Change coming for the SPL

[grizzlyg]

3 minutes ago, weeyin said:

I've seen Arbroath beat us more than once when we were supposedly the superior side.

Are you MJC....Are you MJ.................sorry folks 🤣🤣

[ropy]

1 hour ago, texanwellfan said:

Ok so the two lower leagues would play 3 times and then a split for 5 single games, same as the top league does now? 

Yes, that would be the thinking, but it’s only an option.  We would need to be confident of 18 strong teams and that the second league wasn’t too weak.

[joewarkfanclub]

The biggest problem with any change of league structure is the tv deal. Sky want 4 × The Rangers v Celtic games a season, end of.

We can advocate for bigger leagues and we all know it would help youth development and reduce the issues that come with familiarity, but if Sky say no, and no one else will pay, its dead in the water.

[Happy Dosser]

1 hour ago, weeyin said:

I've seen Arbroath beat us more than once when we were supposedly the superior side.

Yes, they have smoked us a couple of times in my experience........

Sorry, I'll leave the building.

[weeyin]

21 minutes ago, Happy Dosser said:

Yes, they have smoked us a couple of times in my experience........

Sorry, I'll leave the building.

[Happy Dosser]

13 minutes ago, weeyin said:

We’ll  both get into trouble from the site Puritans……..

[well_said]

1 hour ago, joewarkfanclub said:

The biggest problem with any change of league structure is the tv deal. Sky want 4 × The Rangers v Celtic games a season, end of.

We can advocate for bigger leagues and we all know it would help youth development and reduce the issues that come with familiarity, but if Sky say no, and no one else will pay, its dead in the water.

They can have 38 if they want . We dont need them.

[El Grew]

The genesis of the current top league set-up was season 1975/76 with a 10-club Premier Division where clubs played one another 4 times giving a 36 game league season. Prior to this, the top league (1st Division) had 18 clubs that played each other twice, giving a 34 game league season.

I’m pretty sure that under the 18-club 1st Division, the away club got a percentage share of the home club’s gate receipts, but under the 10-club Premier Division this was scrapped and the home club was allowed to retain all its gate receipts and I believe this is still true today. I don’t know if it make any difference or whether it would be acceptable, but maybe if this was re-introduced it would provide clubs outwith the OF with a bigger source of income.

[Kmcalpin]

9 minutes ago, El Grew said:

I’m pretty sure that under the 18-club 1st Division, the away club got a percentage share of the home club’s gate receipts, but under the 10-club Premier Division this was scrapped and the home club was allowed to retain all its gate receipts and I believe this is still true today. I don’t know if it make any difference or whether it would be acceptable, but maybe if this was re-introduced it would provide clubs outwith the OF with a bigger source of income.

Thats correct. The OF were prime movers in getting that arrangement binned. 

[David]

On 9/4/2026 at 4:12 PM, joewarkfanclub said:

The biggest problem with any change of league structure is the tv deal. Sky want 4 × The Rangers v Celtic games a season, end of.

There's also a few other aspects that those in favour of the status quo can point to I think, such as attendances being as high, or higher than they have been in years, the excitement of the split/playoffs seeming to have captured the imagination of fans, and the fact there's very little by way of "dead rubber" games at the end of a season. 

If we're being completely honest, there's probably less evidence that a larger league is the answer than there has been in quite a while I'd think.

[santheman]

Being no fan of having to watch us play the same teams 4 times a season my initial reaction is yes in theory a bigger league would hopefully lead to more variety and opportunities to visit grounds I haven't been to in years.

However the reality is I would have to accept that with the money being more widely distributed  the quality of player we would be able to afford to sign would surely diminish and we would become just another Ayr Utd Raith Rovers etc etc and create an even bigger gap to the OF.

Question is whether that's a price worth paying for the good of Scottish football as a whole.

I rather like where we are just now and I'm not sure I would support any major changes that would lessen our position  as I'm a selfish b*****d.

[thewelllfan]

2 hours ago, santheman said:

Being no fan of having to watch us play the same teams 4 times a season my initial reaction is yes in theory a bigger league would hopefully lead to more variety and opportunities to visit grounds I haven't been to in years.

However the reality is I would have to accept that with the money being more widely distributed  the quality of player we would be able to afford to sign would surely diminish and we would become just another Ayr Utd Raith Rovers etc etc and create an even bigger gap to the OF.

Question is whether that's a price worth paying for the good of Scottish football as a whole.

I rather like where we are just now and I'm not sure I would support any major changes that would lessen our position  as I'm a selfish b*****d.

I think this is why it would never happen because why would we risk where we are but you see with Norway, Sweden, Belgium. The standard of player in those countries is improving because they are getting more homegrown players playing in the top league. We stunt a lot of our potential talent in this country because they aren't being trusted at a young age due to the 'risk' of relegation. You've even seen it this year with us that because our young players went out and played really badly against Stenny they aren't good enough for the level. Now that may be the case but has Luca Ross, Mikey Booth, Olly Whyte even Matty Connolly to an extent been broadly okay when they have played in the league games for us I would say the answer to that is probably yes. Us and St Mirren are currently benefitting from it from even other clubs in our league being unable to give proper game time to their youth players with Lowry and Nsio who have been 2 standouts so far this season but couldn''t get a look in at Rangers. Wilson at Hearts was sent to Spurs because McIness didn't fancy him. I think if you open the league up more you'd realistically see it stay the same or maybe even slightly improve. If we're also desperate for a Split the Belgian League Format they had up to last season with a 16 team league is probably the most plausible but it does make it a 40 game season

[weeyin]

11 hours ago, David said:

If we're being completely honest, there's probably less evidence that a larger league is the answer than there has been in quite a while I'd think.

That's quite possibly because nobody has looked for it, asm the OF in particular, don't want to ask the question "what is the best way to make Scottish football more competitive and distribute income in a more equitable manner?"

[David]

2 hours ago, weeyin said:

That's quite possibly because nobody has looked for it, asm the OF in particular, don't want to ask the question "what is the best way to make Scottish football more competitive and distribute income in a more equitable manner?"

Why would the Old Firm, or any other club for that matter (including us), want to ask those questions? Does any business really want to distribute income more equitably?