PEACE has broken out in Scottish Football; the SFL has surrendered to the blackmail and blandishments of the SPL and their own greedy First Division clubs. Welcome to the bright glad new tomorrow.
Aye Right.
I will not forecast gloom, doom and damnation - we've been doomed and damned for years, the gloom will continue. OK, faint praise first - two bodies running senior football in Scotland is better than three; but, it's not nearly as good as one would be: but, while some bailiewicks have vanished, there are still too many snouts in the trough on the sixth floor at Hampden.
This merger has been forced, it has been unduly hurried, through the greed of the First Division clubs and I am sure they will have plenty of leisure in which to repent once the reality of what they have done sinks home - assuming it ever does.
The merger will not right the wrongs of Scottish football, it will merely extend the lives of these wrongs. There are still too-many clubs, chasing too-few interested punters. Boys will still jump at the chance of a career in football and be dumped one, two or three years later, with n o qualifications onto a labour market for which football has left them singularly ill-equipped to cope.
Celtic will still, until, if ever, Rangers are restored to something like their former strength, hoover up the bulk of the cash and titles, then spend that cash of foreign mercenaries, who will sign-on, kiss the badge, do their two or three years then shoot the craw.
The TV companies will still under-value our game, treat us like third-raters and as always, the fans will be marginalised and ignored.
More than half the clubs will continue to accept the status of "senior" clubs, and do nothing to merit that status. They will continue to insist they are "professional", when they are nothing of the sort.
At least, a start has been made to a pyramid, with the formation of the new Lowland League - except, quite a few of the better semi-professional clubs will not be in it. Don't expect too-many of the top junior clubs, clubs which are, in reality, every bit as good, if not better than some of the perennial stragglers at the foot of what was the SFL, to be applying to join the new league.
It's a mess, but, hey, we Scots simply love messes - it gives us something to moan about, and, we don't half like a moan.
Brave New World - don't make me laugh: we're awe doomed.
This merger has been forced, it has been unduly hurried, through the greed of the First Division clubs and I am sure they will have plenty of leisure in which to repent once the reality of what they have done sinks home - assuming it ever does.
The merger will not right the wrongs of Scottish football, it will merely extend the lives of these wrongs. There are still too-many clubs, chasing too-few interested punters. Boys will still jump at the chance of a career in football and be dumped one, two or three years later, with n o qualifications onto a labour market for which football has left them singularly ill-equipped to cope.
Celtic will still, until, if ever, Rangers are restored to something like their former strength, hoover up the bulk of the cash and titles, then spend that cash of foreign mercenaries, who will sign-on, kiss the badge, do their two or three years then shoot the craw.
The TV companies will still under-value our game, treat us like third-raters and as always, the fans will be marginalised and ignored.
More than half the clubs will continue to accept the status of "senior" clubs, and do nothing to merit that status. They will continue to insist they are "professional", when they are nothing of the sort.
At least, a start has been made to a pyramid, with the formation of the new Lowland League - except, quite a few of the better semi-professional clubs will not be in it. Don't expect too-many of the top junior clubs, clubs which are, in reality, every bit as good, if not better than some of the perennial stragglers at the foot of what was the SFL, to be applying to join the new league.
It's a mess, but, hey, we Scots simply love messes - it gives us something to moan about, and, we don't half like a moan.
Brave New World - don't make me laugh: we're awe doomed.
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