It would be good if there was a secondary Europa League for clubs that get punted out of the preliminary rounds.

As things stand, there's absolutely zero chance of our clubs (Celtic apart) every getting a decent run.

And that's not an indictment on the standard of our game - the Europa League is just tough as fuck.

My mate's a Saintee and he was giving me a run down of some of the clubs that were due to enter into the qualifiers in each round leading up to the Group Stage. Mental.

Look at Aberdeen last year. They did brilliantly, knocking out Dutch teams and everything. Still pumped out by early August. And that constitutes a brilliant season? Why even bother qualifying?

There are loads of good teams all over Europe that aren't getting a look in in continental competition because the group places have all been swallowed up by multiple entrants from the big countries.

A secondary competition with Scottish, Scandinavian, Eastern European sides would be great. I couldn't care less what standard it was perceived as, I'd just love to go on a right good Euro campaign.

No doubt there are fans all over the continent who'd feel the same.

Edmond Dantes wrote:

The Europa league is the 'secondary' competition.

 
And Scottish sides are struggling to get through the qualifiers for it.

At least with trap6's idea they'd get some more experience of playing European sides.

My main doubt would be how the financials would play out.....doubtless EUEFA could up their 'solidarity' (try not to laugh) payments to make it work...

scarpia wrote:

Edmond Dantes wrote:

The Europa league is the 'secondary' competition.

 
And Scottish sides are struggling to get through the qualifiers for it.

At least with trap6's idea they'd get some more experience of playing European sides.

My main doubt would be how the financials would play out.....doubtless EUEFA could up their 'solidarity' (try not to laugh) payments to make it work...

The reason St Johnstone got bummed out last night and Aberdeen won't get to league stages isnn't because we dont play in the summer -it is because the SFA/SPL/SPFL have stood idly by for 30 years and have prioritised everything to make sure only 2 teams make money every year -one of which had to even cheat and don't exist any more - but see the efforts of the aforementioned bodies in trying to get their reincarnation promoted very quickly.
 

I agree. I quite like the freezing cold nights at Tannadice. Gives you something to do during the winter nights. A break from work and you can get a few pints on a school night

I think the only thing that could save Scottish football now is Celtic moving to England, and potentially Sevco when they inevitably get back to the top in a few years.

As ED said, 30 years of mismanagement from those who run Scottish football, and run it for the benefit of the big 2 rather than the other 40, had us fucked, with no sign of improvement.

I think Summer football would be beneficial for us in terms of exposure, sponsorship, attendances and European competition.  It would hopefully offer a better standard of football too, but without getting rid of the Two Cheeks I don't think it would help much in isolation.

Personally would like to see a National top flight of 12 with two regional leagues (north/east and south/west) of 14 playing through the summer.

Champions of both regional leagues come up each year, second and third in each league play off (2nd North v 3rd South, 3rd North v 2nd South) with winners playing off and then winners again in another play off against 3rd bottom of top flight.

You would need a split in order to get enough league games pre playoffs and ideally I'd like the bottom of each regional league to be relegated to Southern and Highland leagues.

Would mean a potential re org of the regional leagues every season depending on who goes up and down but I doubt that would be insurmountable.

But wtf do I know, I'm just a paying punter.