OLD Abe Lincoln was a canny sort, who never said a truer word than when he went on about fooling some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time. His thoughts have much resonance for Scottish football today.
It might not be possible to save the SPL as it is currently set-up, so long as the Bigot Brothers stand together; and why shouldn't they, it hasn't harmed them this far, they control things: since the other ten are so scared of their financial muscle and their fan base they will never stand up to them properly.
Ditto the SFA, where the senior clubs hold all the aces and most of the council places, leaving the others to exist on what crumbs are tossed to them.
The SFL is also currently beyond help. Here the name of the game is survival, see my thoughts on the SFA above.
This week the SFL's somewhat tarnished jewel, the League Cup, or the Co-operative Insurance Cup, as I think it is currently called, will be the midweek focal point.
When the SPL was formed, the League Cup lost one of its reasons for existing, the fact it offered a European place to the winner. It's always been the runto of Scottish football's trophy litter and that action didn't help its credibility any.
However, I believe, if the SFL was to show some Mitres, it could become a great competition again, and one which worked well for the clubs who run it - the 30 "Senior" clubs outwith the SPL.
As things stand an SPL team will win it, probably either Billy or Tim Bigot and his mates, because they've got the best, usually non-Scots players.
However, since the League Cup doesn't carry European qualifying kudos, it could be designated a "development" tournament, which would I believe exempt it from any European competition laws. Therefore, if the SFL, who run it after all, were to say that in future years this would be a competition in which the clubs HAD to field only players who were Scottish-qualified, it would be a better competition.
Immediately the playing field would level out. The big two would have to give more of their young Scots a run in the team; those foreign mercenaries who make such a difference to the other SPL teams would have to sit in the stand and immediately, the SFL First Division clubs, whose squads are more-Scottish than those in the league above, would surely fancy their chances of winning.
You make a fading force a force for good, in that our home-grown talent has a stage on which to shine and in the long run this has to be good for Scottish football.
I feel it's worth a try. After all, it's a trophy worth winning.
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