SPL: Horse manure not horse placenta

Football loves short-term fixes and fads.

Every so often, a new craze sweeps the football world, promising to have all the answers to the problems within the game. A few months ago, it was the additional refereeing staff behind the goals in Europa League matches.

They didn’t really have an impact there but if they were available in Paris the night Thierry Henry went on a murderous rampage and killed 5,000 Irish people and then football itself, maybe they could have stopped him.

The current fad is all about horse placentas and the supposed magical treatment they offer to injured players.

No real evidence has been given as to their benefits so it is too early to pass judgement but it just sounds a bit silly. Dont get us wrong, if it puts players in a more stable condition, it is great news but travelling to Hungary for this treatements seem a furlong way to go for unproven treatment.

So, we know that football loves short-term fads but it is short-term thinking that has helped to downsize Scottish football.

Scottish football is in a very bad way, from top to bottom.

The breakdown of the Setanta television deal has really scuppered teams and with the exception of three clubs, the SPL sides have only got themselves to blame.

Criticism of Celtic and Rangers for hawking themselves to other leagues is justified as it is embarrassing and some would even say undignified. However, progress and change within the current set up of the Scottish leagues looks dead.

Is there any way top level football in Scotland can be re-structured?

Current Status:
The split does bring end of season excitement, which for the clubs means gate receipts and media interest. It may be unwieldy but the split after three round of fixtures has done what it was intended to do.

However, playing some teams in the league four times a season has to be a turn off, regardless of gate receipts and televised games. If teams knew there was only two opportunities to defeat their closest rivals, there would be less margin for error and a greater intensity from the start of the season.

Switch to a 10 team league:

In short, NO CHANCE.

There is no way a number of teams would vote for 2 relegation places and no promotion from the SFL for one season. Even if this was altered to one definitely going down and then a play-off between the SFL winner and SPL second bottom club, it would not be a popular decision.

The fans may be inclined to see the benefits in it but the people pulling the purse strings would consider there would be too much to risk.

Increase the teams in the SPL:

The top half of the SFL Division 1 is jammed tight with clubs and can anyone say they are of a poorer nature than existing SPL teams?

The evidence of the cup ties between SPL and SFL clubs would suggest not, so on paper, an expansion of the league would increase the variety, reduce the monotonous 4 game per league campaign cycle and freshen things up a bit.

However, it will definitely change the league and could destroy the element of competition for many clubs.

A middle band of SPL clubs would develop, playing each season with no real league hopes or ambitions and perhaps praying for some Cup success. For example, Kilmarnock fans may not currently relish their current plight where relegation battles are becoming the norm but would they prefer a season where nothing matters.

Killie aren’t good enough to be in the top 6 or 8 clubs in Scotland but neither would they be in the bottom 4 to 6 of the poorest teams in a 16 team SPL. It could be argued this would allow Killie more leeway to bring through youngsters, take the pressure off the team and still hope to give Celtic or Rangers a bloody nose once in a while.

Money talks
Fans don’t see it that way though. The cost of going to SPL games is too much to justify for experimentational line-ups or transitional seasons where nothing matters. Equally, Sky or ESPN would not be too enamoured with so much filler either. They can just about cover the dross in the EPL with hype but they would be struggling to promote St Mirren v Partick Thistle in the match that no one really cares about….live on Sky Sports 5a, Sunday 10:30am.

The reason the old Scottish league set-up was switched to the SPL was because of these games and clubs having meaningless matches for half a year. Some would argue that Scottish clubs were highly regarded in Europe back then but they were very different times. Other domestic leagues around the world were of a similar ilk and the standard of Scottish player was much higher then.

Is there a solution?

Maybe that’s just it; maybe it’s the quality of players in Scotland that is dragging the game down as opposed to the set-up. Certainly none of the other options jumps out as the immediate solution, so it looks as though Scottish football will keep tinkering and soldiering on with no real hope of change.

It is this mentality that often leads clubs and organisers to think of quick-fix solutions and fads and if a horse placenta was able to be applied to Scottish football, it would be applied quicker than Barry Ferguson shouting up the rounds in Cameron House.

Scottish football needs time to rebuild, grow and develop, from the grass roots up, so what we need is horse-manure, not horse placenta. And with G Smith and Peat in charge at the top of the game, you would think there would be no shortage of horse manure at Hampden.

For once though, the two stooges appear to be very quiet, funny that.

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