I pretty much agree with all of this piece with the exception of the first sentence of the last paragraph. I not sure that was at all predictable at the start, or even halfway through the season and certainly hasn't been the case in recent seasons. But apart from that spot on.

Adding weight to Ian's arugment, I suspect most SPL fans would rather see a wider variety of opposition than the same teams two or three times a season. But of course, the likes of Ross County or Raith couldn't possibly be expected to hold their own against SPL opposition ...

Good piece, an 18 team league would seem to be the way forward, and as TEV says it would probably have the support of most SPL fans. But let's be honest, it's doubtful if an 18 team league would aid a non-OF title challenge. Dundee Utd, Hibs or whoever are much more likely to drop points away to one of the potential 6 "newcomers" than the OF. Scottish football has never adequately solved the (intractable?) problem of having two teams are who massively bigger than the rest.

In defence of the split, it does sometimes work. Last season there was only 1 game that involved two sides with nothing to play for. But when the maths doesn't work out you get the issues that Motherwell now face(ie budgeting for 19 home games and only playing 18, the last two of which are on TV on a Sunday at 16.15 and at 19.45 on the same evening as a Genral Eletion).

I do not think that Scotland has the quality to support an 18-team league. For a less than perfect comparison, Israel just expanded from 12 teams to sixteen and 5 of the 6 newcomers are not up to standard and get trashed every week by (not too big) local giants. You could see a similar situation with the scottish first div. Also, a 34 game season means less revenue. A 14 team league whereby after 26 games the league is split in promotion and relegation groups of seven teams each would mean 38 matches (19h 19a) for everyone. Also, halving points at the end of the first half would make it interesting for a bit longer, any thoughts?

the teams who have, in recent seasons, been promoted to the SPL from the SPL 1 have all retained their positions and comfortably avoided relegation. this year, st johnstone are comfortable in 7th and thumped 4 past rangers last week.

similarly, although inverness may be the first to buck the trend, the relegated spl teams have all struggled to mid-table mediocrity in their first seasons in the lower league. from a sporting perspective, there is not a big difference in quality between teams like falkirk, st mirren, kilmarnock at the bottom of the spl and the teams in the top half of spl1, like caley thistle, dundee, qos.

recent seasons results in the sfa cup have shown this.

sorry - above comments should state sfl1 where i say spl1.

The Scottish football authorities don't seem to be very familiar with the phrase "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

Scottish fitba has become dreadfully boring and radical change is required.Even many rangers fans are becoming apathetic,how can you get too excited when there has been no challenge.
Further down the league apathy reigns supreme with only Dundee Utd fans excited.
There is a small interest in who gets relegated but I sense the likes of Killie,St Mirren and Falkirk fans would get much more enjoyment playing in Div 1.
Aberdeen's crowds are dwindling as low as 7500,things are bad at that great club.
Summer football and an 18 team top league for starters.

Sixteen team league would give 30 games.
Add a "SPL Cup" competition with four groups of four (H&A, seeded as per last seasons finishing positions) feeding into a two-legged semi-final (drawn from hat) then a final at Hampden.
That gives 30 SPL & 6-9 SPL Cup games to go with the SFA Cup and SFL Cup games.

The old First Division was 18 clubs for years but it was felt that there were too many meaningles fixtures in the second half of the season. Since 1975 it has been more or less constant change with a 10-team SPL then a twelve-team SPL with 44 games, seasons with no relegation as the league expanded (or Motherwell struggled) the current bizzarre split with 5 games to play. Old Firm dominance has been pretty constant throughout but there is no doubt it has got worse. Aberdeen must have been the last non-OF team to win the league but that must have been a long, long time ago. The bottom six in the SPL and the top six in the SFL1 are of a similar standard as pointed out by bruno glanvilla (brilliant moniker btw. Is it a tribute to Brian Glanville?)so the league would probably be quite competetive in itself but OF muscle is such that they would continue their habit of preventing any real competition from emerging by buying up any half-decent players emerging through other clubs. The irony is that the clubs are terrified to lose the money SPL and potentially two OF visits each brings but in gact are all losing money hand over fist. Just a bad joke really.