Stop The Football World - The Juniors Want To Get On - Or Do They?

THE big fitba news this week wasn't that Scotland managed to beat Hungary in Budpest, that was flim-flam. No, the real news was the decision, in principle, for the Scottish Junior Football Association, provided the formal motion passes at their Annual General Meeting in June, and the SFA and the “bigger” league agree, to join the Scottish Football Pyramid.

Matt Phillips' Budapest Goal Was Not The Big Fitba News This Week

The sharper readers of this blog might note, the second sentence of that opening paragraph was almost “legalise”, because, there are a few hurdles to cross before it happens. For a start, Auchinleck Talbot (are they the Real Madrid of Junior Football, or are Real Madrid the Talbot of the senior game – discuss?) are agin it.

Now, if Talbot are agin it, I would suspect, from many moons covering the old Ayrshire Junior FA meetings, Cumnock are agin it too. Just as Rangers and Celtic vote together on most issues, so too do their Junior equivalents when it comes to mutual supporter loathing. And if two-thirds of the East Ayrshire Big Three are anti, I wouldn't be surprised if Glenafton Athletic are also unimpressed about joining the pyramid. With these three on-board, I can see a snowball beginning to roll against the move.

Mutually Assured Disputes

You see, the thing about joining the pyramid is, there are standards to be met, hoops to be jumped through. When Junior football began, it was a 19^th century re-enactment of clan warfare, well, at least here in East Ayrshire, in Lanarkshire, the Lothians and Fife, the traditional mining areas which are the heartlands of Juniordom. Down here, in God's County - when the juniors began and in the days in the 1920s when my maternal grand-father was President of the local league: Glenbuck were easily-irked by Muirkirk, and took-out that animosity on the football field. Cronberry despised Lugar, Craigmark disliked Rankinston, Auchinleck wasn't keen on Mauchline – and everyone positively hated Cumnock (that much, at least, has remained constant).

Back then, it was gladiatorial, the best of one village against the best of the next. In time, incomers began to be imported – the acquisition and fielding of “ringers” from Glasgow is a book in itself – but, the important thing has always been getting the best-possible team onto the field.

The local rivalries in Ayrshire are mirrored elsewhere; local bragging rights matter.

To be fair to Talbot in particular. The work which the late Malcolm Dunnachie and his team began to upgrade the facilities at Fortress Beechwood has been impressive. They would still have to spend some money to meet pyramid standards, but not that much.

Other clubs would need to perhaps spend money they did not have, and could not afford, to meet the demands of rising through the levels in the pyramid, and, once the clubs really start to read the small print and consider the implications, initial enthusiasm might recede.

Not that I am against the pyramid. On the contrary, we I feel, need a pyramid in Scotland, but, I feel rather than simply broadening the base by bringing-in the 160 or so SJFA member clubs, perhaps we should think of putting in place a couple (at least) of other layers.

Don't simply expand the pyramid - reform while you are at it

For instance, I don't think we need 42 “Senior” clubs, in four divisions. For my mind, “Senior” clubs ought to be full-time clubs, operating from all-seated stadia with a minimum capacity. When the Premier League first put in-place criteria for stadia, they had to have 10,000 seats. That has since been reduced to 6000. I could accept that, but, feel anything less than 10,000 shows a distinct lack of ambition. “Build it and they will come” and all that.

I would suggest (and I have been flying this particular “kite” for years - The SFA comes up with a template for what a “Senior” club should have:

• All-seater stadium, minimum capacity to be agreed.
• Full-time playing staff.
• Youth Academy.
• Grass roots coaching department.
• Women's teams.
• All-weather pitches, with proper pitch protection.

I would like to think 20-clubs could be found to meet the necessary criteria, and, with a nod to the PRO14 in rugby, I would split them into two “Conferences”, with traditional rivals placed in different conferences.

The seasonal climax would be cross-conference knock-out games, leading to a Grand Final.

Below the two conferences, which would be Scotland-wide, I would have regionalised football, rather mirroring the current set-up in Junior football. Initially, those senior clubs who cannot meet the criteria for the two senior conferences, would be in the top regional leagues; it would be up to them to justify and maintain that status as the lesser clubs improve.

There would have to be, as is the case in the English pyramid a requirement to meet certain infrastructure criteria at each level. This would prevent clubs seeking to rise through the ranks ignoring spectator facilities by spending all their money on players.

Make Scottish Football More Scottish

And, one rule I would also insist on, all clubs would have to sign-up to having a certain percentage of their match-day squads: “Scotland-qualified”. In the English rugby Aviva Premiership, there is a demand for 70% of a match-day squad to be “England-qualified;” why not in Scottish football?

And, while we are at it – such a total make-over as I am suggesting would probably be the most-opportune moment to bring-in “Zero Tolerance”, when it comes to fan (mis)behaviour. Of course, the big question is: is the will for such radical change abroad in Scottish football?

The thing with a pyramid is, IF a club on one of the lower levels wishes to rise through the ranks, and if that club can meet the criteria for elevation to the next level, then anything is possible. However, if a club says, as Talbot has done with regard to the Juniors entering the pyramid: “We are happy where we are,” there is nothing to stop them doing so.

But, all levels of the game would be under the jurisdiction of the SFA – the playing field would be a lot more level than it currently is.