Summer Football

[dervish]

Would watching football in better weather with less cancellations be a good thing? Peter Houston suggested looking at it again after a shite game for the fans when they played Motherwell. >BBC Sports<

[RUL]

I would agree if we had a good summer climate but it pretty much pissed it down all summer didn't it?

 

 

[vanderark14]

I'd be 100% up for summer fitba

[dervish]

Thing is apart from that the weather wouldn't be shit, we'd be the only football on in loads of places. Surely would get better tv deals and that? For europe we don't do that much but at least we'd fit for the early stages. For internationals most of them are playing in england. I'm sure there are good reason not to, but for me seems way better.

[Jute]

Thing is apart from that the weather wouldn't be shit, we'd be the only football on in loads of places. Surely would get better tv deals and that? For europe we don't do that much but at least we'd fit for the early stages. For internationals most of them are playing in england. I'm sure there are good reason not to, but for me seems way better.

 

Irish currently have summer football but have not been flooded with offers from tv. They also have found that after an initial increase in gates that gates have fallen back or even below the levels they were at before the switch to summer football. When I was last over they were even talking of switching back.

[Dynamo]

Irish currently have summer football but have not been flooded with offers from tv. They also have found that after an initial increase in gates that gates have fallen back or even below the levels they were at before the switch to summer football. When I was last over they were even talking of switching back.

 

 

irish football isn't even popular in ireland. It never has been. They could play it any time of year and no cunt would be interested.

 

Really don't know why Scottish football is compared to Ireland. Even without the OF Scottish football has clubs far superior to any in ireland.

 

Doesn't do teh Russians, Danes, Swedes any harm.

 

Doesn't hamper their national teams either and they can work around tournaments.

 

I'm for it, well I'd give it a 2/3 year trial at least.

[Henry]

I'd also be in favour of a trial.

 

However, the problem as I see it is we're all talking about 'summer' football. How much of the season would really be in the summer?

 

At the moment we play August-May.

 

So which two months do you cut out in the event of moving the season? You could pick any from November through to February and make a good case for them! Mind last November!

 

I reckon you end up playing a lot of games through the actual summer, resulting in a lot of mid-week games, which none of us like.

[Dynamo]

I'd also be in favour of a trial.

 

However, the problem as I see it is we're all talking about 'summer' football. How much of the season would really be in the summer?

 

At the moment we play August-May.

 

So which two months do you cut out in the event of moving the season? You could pick any from November through to February and make a good case for them! Mind last November!

 

I reckon you end up playing a lot of games through the actual summer, resulting in a lot of mid-week games, which none of us like.

 

 

March - November.

 

To be honest a few more midweekers in the summer in a fine temparture and it's still light at fulltime is a lot more appealing than one in the pissing rain in February.

 

i know we don't get the best of summers, but even when it's not that nice, it's still mild.

[Bluto10]

i like the current calander esp playing over the festive/ny period and also over easter bank holiday weekend.

 

if we want to improve scottiosh football there are other more pressing issues to be dealt with first imo.

[Henry]

i like the current calander esp playing over the festive/ny period and also over easter bank holiday weekend.

 

if we want to improve scottiosh football there are other more pressing issues to be dealt with first imo.

 

Acutally agree with Bluto here, I'd imagine the festive games get a very decent crowd, compared against equivalent weekends in the winter - mind a game against Inverness a few years back was 20k+.

[Dynamo]

the Hearts game on the 28th December will probably be our biggest crowd of the season.

[Bluto10]

Acutally agree with Bluto here, I'd imagine the festive games get a very decent crowd, compared against equivalent weekends in the winter - mind a game against Inverness a few years back was 20k+.

 

i know my stuff harcus.

 

other countries that have the winter break dont get the xmas games.

i love them.

 

w.r.t. weatehr conditions do all teir 1 and 2 teams have undersoil heating? i dont think they do, do they.

[Henry]

What you could do would be arrange it so that your season culminates around the festive period! Imagine titles deciders and cup finals on Boxing Day and New Years Day, would be fucking magic. Chaos like.

[dervish]

Actually really surprised how positive the poll is for it, I was one of the maybes.

[OddJob]

I've always been in favour of summer football.

[Bluto10]

I've always been in favour of summer football.

 

 

i'm not in favour.

[Miglo don]

Definite yes from me, won't happen with ton dinosaurs at SFA in charge.

 

Would also revamp the league cup in to a tournament played in the space of a few weeks, maybe over the festive period? Breath some life in to it.

[Henry]

Another BBC piece about summer football in Scotland.

 

 

Drastic times call for drastic measures.

And, given the recent struggles of Scotland's national side, there is a growing feeling that summer football could well be the answer.

The Scottish Football Association (SFA) has commissioned academics to examine various options surrounding the fixtures calendar.

Three options are understood to be on the table: preserving the status quo; having an extended winter break; and switching to a season running from April to October.

As well as including a case study on the merits of the Scandinavian model - in which football is played from March to November - researchers at the University of Stirling have looked at the quality of playing surfaces at different times of year, weather patterns, daylight hours and the impact of weather on injuries.

[Byrne Baby Byrne]

It'll never happen

 

Our summers are shite anyway. Unless you like wind and rain apart from 3 days of sun

[sheepiekev]

I don't see why we can't at least try it.

If it doesn't work, go back to playing in the winter.

 

Some of the benefits could be;

 

- Potential increase in crowds. Parents more likely to take children to a game on a weekend (or midweek night) if it's not Baltic and pishing from the heavens.

- Pitches will be better if we're not constantly playing on pitches that have undersoil heating on.

- Maybe Sky will pay Scottish clubs a bit more if it's the only football on in June/July?

- Scottish clubs are not handicapped by having to play European matches having just got back from the beach. Potential co-efficient boost?

 

If Scotland ever qualify for a tournament (yes I know, unlikely just now) then we start two weeks earlier and finish two weeks later and close down for the month the international players need to prepare and play in the tournament).

 

Worth a go at least.

[MichtyMeMin]

Summer football is a necessity to give Scottish football any chance of prospering. It should results in better games , due to the fact that it would be played on better pitches. Also, it would encourage people to come along and watch the game, especially on a mild summer evening, as opposed to horizontal snow in the middle of February.

The whole concept at least needs to be tried, the powers that be seem to completely ignore it and I can't for the life of me see why!!!???

[Donmacca]

I think we need to give summer football a try but needs to be done along with a league revamp and potentially bringing alcohol back to games. I know football is different in the states and not saying to franchise the SPL but think we really need to look at the MLS model. Everything from pre match build up to having a summer league.

[daytripping]

No harm in giving it a try, would way rather watch a match in shorts and t-shirt than wrapped up freezing my arse off.

 

Better pitches should equal better football as well.

[dave_min]

I see nothing wrong with starting in July and packing the early season with more midweekers.and having a winter break.

 

Exactly.

 

Simple stuff.

 

Can't wait for the SPL/SFA/St Mirren to fuck it all up though.

 

Last game pre-break should be the January 2nd Derbys.

 

Ken?

[sheepiekev]

So if in, say 2015, we play from March - November and it's a disaster.

 

Do we then have to wait until the following August for things to start again?

 

How do clubs continue to operate with no revenue for 10 months?

 

I see nothing wrong with starting in July and packing the early season with more midweekers.and having a winter break.

 

Scottish football fans are creatures of habit anyway, fitba in this country would have been dead a long time ago if they weren't.

The trouble is with your suggestion, decent as it is, say we finish up on 2nd Jan for a month - we come back and in February the weather is shite for 3-4 weeks - we might struggle to get games in.

You make a good point about the potential gap if the summer thing doesn't work out and we have to revert back to the winter schedule, and off the top of my head I don't have an answer, other than to say I think it would work and we wouldn't need to go back.

Not sure why it wouldn't work, other than folk saying "well we've always done it that way".

Absolutely nothing to lose in trying it, along with good pricing and play offs thrown in.

[Pudgie]

If we do try it then I reckon we should keep Fallon.

[The Boofon]

 

So if in, say 2015, we play from March - November and it's a disaster.

 

Do we then have to wait until the following August for things to start again?

 

How do clubs continue to operate with no revenue for 10 months?

 

I see nothing wrong with starting in July and packing the early season with more midweekers.and having a winter break.

 

Scottish football fans are creatures of habit anyway, fitba in this country would have been dead a long time ago if they weren't.

 

Christ you're a miserable fucking toad sometimes.

[The Boofon]

 

 

 

I think we should try an earlier start, make the most out of July and August and take it from there, I appreciate the "turning the calendar on it's head" school of thought but all we really need to do IMO is put common sense into practice and not cut our noses off to spite our faces.

Or in other words Summer Football.

 

Fuck me Bri there's not much difference.

 

How big a winter break do you think would be required for your plan?

[Bluto10]

We don't need it. And we don't want it.

 

What differentiates British football from continental stuff are the festive season and the easter games.

[The Boofon]

 

Season runs from the end of July to the middle of May, which is what happened last season.

 

You don't have to have a winter break, but enough midweek cards at the start of the season and there's less congestion and less impact on the pitches in the winter months.

So not making the most of July at all then.