team scoring two goals or more it would encourage teams to attack rather than sit with 11 men behind the ball, it has worked well in rugby union and has encouraged attacking play, we have everything to gain and nothing to lose .
Believable1
Unbelievable1
17 May 2015 11:13:57
maybe instead of getting points for a win you get points per goal for the winning team,but minus two points plus points per goal for the losing team,and points per goal for both teams if its a draw.
Agree0
Disagree0
17 May 2015 13:32:36
don't see how making points per goals available would be beneficial. Maybe some sort of bonus point system could work but personally I'm not convinced. I think the way to go about it is try and make the standard of pitches better, all over the country. If the surface is smooth and flat, better passing football will win more often that not, encouraging teams to play more attractive football.
Also, is a 16 team league not a wee bit small, it will require either a 30 game league or 37 with a split but surely it would be good to try and get rid of the split? I would go for 18/19/20 teams. Play everyone home and away, no need to be drawing fixtures out a hat and gets rid of the repetitiveness of playing a team 5/6/7 times a year.
i think the cups could be altered in someway also, they are becoming a bit boring. Maybe make the prize system different.
Also I think that as a country we should start some sort of national in door futsal league. It works wonders in brazil for developing technique and is also pretty good to watch. Plus, can be played indoors so beats the weather up here. Whether or not aligning the leagues in some way would work, meaning each pro club would also have a team like this that fans can follow, I'm not sure. but its something that can be replicated for younger age groups much more easily than 11-a-side football and would be good for our games development imo
Agree2
Disagree0
17 May 2015 13:54:32
Futsal is a great shout Edinbhoy the League and Clubs should introduce it and after a generation I think we'd see much better players.
Agree0
Disagree1
17 May 2015 14:05:01
Increasing the number of teams to say 20 , would please Barry Ferguson, because it would mean that he would have his team in the Spl . Surprising enough, that team isn't Clyde where he is the manager , but Sevco who he thinks should be in the Spl , because they are big .
I don't think it's the number of teams that has the Spl such a dire league , rather it is the incompetent rulers of the game who deliberately don't try to talk up the game and don't sell it as a sporting concern . The authorities and the officials in charge of the game in Scotland have for decades been more concerned with Rangers / Sevco than having a sporting competitive league played on a level playing surface both actually and figuratively speaking . Cast away the old bigoted thinking move into a new era with self belief and everyone singing off the one hymn sheet that we have a small but very innovative and interesting league .
If we start moving goal posts re points for goal scored we may find ourselves cut off from European and World football.
Agree0
Disagree0
17 May 2015 14:50:56
Ffs Chris it always comes back to rangers with you , the discussion is about what changes we could make to give Scottish football a edge over other leagues and make it more interesting is in the future, forget the past this is not an exercise in point scoring over rangers, I think giving a bonus point for scoring two goals would encourage attacking play , something all football fans crave is it not? By the way who is you contact in uefa or fifa who has told you we would be cut off for implementing such a system? Or are you just assuming because I'm sure you know the problem with assumptions.
Agree0
Disagree0
17 May 2015 15:01:01
don't see how it would effect european and world football,the rules of the game would still be the same,anyway ,could do it for an experiment for one season ,could aways be refined or rejected as unworkable.
Agree0
Disagree0
17 May 2015 15:01:01
No matter how you 'dress' a pig it's still a grunter.
Scottish football has been stifled of cash and proper funding for too long and even Celtic - our countries most successful and richest club cannot compete or compare to most of Europe's bigger clubs. Every season we literally have to re-build our team because any semblance of talent we have, wants to leave, or are punted because we need to sell to balance the books. The cost of watching football is ridiculous in comparison to other entertainment and the product has been well watered-down even since MON times.
There are far too many teams for such a small country and catering for the selfish and blinkered majority is why we will always be looking to reorganise or re-vamp a poor product. I remember after 9-in-a-row the format was changed immediately to benefit Scottish football and it has been altered several times since - even introducing the dreaded split and the overall standard is still unsatisfactory and our European standing/coefficient out-with Celtic is pants.
Agree1
Disagree0
17 May 2015 15:39:48
20 years ago, in an after match pub discussion, I suggested making it 3 points for a win, 1 point for a score draw and nothing for a no score draw. It would be easy to implement and if teams don,t try to score, they end up with exactly what they deserve. I know that sometimes you have days when the ball just won,t go in, but in general, teams would know that being totally defensive will achieve nothing and attitudes would change.
Agree0
Disagree0
17 May 2015 16:11:42
The age old how can we make this better discussion. For me you have to make it more affordable. Full stadiums will make the product more appealing. If you score a goal in a stadium that's full it always looks better than a goal with an empty stand behind it. So cheap tickets are always high on my list of suggestions. Also I like the split. To many teams have to little to play for at the end of the season. making everyone in the same area of the table play each other is in my eyes like a month or so of play offs. So I like it. Also I'm totaly against league expansion. Always have been. Because we don't have the quality. To many teams for me have a comfort zone in the spl and if you increase the league size you increase that zone. Also you then replace 2 celtic vs dun Utd, hearts, aberdeen, Rangers with 2 celtic v Falkirk, raith, livi. Does that appeal to anyone it doesn't to me. I think the current set up Is ok. We just need to treat fans better. Reduce ticket prices get family's in. It's working in evry other sport.
Agree1
Disagree0
17 May 2015 16:21:40
Imagine the interest we could drum up from outside Scotland even if it was just people looking in to see if it was working and if it did work let's say teams tried to attack us in the hope of getting two goal and a bonus point so the games started to get results like 6-2 or 5-3 then surely more neutral's would be interested in watching these games on the telly thus creating more advertising and tv money. We NEED to do something Aston villa were recently FINED 200 GRAND for a pitch invasion to put that into perspective we make only slightly that amount in tv money for a year from sky
Agree0
Disagree1
17 May 2015 17:46:55
if the league was to be expanded then surely you would give a seasons warning, so its hardly being done to benefit rangers. I think playing a team 4 times is silly in one year and if you only play each team at home once then fans might be more likely to buy tickets. garybhoy and jimtim I agree that stadiums need to be filled, should be our number one aim when we price tickets. talking about poor quality teams, the current top 6 in the championship includes falkirk hibs hearts QOS rangers who would all bring a better prospect than playing dundee/inverness/dundee united/st johnstone for a 4th time.
If an emphasis is placed on youth development teams can concentrate on that more without fearing relegation, or not getting top 6.
Agree0
Disagree0
17 May 2015 19:24:12
Fab1 obviously you would prefer to attack me rather than read my post . Surely I am not dreaming when I remember Doncastor threatening street disorder ,a whole range of SPL teams folding under Financial pressure and Armageddon if Sevco were not put into the SPl . Am I also dreaming when I think that the Scottish Football Authorities are actually paying for TV Companies to show Sevco. matches .
Fab 1 I don't see where you can interpret that I may have been talking to some one from UEFA as all I said was we may find ourselves outside of European and World football if we adapted a point for goals scored .
To the best of my knowledge over the last 50 years Scottish Football has suffered from a pro Govan bias., it's just possible if Scottish football was run fairly it might improve , but then Fab1 you believe all is fine and dandy with Scottish football and only needs wee adjustment here and there'. God help us
Agree0
Disagree2
17 May 2015 19:38:37
Pro govan bias haha it's a conspiracy right enough Chris. guess the conspirators haven't tried hard enough as your club has done extremely well the past 50 years.
Agree0
Disagree1
17 May 2015 20:05:52
Glad your on tonight cee. Would like to know what you think about 50thousand men woman and CHILDREN singing no surrender. I'm not having a go at you, I just don't see how your club can ever get over it's clear problem if you let your kids come and sing that stuff. Or is that a non offensive song and I'm missing the point. Like I said just asking your opinion not having a go.
Agree1
Disagree0
17 May 2015 20:12:55
CeeXXX , Heard the "quality" of your support shine throw today @ HT with there rendition of boos reverting around the "Asbestos Arena"
Confident Hibs will beat you & look forward to see you venture over here if that is the case!
Agree0
Disagree0
17 May 2015 21:31:30
God help us right enough mate, all I wanted was a debate on what we could do to make Scottish football more interesting to outsider's thus creating more revenue , what I got from you was no contribution at all , just the same old pish about conspiracy from history and how everything everywhere is all rangers fault , if you didn't have any innovate ideas or had nothing POSITIVE to add why did you not just stay the f**k off the thread .
Agree0
Disagree1
17 May 2015 22:12:13
Fab1 the ed's control the contributions on here . I have highlighted the main
problem facing Scottish Football. Tinkering around the edges won't cure the cancer within . However cure the main problem and then I have no doubt we will be able to iron out the other difficulties .
The authorities have fiddled with the number of teams in the top division and even changed the name , but surprise , surprise without taking out the poision from within they have failed to make an Improvement .
We had Pleat as top man and we all seen him jumping for joy celebrating a Rangers goal against Celtic in the cup, he was replaced by Campbell Ogilivie another Rangers man , who I am sure as he is now getting old will make a £98m contribution to. Charity for the EBT he got from Rangers and which he told LNS not to investigate
That's an example of the honest way Scottish football has been run and you want to
keep the status quo.
Agree0
Disagree1
17 May 2015 22:17:35
do all the FA's in europe use the same points system?,
Agree0
Disagree0
17 May 2015 22:23:57
And it's not very often I agree with ceexx but in the last fifty years we have won at least half the domestic trophies that were available to us so the people involved in this grand conspiracy must be terribly incompetent also our own chief executive is one of the top men in the sfa and had a big say in picking Doncaster for his job , so is peter lawell also part of the anti celitc conspiracy? My head is spinning now , how far does this conspiracy go ,do you think maybe some of the players are involved as well? What about our fans , do you think some of them might be involved? Do you think maybe Forrest is involved and that's why he missed the sitter against st Johnstone but wait the ball bobbled , do you think maybe their groundskeeper is involved as well , oh god how deep does it go , no sleep for me tonight .
Agree0
Disagree0
17 May 2015 23:27:16
i wish I was eloquent enough to respond properly to these conspiracies theories,in the sixties it was much harder being a catholic in scotland and much more harder being an irish catholic,if ther ever was atime that conspiracies in the football hierachy should have been rampant that was the time,but just at the time when catholics were experiencing work discrimination and the irish in scotland were being put on security lists by special branch,was the time celtic were at their best,that is what brings me to my conclusion this conspiracy excrement is only used as an excuse for how bad the team is playing at the moment,the complaints after the cup semifinal were an embarrasment,so the ref made a mistake ,the main thing was that the team didn't play well enough,i welcomed rd's appointment,but that game at murrayfield changed all that,i became sceptical,and I am still not convinced,he has made so many bad team selections,maybe I am like chris with his conspiracies,i just need RD to convince me a bit more that he is the manager that celtic need.
Agree0
Disagree0
17 May 2015 23:49:49
Whisper it aindoh but I have also to be convinced that Ronnie is the great manager he is being made out to be on here I know this isn't a very popular opinion on here and I will grant you some of our play has been very good and I will reserve my opinion until after next season.
Agree0
Disagree0
18 May 2015 00:07:40
i am with you on that,fab,but I think I will give him to the european qualifiers,goodnight
Agree0
Disagree0
18 May 2015 15:33:34
Fab 1 and Aindoh , you have shown your true selves , contrary and argumentive , just wanting to be the opposite to the majority by slipping in your views about Deila , completely out of context from the rest of the post and late at night . I will try to avoid the shite - stirrers in future .
Agree0
Disagree0
18 May 2015 16:32:28
No Chris it has been a very average season the very least I would have expected was a league and cup double , I did not say Ronnie was a bad manager just that I have not been totally convinced by him in my opinion a treble makes it a good season and qualifying from the champions league makes for an excellent one , he did neither albeit with extenuating circumstances ( murryfeild , first season , early season injuries to key players ) but at the moment I don't see a huge difference between his team and the one that finished last season off . Now we will see how he does with more of his own players a full pre season and a year to adjust to a huge club like Celtic under his belt. One thing is for sure he will get my full support but I won't come on here and tell you he is any better than O'Neil, Strachan or even Lennon until he convinces me he is and if that means that my opinion is different from the majority on here then so be it.
Agree0
Disagree0
18 May 2015 17:48:26
Fab 1 . No harm to you , but I won't be waiting with bated breathe for you to tell us when you think Deila has surpassed Lennon .
I and I think many others have already made our mind up on that .
Agree0
Disagree0
18 May 2015 18:54:51
Well in fairness Chris no one on here waits with baited breath for your opinion on anything but you still give it on everything, remind me how many times has the ed on here threatened you with a ban for spouting your brand of nonsense, says it all really, I'm more interested in what people who go to the games think , not from someone who is just a parody of what other internet sites have to say .
Agree4
Disagree1
18 May 2015 22:09:31
Fab1 , although your user-name indicates a high self opinion , you do post quite a bit of Shiite yourself . I would have told you sooner but I didn't want to hurt your feelings .
Agree0
Disagree0
18 May 2015 23:53:02
Chris my views on RD are just as pertinent as yours,this is his first season,but it has not been a overwhelming success,some people are getting hysterical saying he's this great manager,i am just waiting to be convinced,the poor showing in europe had a lot more to do with his team selections and tactics than anything else,they played a much improvrd game against inter,and I enjoyed that ,but that was put into perspective when wolfsburg played inter of the park.i am not realy critisicing rd ,he is still young ,and learning,i am guite hopeful that he could be the manager celtic need in a year or two.
Agree4
Disagree0
17 May 2015 07:09:56
To Deila, Stefan Johansen and all my fellow norwegians, happy independence day!
Believable4
Unbelievable0
17 May 2015 09:50:15
You mean there is a small country out there who became independent and went on to be successful but labour and the tories said that was impossible 😉 happy independence day mate, I wish we would also have one in my lifetime.
Agree2
Disagree0
17 May 2015 12:48:27
yep, we where in union with Denmark for 500 so years and 100 so years under sweden. we got our our independence in 1902 actually.
Agree0
Disagree0
17 May 2015 13:13:40
i really hoped that you guys also would get your independence last year, but it wouldn't be. Would be good for you guys, maybe not for the rest of Great Brittain though?
Agree0
Disagree0
17 May 2015 14:13:27
Norwegianred , how did your great little Country gain its independence?
Did Norway have to use force or threaten to use force?
Last year the Scottish people were handed Independence on a plate but 55% appeared to believe Cameron and other Unionists instead of their own people .
I think the UK Unionists were very clever , they made gaining Independence so easy that the Scottish people decided to not take it .
Congratulations and a very happy Independence Day May you continue to enjoy self determination and all that goes with it .
Agree0
Disagree1
17 May 2015 16:30:15
Chris would I be correct in saying your irish?. I appreciate you constantly telling the scottish people how much of a mistake we have all made. You may not know however that the yes campaign had a lot of unanswered questions. And also the oil Market which was claimed to be a surplus to there plans which I didn't buy for a minute has since plummeted. We wouldn't even be independent yet and we would be in a panic. It was to much of a risk for people like myself who have kids mortgages and a business all to think about. The thing is I am classed as a no voter but I'm not. I just didn't want change whilst a lot of people did and I'm sorry for them not getting it. But I respect there views and my views should be respected back. But you keep on telling us we are all doomed because we didn't take a massive gamble and leap into the unknown.
Agree0
Disagree0
17 May 2015 19:40:56
Garybhoy , most Countries are proud to have fought and won Independence .
I am quite sure , your children and your children's children would be capable of getting their mortgage in an Independent Scotland as well as in the United Kingdom .
Would the Scotland economy not get more money from oil and gas sales , even with the price plummeting , than only getting a wee share of the money that the UK gives Scotland . Look at the Wealth Scotland would get from the Whisky exports instead of giving it to the UK economy . Most Countries have fought and got Independence without having core business of the size of your Whisky Gas, and tourism and have managed to grow and strengthen .
I am Irish, does that I cannot have an opinion . When Ireland fought and gained Independence Britain held on to the industrial North East . Free Ireland was a poor mostly rural Country with the like of Guinness it's only export as well as farm products it wasn't easy but the free part of Ireland managed to get their, their children got mortgages and nobody wants to rejoin the union .
Your mentioning of mortgage and Oil , appears very like what the English Unionists were preaching woe before the vote .
Agree0
Disagree0
17 May 2015 20:13:34
Well Chris I accept what I consider to be a fair argument from you. And I was just confirming you were irish not having a go at that. The only reason I questioned your original point is in this country we are constantly being told by people who care a lot more about a yes vote than I did about a no that we have made the wrong choice and we are all doomed. Just winds me up at times. I considered it to much of a gamble others didn't. If it was a yes I would have carried on with my life not rattled on preaching to people that they were wrong. Anyway it's all done now.
Agree0
Disagree0
17 May 2015 22:15:34
Hopefully Garry you may get another chance . It's never too late to do the right thing😅😀😍
Agree0
Disagree0
17 May 2015 22:25:29
norwegian red,when you say you were under sweden ,do you mean norway was subservient to sweden or was it an equal union,when I was younger I used to know some swedes,they used to sing something about 20000 swedes jumping from the reeds in some battle with norway,was the norway ,sweden relationship like the scotland ,england one?
Agree0
Disagree0
18 May 2015 00:00:50
Chris, that's a long story but to say it short terms we didn't really have our own identity being in unions with Denmark and Sweden for 800 years and being a nation of vikings before that with other religious beliefs.
We have today only 5 million inhabitants, almost 2/3 of Norway was wiped out from the black plague a lot died of Spanish flu and so on, so we have never become a nation anybody cared about, no military power, no wealth and such and taken care of by our neighbours so to say.
We have allways (before our wealth in oil, naturegas and shipping) been a very small and poor nation with nothing to gain from occupying, except maybe the coastline for strategic war reasons so I think that's the reason why we could hold our independence.
So to the mid 1970`s we where kind of a poor nation before we struck gold in oil, and we where very smart about the money investing in gaining allies in other nation with NATO etc and giving a lot of money to helping out undeveloped countries, deleting their debt to the world banks, helping out with medical assistance etc.
Dont think we will (hopefully) see another war in this country, not in my life spand at least and if we would, we would get all the help we need from our allies. Yes we have oil, some weapon production export but rearly involved in wars other than medical assistance.
I also think that World War 2 was pretty awefull for us, most of us have blond hair, blue eyes, tall and where therefore very insteresting for the nazi`s "aric rase" experiments. It took under 24 hours for the nazi`s to occupy Oslo and most of Norway and its something about the same time our military would stand a occupation even today.
So being not a treat at all, no money, no resurses maybe only manpower and farming to gain from, we have been most of the time left alone with our skiing and ways to go about.
Long answer Chris, maybe not everything is that interesting but it says a lot of us norwegians and why we are the nation we are.
Agree0
Disagree0
18 May 2015 15:45:19
Norwegianred , thanks very much , you remind me of Ireland , at least the free bit . Fair play to yourselves , you developed your oil industry and now have all the wealth necessary to look after your population . Free Ireland gave away its fishing rights to Spanish and Portugueese fleets who take almost all our fish . Our oil drilling rights have been given away for nothing by one of our many dodgy Governments . We now have to rely on multi national companies and our farming and tourists . Ireland has risen against the powerful British Empire probably every fifty years since the 17 th century . We finally got part Independence in the 1920's but we still have to break the English presence from the North Eastern corner , traditionally the wealthy part .
Agree0
Disagree0
18 May 2015 20:57:02
Free Ireland did'nt give away its fishing rights to the spanish and portuguese, it stopped being free when it joined europe,its went from being controlled by the brirish empire to being controlled by the european empire ( I know empire is the wrong word,is purely for illustrative purposes)
Agree0
Disagree0
18 May 2015 22:15:15
Aindoh , Free Ireland did give the right to fish in its waters to the Spanish and Portuguese fishing fleets , these were handed over when the ROI joined the Common Market . There was a fifty year window from the British. Control ended until they sold their soul ( and soles and other fish ) to the Common Market in 1972 .
Agree0
Disagree0
19 May 2015 00:15:53
yes,chris I know that but I just can't remember the procedure that the fishing licences and quotas were handed over,or the time scale,i thought it was well after 1972,my memory is so bad ,i can't even remember when the punt changed to the euro.
Agree0
Disagree0
19 May 2015 09:36:19
Aindoh, yeah I think we have some what a good relationship with the sweeds but they didn't fight the germans under the worldwar and let them use their trains and roads to conquer us. We also tried to have an agreement on 50% in rhe oil aganst 50% of Volvo and Scania, but they would not have the agreement. Actually think we have a better relationship with Denmark, our language is more like theirs and their way of living is kinda more to our approach.
Agree0
Disagree0