Inverness Caley refused promotion

[Cain]

http://www.football365.com/news/story_112065.shtml

Voting people in to the top flight? well THAT's a fair way of doing things.

[hr]I will diminish, and go into fourth year, and remain Cain

[alloa fan]

I know. As if the SPL isn't stagnant enough we have to put up with shite like Partick again next season. Would've been great to see Caley in the Premier League, although a 200 mile trip to home games is a little silly...

[hr]C'mon the wasps

[amac]

Its ridiculous. All it ends up doing is making the league less competitve since you keep the crap teams and don't let in the good ones. Theres almost no incentive for those outside the top 4. Most clubs in the league can't fill the stadium to the capacity required to enter the league anyway.

Sadly, I can't see it changing soon either because the small clubs in the SPL aren't going to risk relegation and the loss of revenue, so people will always vote against it.

[hr]Look left! >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> I said left you retard

[niall]

Inverness should've come up, they had a much sounder plan than falkirk, plus i dont particularly like plastic whistle...

come ye well!

[hr]do you have a tastyspoon?

http://www.tastyspoon.com/forum

IMAGE:www.danasoft.com/vipersig.jpg

[Zombie Sheep]

At least they have reduced the requirement from a 10,000 all seater stadium to a 6,000 one. Maybe Caley will get up next year. It is an absolute joke when teams can simply not be relegated like this. I'm beginning to see why some people view the SPL the way they do.

[hr]http://www.savetheworld.co.uk - help stuff, win stuff.

[Iain]

Well I'm a Ross County fan and I'm going to resist the temptation to roll around laughing at this. It's a crying shame, Caley deserve to be in the SPL for what they have done. We're in for another season of Partick Thistle being able to buy no decent players and them finishing miserably at the bottom of the league again. Caley would be far more competitive and that's good for Scottish football.

[niall]

it'll be interesting to see how both caley and plastic whistle do, as this season falkirk havent done so well and motherwell have excelled themselves

[hr]do you have a tastyspoon?

http://www.tastyspoon.com/forum

IMAGE:www.danasoft.com/vipersig.jpg

[penfold]

The whole situation is uterly disgracefull. For this situation to arise twice in two seasons is unforgivable. The SFA should have more control over the SPL, as to the rest of the world the scottish league is now a laughing stock. The whole purpose of creating the SPL was create more choice and give the smaller teams more encouragment to play better football with the reward that they would get more money to develop. The reverse has occured and there is no insentive for the smaller club to play better and harvest a batter quality of young players.

[amac]

[s]niall wrote on 17:48, 1st Jun 2004:
it'll be interesting to see how both caley and plastic whistle do, as this season falkirk havent done so well and motherwell have excelled themselves :D

To be honest i think Partick will do as badly next season. Motherwell last season clearly had a lot of potential, and if they managed to use it then they would have a chance. Partick don't have that promise, and they don't seem to have any good youngsters coming through.

In terms of Caley Thistle it might be a blessing in disguise. They're plans for playing at Pittodrie looked like running them into the ground.

[hr]Look left! >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> I said left you retard

[niall]

motherwell will do ok if the SFA aranges their youth internationals midweek instead of weekends!



[hr]do you have a tastyspoon?

http://www.tastyspoon.com/forum

IMAGE:www.danasoft.com/vipersig.jpg

[Guest]

....who cares?

[penfold]

Motherwell will still be under acheivers, like most of the people who live there. The inhabitants of the town have devided loyalty in that hey support celtic or rangers. Even when charging less than 5 pounds a game there was only a marginal increase in supporter numbers. Untill there fan base is improved motherwell will still be a hit and miss team.

[niall]

i agree on the supporting rangers or celtic, its annoying to see bus loads of people leaving the town every saturday to go watch the mould firm.. tho when John Boyle did "kids for a quid" back in 98/99 the crowds did go up by quite a bit. enough that Motherwell fans were occupying 3 and a half stands...


edit: forgot to say, although motherwell has an SPL team, it is infact one of the smaller towns in Lanarkshire. Hamilton, Airdrie, even Wishaw have larger populations

[hr]do you have a tastyspoon?

http://www.tastyspoon.com/forum

IMAGE:www.danasoft.com/vipersig.jpg

[mossop]

[s]niall wrote on 23:24, 1st Jun 2004:
i agree on the supporting rangers or celtic, its annoying to see bus loads of people leaving the town every saturday to go watch the mould firm..

Aye, that winds me up something rotten. People leaving from up here to go down to glasgow every week. Support your local team!

OFGTF!

As for the Caley issue. What a fecking disgrace! I feel so sorry for the supporters of the team, even though I am an Elgin supporter and we're supposed to hate them...

[RaphX]

It's been happening for several years now - Aberdeen got off without relegation a few years back, I think Motherwell did at some point as well.

The SPL isn't going anywhere until it sorts out issues like this. The idea of a 16-team top league has been courted for a long time, but that won't happen while the league expects from every club what they get from Rangers and Celtic. In fact, teams that try to give the same as the top two are getting themselves in all sorts of financial trouble.

[Zombie Sheep]

[s]mossop wrote on 13:13, 2nd Jun 2004:
i agree on the supporting rangers or celtic, its annoying to see bus loads of people leaving the town every saturday to go watch the mould firm..

Aye, that winds me up something rotten. People leaving from up here to go down to glasgow every week. Support your local team!


I support rangers, and I occassionally go through to see them play. However, I also support my local team, Forfar, and I go there much more often than I do to Ibrox. I really don't see the problem with supporting one of the old firm, and I would suggest that most Scottish football fans would have a preference for either Rangers or Celtic.

[hr]
http://www.savetheworld.co.uk - help stuff, win stuff.

[mossop]

[s]Zombie Sheep wrote on 18:28, 2nd Jun 2004:
I support rangers, and I occassionally go through to see them play. However, I also support my local team, Forfar, and I go there much more often than I do to Ibrox. I really don't see the problem with supporting one of the old firm, and I would suggest that most Scottish football fans would have a preference for either Rangers or Celtic.

Real scottish football fans would not support the old bore.

[hr]
http://www.geocities.com/mossop_2002

Drunken photos, and not so drunken photos

[alloa fan]

Damn right. We get 700 fans at a home game when thousands are off to Glasgow. More people should support Alloa!

[hr]C'mon the wasps

[penfold]

Despite having been born in the shadow of fir park I feel no reason to support a team that for the majority of my life have played very poor football. Before Niall jumps in with them winnig the cup in the very early ninties that proved to be only a storm in a tea cup. celtic have always been a great attraction to me.

[A slightly offended Harry Wragg]

In defense of all things red and yellow...yup, point taken that the Maryhill Magayrs were shockingly, appallingly, disgustingly, depressingly poor this season. As a PTFC fan (am I the only one in St Andrews???), though, I wish to make at least a token defense of the lads.

In answer to the criticsm that we don't have any young players coming through, have you not seen Adam Strachan play? He lit up the last few games of the season, when he broke into the first team. Also, watch out for Willie Howie (who recovered from a life-threatening beating to claim a place in the first team squad), Adrian Madaschi (off to the Olympics with Australia) and Andy Ross (captain of Chelsea reserves til last season).

Secondly, no, I agree with you all that we didn't deserve to stay up, in footballing terms. Despite that, though, all Thistle demanded was that the SPL play by their own rules - they were not, contrary to popular belief behaving like petty two-year-olds who didn't win musical chairs at their own birthday party. I would not have begrudged ICT being promoted on footballing terms, but teams have been aware of the (admitedly unfair) regulations for entry for a LONG TIME.

Those who have made no effort to meet the criteria whilst putting themselves in administration buying players beyond their means and complaining that the world is out to get them do rile me somewhat. I do not for a minute suggest that ICT are in this boat - I really like Caley, and have a huge admiration for how far they have come in their short lifespan. I am friends with many a Caley fan. But if the SPL hold to their criteria for joining in one instance (for example both of the last two seasons - Partick Thistle and then Falkirk), then it must hold in other instances too ... this is the essence of Trading Standards laws as I understand them.

Thistle met the same criteria a couple of seasons ago. Aware of the deadlines they'd been given, they went off, made some financial budgeting, sold some land, capped some wages and did what they were asked. We complained, but we didn't just sit and whinge....

Thistle are one of the few British clubs even close to making money year-to-year. If football wants to be run as a business, it should be run as a business - no other business would be allowed to financially mismanage themselves the way many football clubs do. Case in point: end of season 2002/2003, Motherwell (reported at the time to be on the brink of Administration and unable to pay existing players' wages) are allowed to buy TWO players from Thistle - our top scorer (Alex Burns) and our only international (Stephen Craigon), offering to pay them twice as much (or more) as PTFC would.

I know we were shocking this season, but we are victim of the same cause as ICT, as Falkirk, as any other team whinging about unfair criteria, just from a different angle.

Oh, and you want to talk about unfair...we had to endure a few months with Gerry Collins as manager! At least Thistle fans know how to have a laugh. I wouldn't mind so much being in the first division next season (we deserve to be there in footballing terms, if not on the terms of the SPL) - at least the away trips are to nicer places !