I have watched the F.A. try and force their plan on local clubs year after year and they usually end up upsetting everyone without necessarily improving the overall situation.
The Midlands area has undergone myriad changes over the years although I have not gone back to read about how many were F.A. plans and how many were local leagues vying to become lead dog as the pyramid became "a thing" and leagues wanted to be as high up the ladder as they could be.
I read in this week's Non League Paper that the South West Peninsula League will have two teams promoted from each of its two divisions. The South West Peninsula League has THREE divisions and there was no explanation of what will happen to the Premier Division. I hope the F.A. know but I could not find it in the report.
If, as is implied, the East and West Divisions are regraded category 6 then the Premier Division must be regraded Level 5. Will it operate alongside the Western League? "Two leagues in the South West" suggests perhaps but in the pictures it looks like the two subsidiary divisions only so the Premier Division just disappears.
The current league works well in the area and few teams are promoted to the Western League. If the F.A. impose promotion then club after club will go bankrupt travelling to Bristol every other weekend. I spoke to the Club Chairman of Elmore before they moved from the Western to the South West Peninsula League .... before they went bankrupt and the reserves became the first team. They were not happy having to travel all the way to Bristol every other week.
The F.A. of course do not care. They just want a simple pyramid that is easy to administer and that means 2-4-8-16 even though the country is geographically a triangle and 3-9-27 would allow a lot more teams access to the pyramid as well as having fewer lateral moves as promotion and relegation would iron out a lot of the fiddling necessary to keep leagues roughly equal in size.
I also see that the Football League has had undue influence in standardising the divisions at 24 teams when a few years back the trend was down to 22 or 20 teams in a division. I think 20 teams allows for bad weather interruptions and other competitions can fill the weeks when no matches are scheduled.
I would add the text straight from the paper but it made no sense when I read it. The words seem designed to be flexible and flaky so that after the event the F.A. can say that whatever happens is actually what they meant. The pictures show areas for each league but they are not touching so there is plenty of room for fudging when it comes to allocations.
I have made the decision to let it all happen and then see how it turns out. After all, what choice do I have? The Pyramid is changing and it will never be the same. There will be winners and losers as there always are but I hope football in the South West is not bankrupted out of existence.
The Midlands area has undergone myriad changes over the years although I have not gone back to read about how many were F.A. plans and how many were local leagues vying to become lead dog as the pyramid became "a thing" and leagues wanted to be as high up the ladder as they could be.
I read in this week's Non League Paper that the South West Peninsula League will have two teams promoted from each of its two divisions. The South West Peninsula League has THREE divisions and there was no explanation of what will happen to the Premier Division. I hope the F.A. know but I could not find it in the report.
If, as is implied, the East and West Divisions are regraded category 6 then the Premier Division must be regraded Level 5. Will it operate alongside the Western League? "Two leagues in the South West" suggests perhaps but in the pictures it looks like the two subsidiary divisions only so the Premier Division just disappears.
The current league works well in the area and few teams are promoted to the Western League. If the F.A. impose promotion then club after club will go bankrupt travelling to Bristol every other weekend. I spoke to the Club Chairman of Elmore before they moved from the Western to the South West Peninsula League .... before they went bankrupt and the reserves became the first team. They were not happy having to travel all the way to Bristol every other week.
The F.A. of course do not care. They just want a simple pyramid that is easy to administer and that means 2-4-8-16 even though the country is geographically a triangle and 3-9-27 would allow a lot more teams access to the pyramid as well as having fewer lateral moves as promotion and relegation would iron out a lot of the fiddling necessary to keep leagues roughly equal in size.
I also see that the Football League has had undue influence in standardising the divisions at 24 teams when a few years back the trend was down to 22 or 20 teams in a division. I think 20 teams allows for bad weather interruptions and other competitions can fill the weeks when no matches are scheduled.
I would add the text straight from the paper but it made no sense when I read it. The words seem designed to be flexible and flaky so that after the event the F.A. can say that whatever happens is actually what they meant. The pictures show areas for each league but they are not touching so there is plenty of room for fudging when it comes to allocations.
I have made the decision to let it all happen and then see how it turns out. After all, what choice do I have? The Pyramid is changing and it will never be the same. There will be winners and losers as there always are but I hope football in the South West is not bankrupted out of existence.
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