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Date: 31st May 2024
(Photo:@Homesoffootball)
Trust.
(And the SPFL have shown this week they don’t merit any).
And for now, that’s that.
But hoping for an 11th hour U Turn our attention has shifted to the SFA who could step in on behalf of their members and sort it out.
Fight for what’s right and all that.
But don’t hold your breath.
I’d bet they won’t.
When did they really care about the wee guys?
Introducing
The SPFL ‘Lack of Trust’ Trophy 2024-25
At least one outrageous decision was made on the 6th floor this week.
It was about the teams invited by the SPFL to play in their ‘unsponsored’ diddy cup competition, the one for the members and teams they don’t care so much about.
But this year it has nearly £790,000 in prize money.
The detailed format for the ‘SPFL Trust Trophy’ and invitations to play were press released and sent out and the first thing I knew about them was the sound of ‘Righteous Anger’ from Tranent, Cumbernauld, Civil Service Strollers, and Linlithgow Rose – the Lowland League sides who were somehow cynically omitted by Neil and Co in favour of a blatant wee financial present to 4 of the SPFL management’s old pals, none of whom would have qualified by sporting merit, i.e. league position.
And the 11 premier league sides got an invite too for their kids teams.
(A similar 6th floor move happened last year when Cowdenbeath inexplicably got a non-constitutional non-justifiable, knee-up and the resultant, welcome and unexpected revenues by being ‘beamed up’ and playing in the equally ‘unsponsored’ Scottish League Cup).
So unfair and some think corrupt.
It’s important to know that in 2024-25 Neil’s SPFL ‘Lack of Trust’ Trophy has changed its format.
The plan is there will be no ‘foreign’ teams this year. Accordingly some well-paid bright spark on the 6th floor has come up with a new and very detailed plan.
I don’t know how but I’d guess in the absence of constitutional criteria determining fairness for a revised trophy the SPFL have been fair in the Highland League and allocated on merit, but in the south have blatantly just looked after their old pals at Berwick, Albion, East Stirling and Cowdenbeath.
I have nothing against any of these clubs.
That’s not what this is about.
This is about the SPFL treatment to hugely aspirational pyramid clubs.
The SPFL have eschewed sporting merit and simply chosen their old pals as more deserving of the invite.
Quite a blatant GTF to aspirant clubs.
And to make matters worse we have 11 Premier club’s ‘B Teams’ taking the place of what could have been 11 more aspirant community clubs.
A further slap in the face for the lower end of the SPFL/SFA pyramid.
It’s not even a grey area that could be debated.
We should have a proper reserve league like we had when our teams were full of Scottish youngsters and we did well in Europe.
It’s All Quite outrageous.
And Quite Wrong
And not nearly enough media attention has been paid to our rogue organisation just doing what it wants, like it always has.
Maybe the media know too much attention will backfire against them when they need wee exclusives.
If you’ve been on the moon, in short here’s how the new ‘Lack of Trust Trophy’ format works.
First the SPFL’s Entrants List.
– 11 ’B/Colts’ sides from SPFL Premier League sides.
– The top 5 ranked teams in last year’s Highland League
– 6 sides ‘selected’ by the `SPFL’ from the Lowland League
– 30 SPFL clubs
The Early Format
Round 1 July 30/31
11 B Teams, v 5 Highland, 6 Lowland, seeded and regionalised to keep all B teams apart.
£5K paid to each club.
Round 2 August 13/14
The eleven 1st round winners plus clubs 4th – 10th in SPFL 2.
Regionalised but not seeded and £10K prize money to each club.
Round 3 September 7/8 all clubs, and unseeded and open from then on till someone wins.
Here’s Some of What SPFL aspirant and SFA Member and Bronze Badge Holder, Cumbernauld had to say about it all
“The SPFL invites brings into question sporting integrity for the SPFL and raises concerns with financial fair play with certain clubs financially rewarded without any sporting merit.
The SPFL has chosen to invite 4 Lowland League sides who were SPFL members none of whom has a bronze licence.
We call on the Scottish FA to lead and intervene for the good of the game in this country”.
I’d personally agree with everything Cumbernauld say.
But I also know that nothing gets done at the SPFL without Calum or Neil signing it off and I wish our press had been all over this one.
So many unasked and unanswered questions to the SPFL.
There are Also Questions for Ian Maxwell and the SFA
First. on the B Teams
Why do the SFA accept that B Teams can be classed the same and at the expense of bona fide SFA members?
It is a nonsense that on some days two teams from the same club will compete in SPFL competition.
Next. on the Choice Methods from the Lowland League
Why are your members in the north treated on merit but in the south Tranent, Cumbernauld, Strollers and Linlithgow are being overlooked and replaced by other members further down the pyramid?
Why did you accept this situation?
(I hope I’m wrong but I don’t think either question will be addressed).
Scottish football is the recipient of significant monies from both Holyrood and Westminster yet behaves as if it can be a law to itself.
Really unacceptable behaviour.
Another reason why Scottish Football needs external regulation.
A disgraceful way to treat clubs.
Andy’s Sting in the Tale
1. ICT U-Turn Inevitable, But What Happens Next?
2. No Fans at G44 4QG Postcode and How Did the Intruder Intrude?
3. Brian Martin does a Bjorge Lillielien
4. Thirteen Sleeps
5. James Slings His Hook
1. Right Sizing, Honesty and Transparency
ICT has had better weeks but it looks like a U turn might stop the proposed Kelty split-club training nonsense but listening to Ross Morrison the current ICT Chairman on the ‘Wyness Shuffle’ podcast didn’t reassure me that they have a plan other than see what happens and hope for the best.
In fact it was disturbing.
It’s two open secrets that the club have never really got the city behind them and never had a firm business plan.
History shows they have a track record of spending every last brass razoo they have and a lot they just hoped to have, to have to climb to the highest point they can reach.
This has led to several historical cash crises and another one is about to hit.
So where are we now?
First here are some of the chairman’s words from ‘Wyness’.
“We signed an agreement at Kelty. It’s a done deal but you can get out of done deals.
The problem for now is where do we get the money that we’d have saved with the move to Kelty?
There is an opportunity for someone to come up with the thick end of the £400K we think we’d have saved; I don’t see where that might come from.
Yes the club has lost money and the directors are out of pocket. We are looking for new ‘investors’.
Looking for Investors!
First a word on ‘Investment’ in football and then some patronising advice to my club.
Investment
When Ross Morrison uses the word ‘investment’ he means ‘expenditure with no return’.
A financial gift to the club.
That is not ‘investment’ Ross.
He is not alone in football for confusing and abusing the ‘investment’ word.
Patronising Advice to ICT from Andy
Cut the costs especially at the top and run a break-even rigid plan while getting back to your roots.
Engage fully with the community and make it the heart of what you do.
Everything.
Build the club on local talent.
Eat humble pie in the lower levels till the club resets.
Don’t believe you are ‘entitled’ to anything.
And well done Alan Savage and the Orion Group for sponsoring and shoring up the ICT academy.
2. Do The SFA Have a View?
Tonight and again next week our women play Israel behind closed doors.
Although tonight we had one outsider who held the game up chained to the goalposts.
Then it’s Hungary on Tuesday also behind closed doors.
Uefa have ‘bottled’ discussing Israel and its continued participation let alone doing anything about it, so in the absence of that we’re just fulfilling a couple of ties.
It’s not a good situation for either team.
A good crowd in and outside Hampden would have voiced both support and disagreement.
Sport and politics are hopelessly intertwined because sport can really bring changes.
It did in South Africa.
And Russia is hurting right now and wants to be at both the Olympics and Euros, hence the huge lobbying to both organisations.
Any ‘football’ ban would also really register with the Israel people.
Finally, I am not alone in having no idea what the SFA think about any of this stuff because it all stays behind closed doors.
It shouldn’t.
And tonight’s intruder will rightly ask a few more questions at all levels.
3. A ‘Whirlies Roundabout Tirade’ to Make You Smile Out Loud
After two tight games and extra time in the last, Stranraer scored 2 late goals and kept their SPFL 2 status, just.
Kilby are consigned back to the Lowland League for now.
Alan Soutar, Stranraer’s on-site match commentator knew how big the result was for the club and here is how he called it is an emotional summation after the final whistle.
“ Stranraer stay in League 2,
Stranraer stay in League 2
John Hannah, Muriel Gray, Ally McCoist, Lorraine Kelly, Whirlies Roundabout, Kirsty Young, your boys took a hell of a beating.”
Thanks Alan, worth a wee listen and the original is still very funny too.
Highlights | Stranraer 3-1 East Kilbride, 18 May 2024 (youtube.com)
Norway 2 England 1 1981 Commentary (youtube.com)
4. Free Feedback from Silverburn
The JD Sports shop in Silverburn is maybe Scotland’s busiest sports shop and is a beautifully set out flagship store.
At the front door it currently has an impactful display of our new super-duper Scotland Euros tops.
It is all merchandised in a prime position with adult sizes a bargain at £75 and just £50 for kids including shorts.
Anyway, it was last Monday holiday and I had time to kill with a takeaway black Americano while Mrs Smith was supervising our youngster for the day in a soft-play session along the mall.
In the 15 minutes I was allowed, I watched like a mystery shopper and saw 5 different families and groups/ individuals attracted to the impressive display.
Most looked at the garments, fingered them feeling the fabric and put them back.
One father and son bought one each after a discussion first with themselves and then with one of the staff about whether the price might drop as the 14th approaches.
The salesperson shook her head, talked about a likely ‘sell out’ and I smiled.
This offer at JD Spots is a sell-out.
A garment that costs a few dollars to make in a foreign sweat shop selling for £75 officially.
BUT you can buy tops for as little as £3.79 on DH Gate the Ali Baba on line wholesale shopping subsidiary.
The SFA are letting all the kids and parents below the poverty line (25% of our population) down.
The top should be £25.
Everyone, even the poor kids, will then have one.
5. One of Those Decisions
It doesn’t take a genius to have predicted that the moment James Bisgrove was ‘sent’ to Hampden was a crossing the Rubicon moment.
James’s Board-Level mandate to ‘publicly’ complain at Hampden about one particular referee who certain fans can’t countenance because of his birth religion meant the outcome was inevitable.
It is said that James didn’t agree with the mandate/call at the time, and railed against it but it was a ‘do this or move on’ today mandate.
So he did as he was told.
I would have walked away at the time and taken it to a tribunal.
James didn’t and instead did it his way and now having a new berth elsewhere has done the walking on his own time frame.
A collateral casualty direct from his board’s ‘dog whistling’ to appease a section of the support.
Good luck James.
That’s it from me for this week.
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Andy’s Album of the Week
Paul Simon Negotiations and Love Songs
I heard ‘50 Ways to Leave Your Lover ‘on the radio yesterday and it took me back to a car journey in 1976 between Edinburgh and Aberdeen in my pal’s new MGB GT two-seater. (Sporty looking but in reality slower than a Nissan Micra)
It had, for the time, a fine stereo system and he’d just bought Paul Simon’s new album, ‘Still Crazy After All These Years’, on cassette.
It played at least 3 times and I loved it.
‘Negotiations’ is not a normal ‘Best of’ and is more a selection of like-minded stuff of all colours and hues.
Like a real album.
Some of the songs are troubled, some insightful.
Slip Slidin’ Away is masterful and just gets better.
And I can’t hear “You Can Call Me Al’ without seeing Paul’s somewhat larger Avatar, Chevvy Chase in a wonderful self-effacing video.
A great album.
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