As this weeks ticket news for the League Cup Final was released we’ve heard the usual furore around how it benefits Rangers and the governing body is unfairly backing us, over other SPFL teams. It’s a strange claim for these clubs to make when nearly nobody supported Rangers when we called for a review of governance in the Scottish game. The hypocrisy is only heightened when we hear these same clubs complaining about TV games always featuring the Old Firm, given Rangers were the only club to reject the TV deal. That time the SPFL actually changed the rules to allow acceptance of the deal, without Rangers consent.
The truth is the SPFL isn’t biased in favour of any club, as much as ourselves, Celtic fans and the others claim they are, they simply suffer from ridiculously poor governance and that comes from the very top. There is an old meme on social media, which refers to a “post turtle.” The post turtle lives at the top of a fence post. Nobody knows how it got up there by itself, it doesn’t belong up there, it has risen beyond it’s ability to function and you wonder what sort of dumbass put it up there. This sums up Neil Doncaster and the position he has occupied for the last 14 years as he has proven time and time again.
Neil Doncaster, the “Post Turtle”
Before we get into the repetitive nature of our domestic league we need to understand the biggest blocker to change and that centres on our TV deal. In September 2022, with years left on the existing deal, Sky agreed an extension with the SPFL for £150m, covering 2025-29 and showing 60 domestic games. It’s pretty obvious this doesn’t equate to great value and Sky control who is shown, which means it’s the Old Firm derbies, the Old Firm away games and a few others. I could fill an entire article on the deal itself but the key takeaway from this is Sky call the shots and from those 60 games they see the Old Firm Derby as the jewel in the crown. Any change to the league structure would require their buy in but the truth is, they are unlikely to approve anything that reduces the four derbies.
This presents a major blocker to any substantial change in league format as an increase in teams competing in the league would reduce that number to three or even two, per season, on league business. Although there may well be additional derbies in the cups each season this isn’t guaranteed and presently Viaplay hold the rights to both cups anyway. This means the earliest we could really expect to see any significant change is the 2029-30 season, five years away, after this season.
It may be too much to expect wholesale change, even then, but we can always hope, so what could that look like and what would be the pros and cons of any change. The main points of note are less games against the same teams, lower quality bottom zone teams, a more competitive league and lesser quality stadiums. Lets dig into those a little more.
Two of these merge into one in my opinion with a larger league providing a more competitive league but how does that work? We are all well versed with domestic football equating to the low block in the vast majority of games. We can sit and debate negative attitudes all we want but the fact is these teams are massively out gunned by ourselves and Celtic. Rather than taking a tanking from the Old Firm sides they line up with damage limitation in mind. I was speaking to a Dundee fan the other day and he openly admitted that as fans they don’t even care about Old Firm games as they expect to lose from the off, anything taken from these is seen as a bonus.
Whilst the visiting sides wont have this exact attitude it’s not too far off either, as shown by how they set up. The problem is that accounts for eight games from 38 or 20% of all games for a team in the top half. If we moved to a league of 20 teams these teams would half that number, meaning there were far more games where they could compete and earn points. In turn this would allow teams to get to get closer to the Old Firm over a season and potentially even put up a meaningful effort to challenge or split the top two.
Outside of providing greater opportunity for competition it would also be far better for fans as they visit a whole host of different stadiums across the country, rather than traipsing round the same few four times a year, six if their sides meet in both cup competitions.It would also provide a chance to rid ourselves of the split which sees teams playing a disparate amount of home and away games as it simplifies fixtures to playing each team once at home and once away.
We would have to accept that for a transition period there would be a drop off in quality of both teams and stadiums. As it stands we would be looking at Arbroath, who sit eighth in the Championship joining the SPFL and their stadium is a far cry from Ibrox but it’s also a significantly smaller stadium than Pittodrie or Easter Road. Over time the lower teams who joined the SPFL would have scope to grow both on the field and from an infrastructure perspective. At one point we had the ridiculous rule that teams couldn’t join the SPFL or SPL as it was known, without having a 10k capacity stadium. We rightly ditched that rule as it was pointless and bought no value to the game. We should encourage clubs to upgrade as needed and being in the top flight would likely attract more followers, creating a demand for expansion, ultimately generating more income for these clubs. On the pitch teams could also attract better players being a top flight club, unlike being a mid table Championship club.
Arbroath’ Gayfield Park
Some people will argue against a 20 team league and although 20 keeps it easy there is definitely scope for some middle ground. A 16 team league with teams playing each other twice, then heading into a split would be an option, although that would require still playing a disparate number of home and away games. To be honest there are lots of formats available that would add competition and variety to the schedule.
As I mentioned Sky are definitely one blocker to change but there are others also. Doncaster is comfortable with the current setup and previous experience suggests he would need to hire consultants to effect substantial change. There is also the question of how the member clubs would vote and if they could all settle on one format.
Although there are a lot of challenges to overcome before change can happen this shouldn’t prevent the league body from trying to implement it. The fact is the Scottish League has become stale and fans, perhaps now more than ever, are crying out for change to make the league better. If the league wont push for it, then the clubs should for the benefit of their fans and the potential to generate more income, via a more competitive league.
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