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2008 - Shetland Fitba


Bogle
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Now we're nearing the end of the 2007 season and everyone has seen the pros and cons of the current set-up, what are everyones thoughts on the way forward for next year?

 

Will Yell and Burra continue with A's or seek to re-join B's?

 

Will Northern Rovers ever happen?

 

etc, etc?

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As far as I can see there are three options for next season.

 

1) Continue as we are, this means the standard of fitba stays the same and some teams in the 'B' league are actually better than the 'A'. A team like Burra get humped by most and in some cases they take to the field with not enouigh players.

 

2) Like most leagues south (scotland & england) teams are allowed to register only 25 players to select from. They can sign players during the season but must deregister a player who they can not resign. This would enable the better 'reserve players' at Delting & Celtic to join other teams which would raise the standard of the poorer teams and make the league more competitive throughout. The 'B' would be a proper reserve league in which youth team and registered players could play in. The best players in Shetland would be playing on a more regular basis.

 

3) Allow Unst, Burra and Yell to return to the 'B' league and allow them to enter the Madrid Cup (have it as a group) so that they can provide canon fodder for the likes of Ness Utd. Who have the largest catchment in the league and if you look down their ranks have an endless supply of talent.

The 'B' league strongest teams then have more competition.

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Not sure if anybody will know whats happening till the AGM has been, plenty of rumours but no facts,

 

The problem with football in Shetland seems to be there is a glaring gap between the top and bottom teams in all the leagues in Shetland, and because there is no great will by the bodies representing the different leagues it will never change.

 

The dominant teams will in time change but they'll still be tanking the teams at the bottom of their league, until there is a two league system in Shetland with relegation and promotion it will stay that way.

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Not sure if anybody will know whats happening till the AGM has been, plenty of rumours but no facts,

 

The problem with football in Shetland seems to be there is a glaring gap between the top and bottom teams in all the leagues in Shetland, and because there is no great will by the bodies representing the different leagues it will never change.

 

The dominant teams will in time change but they'll still be tanking the teams at the bottom of their league, until there is a two league system in Shetland with relegation and promotion it will stay that way.

 

The problems, issues, and possible solutions will never go away nor will they be fixed, improved on or addapted to help the game move ahead as long as there are three governing bodies running senior mens football in a community of this size. So unless they ALL see the bigger picture we can get use to the same fare and level for the forseable.

 

will never

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I have been busy playing for Chelsea and Germany.

 

However, i am interested to see what people thought of the 2007 season and the suggestions for the 2008 season. I think the proposed Winter League is a good idea for teams to stay fit and give them more competition.

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It was interesting in that the team that everybody thought would struggle if not fold "yell" it seemed to galvanise their resolve and saw them grind out some good results, and teams like burra struggled more than I thought they would.

 

For Ness Utd's part we blew hot and cold getting some good results and then taking some heavy losses when we thought we would have done better.

 

If the structure does remain the same then Ness are hoping to field a B team for next year with work starting towards that end now, also with the advent of a 5-a-side competition starting in October and going on through the winter it hopefully will keep the home based players interest up.

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I have been busy playing for Chelsea and Germany.

 

However, i am interested to see what people thought of the 2007 season and the suggestions for the 2008 season. I think the proposed Winter League is a good idea for teams to stay fit and give them more competition.

 

As far as i can gather uv been busy sitting on ur ass counting ur roubles! :wink:

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I was disapointed with the county shield. I thought the works league teams that entered would've done better but it seemed to be a bit of a shambles. It looks like the gap is too large at the moment to incorporate 2 divisions with promotion & relegation.

But i agree that should be the long term aim. Although i don't personally like the idea, does anyone favour the league split as used by the SPL as a future format for the Shetland league.

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My last comment may not have been too clear. I think the 2 division idea could work however, it doesn't look like promotion and relegation part would work. For instance Burra are probably the only team that should drop down to the Works League. By the looks o it even Yell, Ness Utd and Unst would run away with that league. So i don't think it would benefit anyone if these sides were to drop down, win at a canter, and come straight up again. Plus the works league sides probably wouldn't agree to travel to places like Yell or even Burra (as seen in Titans county shield effort at Unst). I think this is the major stumbling block to any sort of interaction between the PL & WL. For me, I would like to see the works league champs Tizers, playing their home games at Brae to try and draw the other sides out of the town. But as with the Parish Cup, people are reluctant to change things that have worked for years rather than take the risk that change could unravell the whole thing (when in fact it could make it better!)

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Ness United intend to stay in the A league and try and form B team for next season.

 

Unst it is hard to say what they will do, I think they maybe will try to enter the B league but I would imagine if they do that they will lose their young talented players to other clubs that will offer them "A" football, while that may seem like saving their club it in the end will just prolong the end of it as they wont be the force they were.

 

Burra rumours have it may enter the works league, but again they will see players drift to clubs that offer a higher standard of competition. They have seen new players come to their club over the past few seasons and at one point they seemed vindicated in their decision to leave the Southern League and seek "B" level football, but the Burra team of this season has struggled, and their inability to field a squad in the Parish Cup this season against Yell was something I wasnt expecting, that maybe due to the standard of players they lost when they stepped up to the "A's", going back to the SL isnt an option for them as that competition looks like it will be run mainly as a way to keep Ness United players interested through-out the winter.

 

Yell im sure after this season will look to stay in the top flight, but will they want to stay in if Burra and Unst drop out or are allowed to enter the B league?

 

It may be a idea to try for a season to have the 2nd division league games to be played in the town? with the cup games to be played around Shetland, but the fear I have is that when the Agm is held the SFA committee and the clubs that pushed for this seasons format, Celtic, Thistle, Spurs, Whalsay, Delting and Scalloway refuse to listen to the clubs that came up and these clubs decide to break away that then will see the decline of the standard of football in Shetland, use all the cliches you want "joined up thinking" "development plans" or any other wishy washy phrase you care to use, but if people in the SFA, SWL and the PCA dont use some common sense and reach an agreed way forward Shetland football will shortly be entering the footballing equivelant of the Dark Ages.

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"Unst it is hard to say what they will do, I think they maybe will try to enter the B league but I would imagine if they do that they will lose their young talented players to other clubs that will offer them A football, while that may seem like saving their club it in the end will just prolong the end of it as they wont be the force they were. "

 

The Unst team is largely made up from "young talented players". Unfortunately for Unst many of them will be missing for the first 6-8 weeks of next season. Senior players like Neil Smith and Andrew Hunter are also likely to miss much of the season. The question is can Unst feild a team for the first part of the season or will they be forced to turn up with 9 like Burra. Only Celtic can perhaps relate to this situation to the degree it will affect Unst but they managed due to the support of a B squad.

 

The decision will ultimately be made by the "Squad" of players in Unst but I personally don't know the awnswer. I can see Unst not fullfilling fixtures next season in the A'League.

 

As for the other sides, only Burra should drop back into the B' League to rebuild if they wish. I hope they don't join the works league but I do remember pointing out that this years set up may cause more players and teams to drop into that division.

 

Finally, when the discussions begin with the SFA (all ready been down the route with the WL etc) all involved should be aware that having 11 teams in one league is not practical. It must be reduced by atleast 1 and perhaps 2 to make A/B League fixtures, Senior County, Junior County and Coaching viable. Many clubs have played, and will play, a good number of "Juniors" who are needed to make up these sides. They end up playing too much football and not enough coaching or recovery time.

 

Lets aim for 9 teams in each league and see who wants to play where.

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So you would say Division One:

Delting, Whalsay, Celtic, Whitedale, Scalloway, Thistle, Spurs, Ness Utd and Unst.

Division Two:

Yell, Burra, Delting B, Celtic B, Whalsay B, Scalloway B, Spurs B, Whitedale B and Ness Utd B

Division Three: Cosmos, Titans, Tizers, Banks, Malakoff, Chernobyl, Services.

It certainly looks a bit more equal but would you introduce promotion/relegation? Because if there isn't a 'definitive rule' on this then we may see Ness or Unst choosingto drop down a division or Yell and Burra choosingnot to come up. Thus creating the same problem we had last year putting everything back to square one!

Plus would Delting B want to play in the same league as their 'A' side? Would it make any sense?

I think if a couple more teams could be encouraged to set up works league sides then it would improve that league as well.

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