Scotland's Glass Ceiling: Junior Football & the Pyramid
Making his debut in The Away End, Paul Mooney takes a look at Junior football and its place in what may become a new pyramid system.
Junior football is often characterised as living in its own strange little world. It is fair to say the game has been negatively stereotyped by outsiders as a backward institution. Infamous tales of on field battles contested on rutted pitches, roped off from the whisky sodden spectator standing in the overgrown, crumbling terracing. It is important to remember that the creation of the organisation was down to fragmented local associations who kept themselves separate from the SFA. To those bewildered by the concept of two separate associations, it is often described as similar to England’s non league tier.
However, the history and tradition within the Junior game makes it a lot more complicated than that. The Scottish Cup has long been heralded as the most prestigious prize by junior clubs. As professional cup competitions across the UK become devalued by clubs and supporters alike, the allure of the Junior Scottish Cup remains the pinnacle of every player’s career. Perhaps the stubborn nature of this historic institution has in some way preserved the romanticism and value of winning the trophy.
Therefore, the recent turmoil and lack of leadership that has threatened to destroy Senior football in recent weeks, has brought calls for change to revolutionise the ailing game. Unsurprisingly, talk of reconstruction and the introduction of a pyramid system will be met with scepticism and apprehension across the Junior world. Some suggest the top Super League clubs lack ambition, enjoy being big fish in a small pond and rarely apply to become members of the SFL in the modern era. On the other hand, current regulations to become a Senior club prevent just about every Junior side from applying. Financially and on a sporting level, it makes no sense at present for any club to give up the relative success in their own setup, to become lower league mediocrity.
Auchinleck Talbot frightened the life out of eventual Scottish Cup winners Hearts. Photo by Gary McLaughlin
Self interest will ensure that the ‘greater good of the game’ always comes second to the short term benefit of the individual club or association, whether that be the SPL, SFL or SJFA. What has been clear from the past few weeks in the professional game is that the lack of leadership has created uncertainty as the hierarchy attempts to cling to the past. The uprising from supporters must continue to build momentum, to ensure any new reconstruction plans are fair and encourage every club to find its own level.
Not too long ago many Senior football fans sniggered at suggestions that the top Junior sides could compete at the higher levels of the SFL. It is fair to say the progress of clubs given a platform to perform have vastly improved over the past few years. Irvine Meadow would be lucky to keep it to single figures away at Easter Road – before putting up a real fight in a 0-3 defeat. Culter, a side who were knocked out of the 2nd round of the Junior Scottish Cup last season, earned a replay against first division Partick. Finally, Auchinleck Talbot’s tremendous performance at Tynecastle is beginning to provide evidence that the SFL and Super Premier divisions overlap.
Interestingly, although the SJFA has its faults, the one area it has been consistently ahead of its Senior counterpart is league reconstruction. The move to create a Super League North, East and West has been a huge success, with a complete pyramid structure from top to bottom. The next step would surely be the formation of a national Super League should the SFL not expand.
Irvine Meadow have now won three Super League titles in four years in the West. In the East, Bo’ness won two consecutive league titles from 2009-2011 whilst Auchinleck have claimed three Scottish Cup victories in seven years. On the other hand, from 2003 – 2007 East Stirlingshire finished bottom for five consecutive seasons. Ayrshire club Girvan were admitted into the Junior setup in 2004 despite being members of the SFA which entitles them to play in both Senior and Junior Scottish Cups. There is a glass ceiling of regulation and self interest which ensures that some clubs never reach their full potential, whilst other stagnate. That cannot be to the benefit of the game.
If Scottish football began tomorrow, there would be no purpose for a Junior setup. It is important to differentiate between the history of the clubs and that of the institution. Surely it is more important that the next generation is able to continue to preserve the past of these clubs, creating a new legacy which builds toward a dynamic future.
‘I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.’
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Comments
The non-league seniors are much closer to the SFL in terms of overall relationship and a number of north junior clubs have made the move across to join the Highland League. Do not for get about the HFL and EoSL as these clubs are all licensing their facilities to the same level as lower tier SFL clubs. A huge proportion of income to these clubs is reinvested in infrastructure and should the pyramid eventually arrive they deserve their opportunity if, indeed, they desire to be involved.
Some contributors are right to say there is no place in the modern day for an sjfa .... and the clubs who maintain its backward ideas ARE contributing to the demise of our game by both silly nonsense of their own and failing to take part in what is a wholly undemocratic and unrepresentativ e SFA etc.
In our earliest campaign we asked for and got `Community Club` planning ... the obvious future for our game if they are allowed to compete and recruit. As for thoise who say a wide pyramid would bankrupt our game ... they have obviously never studied economics or finance. Wide pyramids are the most popular and most successful forms of football organisation on earth. WE are out of step ... not them.
Junior football runs a league pyramid system up to four tiers deep. It runs a genuinely popular national cup competition for this level. Tournaments are highly competitive and most importantly, self-financing. The Juniors also recognise that the lower level "semi-pro" game in Scotland is, by nature, top-end recreational football and sensibly straddles the boundary between the two.
And yet, Junior football, despite having no voting power or influence, is supposedly to blame for the direction our game has taken? Not a credible story IMO. Why not look at the reasons why so-called mainstream Scottish football has layer upon layer of poor league competitions. Look at the reasons why Senior tournaments cannot operate without large subsidies. Look at the anachronistic SFA membership system that suspends poor quality full member clubs far above their true level. Look at why, despite being on the Professional Game Board, the HIghland League unanimously rejected the pyramid system offered by the SFA.
To analyse all this requires another article, however one can sum up the situation as follows - expanding the current "Senior" game template into a genuine broad based pyramid of 150+ clubs would bankrupt Scottish football, economically and competitively. That is why it has never happened.
The sad truth about Scottish football today, is that the author's final paragraph (which, in conjuction with the quote is all I think he really wanted to say) is simply wrong. There is actually more reason for Junior football or an equivalent to exist at this present time than at any moment in the previous eighty years.
excellent, well run clubs with great infrastructure in other non league setups. My article was specifically looking at the Junior game and any such pyramid would not be complete without everyone on board.
In response to John, my conclusion reinforces the opening paragraph. The sole purpose of the junior game was built around clubs who decided to form its own association away from senior football. 100+ years on and we still have this fragmented structure within Scottish football, where some junior teams are probably better than some senior sides, whilst some non league clubs are probably better than junior clubs.
There is an overlap across all levels and my point was that surely in a modern league structure it is pointless having a different associations which cross over each other. If we started from a blank sheet and there would be no need for the term junior. Clubs would be placed at the appropriate level.
I do feel it is an unfair comment to say the article blames the juniors for the direction of our game. When discussing junior clubs applications to senior football, it was noted that the current rules and regulations make it financially very difficult for any junior side to join. Hence the need to work together, to put aside historical differences and build a new system that is fair and allows all clubs to reach their level naturally under one umbrella.
SFA could at any moment remove SFA and have much wider competition and growth in the game.... why don`t they ? It is because SFA is dominated by ANTI-COMPETITIVE clubs ... who are in no position to compete.
SJFA clubs CANNOT be part of a future pyramid since SFA has re-introduced competitive restrictions (after allowing Juniors to enter the cup) by calling it LICENCING ... only those clubs passing ground, etc muster will be allowed into feeders and the cup. NO CLUB would wish to drop back to a JUNIOR league from there ... so it won`t happen. And if a Junior club gets LICENCED ... they`ll leave SJFA. Only the absence of an ALTERNATIVE system keeps clubs in the SJFA. Junior Cup final 2012 at Livingston had the 2nd lowest attendance in almost 100 years ... we all know where it is going.
As for regional `seniors` ,... you have got to be joking ... go to the Scottish Football Magazine site and see their record against top Juniors since the latter were allowed in the cup .. they are nowhere near the mark. And they`ll only ever get there in a much wider and stronger competition... Highland and Lowland is not designed to be ... it is designed to PREVENT competition in the guise of a `pyramid`. When asked for their opinion, the entire HFL said `this is not a pyramid`....
That is not to say that all SJFA members clubs have decrepit facilities as that is patently untrue but there are some supposedly major junior clubs with grounds which woud not be up to standard in any minor league in Europe.
If I would take Peter's remarks in combination with mine to a logical conclusion then the competitive restriction must be felt most by HFL, EoS and SoS clubs who are compelled to spend their meagre resources on their grounds whilst the Central Belt juniors merrily buy in a few ex-pros from up the road.
I'm not trying to knock the junior game as that is the last thing that I would wish to do but there has to be some middle ground somewhere so that the non-league seniors and the juniors can be accommodated. The SFA is not the obstacle here - it is the SFL and the unambitious clubs in its lower reaches who are going nowhere.
I have made my views on reconstruction and a pyramid to anyone who will listen to me so I'll roll it out here as well. Our game cannot sustain so many national leagues. The top two levels should be national and then everything below should be regional. Let's assume that we are stuck with 12 + 10 as we have just now. Take the D3 teams and give them all a bonus promotion into a new D2 which is split into two North/East and South/West groups. Then take 20 ambitious clubs from the senior and junior ranks and create D3 N/E and S/W. What's left of HFL, EoS, SoS and juniors can then be amalgamated at a regional level as feeders to D3. It's not the most original idea in the world but I would love to see the unambitious clubs at the foot of SFL D3 argue AGAINST a promotion!
Anyway, that's my tuppence worth this Sunday.
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