Scottish Football 2012 - 2013 Season

[Diable Rouge]

Scottish Football 2012 - 2013 Season

Premier - Celtic
First - Dunfermline
Second - Alloa
Third - Rangers

Scottish Cup - Hearts
League Cup - Motherwell

[AFC42]

Scottish Football 2012 - 2013 Season

Tee Rex,

The plastic pitches are a survival option for most of the clubs that have them, as they generate income on non-match days.

Compared to the sucking bogs that pass for pitches between November and March they are often a big improvement.

Quite a bit of discussion of them over on last year's thread.

[CY_Boaby]

Scottish Football 2012 - 2013 Season

My tips for season 2012-2013:

SPL: Celtic
1st: Partick Thistle
2nd: Brechin
3rd: Annan

Scottish Cup: St Mirren
League Cup: Celtic

[Paul S]

Scottish Football 2012 - 2013 Season

You're predicting Annan for the thirds division just to wind people up then CY?

[Etienne]

Scottish Football 2012 - 2013 Season

If the SFA does put a transfer embargo on Sevco then they can't be assumed to be automatic winners of Division 3.

[Janik]

Scottish Football 2012 - 2013 Season

It's a big enough assumption that Rangers will complete their fixtures in Division 3...

One suspects that if Rangers do struggle a bit, it would come in the initial weeks of the season as they piece a team together. By the New Year, if the club is still going, their team will be much stronger and winning comfortably every week.
However, there often seems to be a runaway winner in this Division, and if one of the other nine clubs is in that position this year, they might build a large enough lead over Rangers in the early part of the season to prevent themselves being caught.

[blameless]

Scottish Football 2012 - 2013 Season

Much though I'd love to see Thistle win D1, our squad is far too thin for that to happen this year. Another mid-table year for us, I reckon.

Anyhoo:

One horse race: Celtic
Relegated: Dundee
D1 champs: Hamilton
D1 relegation playoff: Morton
Relegated: Airdrie
D2 champs: Alloa
Playoffs: Ayr, QotS, Brechin
D2 relegation playoffs: Stranraer
Relegated: East Fife
D3: Rangers (although if the scenario Janik describes above comes to pass, then Peterhead)
Playoffs: Sevco/Peterheid, Annan, Clyde
Wooden spoon: East Stirling

Ramsdens Cup: Falkirk
League Cup: Hearts
Scottish Cup: Dundee United

[Paul S]

Scottish Football 2012 - 2013 Season

How are East Stirlingshire still in the Scottish League when they finish bottom so often?

[Etienne]

Scottish Football 2012 - 2013 Season

Because there's no pyramid?

[Deus Ex Machina]

Scottish Football 2012 - 2013 Season

Well, I'm going to blindly back Dunfermline to win D1, especially now that Dundee have been promoted.

I'd guess that most Dunfermline fans are happy to be in D1 anyway, playing Falkirk and Raith and not playing Dundee is a lot better than watching crushing defeat after crushing defeat up in the SPL.

[RobM]

Scottish Football 2012 - 2013 Season

Etienne wrote: Because there's no pyramid?

Exactly that. No promotion or relegation to/from SFL. The only way in is through expansion or implosion at a club like Gretna.

[Paul S]

Scottish Football 2012 - 2013 Season

What are the chances of Rangers even starting the new season?

[RobM]

Scottish Football 2012 - 2013 Season

From what I can see there's only one new team in the non-league game this year.

Burntisland Shipyard are moving from the amateur game in to the East Of Scotland 2nd division. Played in the Scottish Cup for years but this'll be their first step out of the amateur leagues. Nice wee history here -

http://burntislandshipyard.co.uk/club-history/

[Belhaven]

Scottish Football 2012 - 2013 Season

Any chance of a Partick Thistle preview from either Blameless or Chippy (or any otther Thistle fan on here I may have missed)? I get to go and see them about once a year, and based on evidence from the last two seasons they have improved considerably, although they are maybe still some distance off promotion (and financial security).

[CY_Boaby]

Scottish Football 2012 - 2013 Season

Paul S wrote: You're predicting Annan for the thirds division just to wind people up then CY?

I didn't realise Annan were so disliked by their contemporaries.

If you mean I should have tipped the new Rangers (and I could be mis-interpreting your comment), I'm not convinced at all with them as they don't have a team at present. Lee McCulloch says he'll stay, but I can see his commitment echoing that of Sol Campbell at Notts County. He lasted 3 or 4 games, but once the reality set in that his team-mates were nowhere near the level he was used to playing alongside, he was off like a shot.

I wouldn't be surprised if Div.3 was thrown into turmoil on the eve of the new season as the new Rangers decide to take a year out. I hope it doesn't happen, but until we actually see them competing there, I'm still a bit sceptical.

[StephL]

Scottish Football 2012 - 2013 Season

Re East Stirlingshire - I remember a few years ago that they had to avoid last place (which would have been the 5th time in succession) otherwise they would have been thrown out of the league. Did I dream that or is correct?

[Janik]

Scottish Football 2012 - 2013 Season

Wikiepdia he say "There is no direct relegation from the Scottish Third Division but since the 2005–06 season if a club finishes bottom for three successive seasons then they will have their full membership of the SFL suspended. The club will then play the next two seasons as a non-voting associate member after which the full members shall vote on the fate of the suspended club."

I suspect that a club who doesn't finish bottom in one of it's two seasons as an associate member can be fairly certain of remaining in the league, whilst a club that is essentially on notice and still finishes bottom in both of those seasons would be in a much more precarious situation.

[oscar mike]

Scottish Football 2012 - 2013 Season

Paul S wrote: What are the chances of Rangers even starting the new season?

Getting slimmer

[Janik]

Scottish Football 2012 - 2013 Season

Brillant having your cake and eating it logic from the SPL regarding the TV rights for Rangers games in SFL 3. By their own decision Rangers are no longer part of their league, and yet they still want to benefit from any games Rangers may play. Huh.

Again, the SPL are in a position of no strength. The TV rights for Rangers games are probably worth more than the £2million they are threatening to withhold (possibly illegally), and if they block Rangers being a member of the SFA then Rangers don't play and the SPL is still without Rangers games for their broadcasters. The SFL has done very well in calling the SPL's bluff so far, this is another chance. In fact, the SFL can look back on the Div 1/Div 3 vote as key evidence that calling these bluffs is paramount; Div 3 playing with 9 teams if Rangers cannot take their place would be bad. Div 1 playing with 9 teams would have been much worse.

It's quite funny that the transfer embargo seems the least of the issues now. The court case that got it overturned seems like a brilliant use of everyones (limited) resources, doesn't it?

[Etienne]

Scottish Football 2012 - 2013 Season

Could the SFL get Spartans (or someone else) in if Rangers aren't granted an SFA licence? I guess that would leave the question of how they'd get Rangers in the next year...

[Janik]

Scottish Football 2012 - 2013 Season

Too short notice one would guess, unless the first few weeks fixtures are postponed.
Regarding Rangers coming back in next summer, there will surely be a re-structuring of leagues, which may well create a number of spots (16, 16, 16 sounds best to me, but I doubt there are 6 more clubs who would be ready to compete). However, if Rangers don't play in SFL 3 this year, the spectre of SPL 2 raises it's ugly head again, because we now know that entry above the bottom level of the SFL is not something the clubs will except (rightly) and that would mean another year before Rangers return to the top flight.

[CY_Boaby]

Scottish Football 2012 - 2013 Season

Were there other clubs other than Sevco seeking election to the SFL (Spartans maybe)? If so, the decision of the SFL clubs to allow Sevco to queue jump may have been very short-sighted. The season's a week away and it's still utter chaos.

If the SFL have to postpone the first few weeks of fixtures involving Sevco, then all it proves is that they shouldn't have been admitted in the first place.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Scottish Football 2012 - 2013 Season

Could they even drop the side contract investigation even if they wanted to? I'm sure that the inland revenue are going to be very interested in that. I see that ally still hasn't figured out that they didn't get relegated as a punishment. They were relegated because they went out of business.

They still haven't been punished for their cheating yet.

[Janik]

Scottish Football 2012 - 2013 Season

I wouldn't blame the SFL for this. This is a mess not of their making and dropped into their lap.
Clyde did make the explicit point that the timescales and information provided were inadequate to properly deal with the situation. People at the SFA predicting 'civil disorder' if Rangers were not to play this coming season hardly helped matters.

[NHH]

Scottish Football 2012 - 2013 Season

What's amazing is that the deal for Sevco was done nearly two months ago, following lots of back and forths. All of the contractual shit should surely have been nailed then, in terms of what precisely Sevco would provide by way of an application to join a league?