East Stirlingshire might be chucked out of the league

[NorthernLights24]

The Scottish Football League could on Thursday begin the process that will lead to East Stirlingshire being thrown out of the senior game.

 

Saturday's 2-1 defeat by Elgin City ensures that the Falkirk club will finish bottom of Division Three for the fifth consecutive season.

 

The SFL decided two years ago that any club finishing bottom two years running could lose full membership.

 

And its management committee will discuss the club's future this week.

 

Should the SFL decide to reduce Shire to associate members, the club would be given two years to win back full membership or face being voted out of Division Three.

 

No final decision will be made on Thursday and the committee could decide that Shire have shown adequate improvement this season.

 

League secretary Peter Donald told BBC Sport: "This is the first time the rule has come into effect and I will have gauge the feeling of the meeting about whether we will invite East Stirling to make a submission."

 

Elgin had occupied bottom place in Division Three from August to early March, but a late rally has pushed Shire to the bottom once more.

 

And club secretary Les Thomson told the Shire website that he is bracing himself for being called to plead the club's case at the league management committee meeting on 25 May.

 

By the looks of it if they lose full membership then they will have two years to try and not finish bottom of the league.

[TheChimp]

All the more reason to have a pyramid system in place.

 

Get East Stirling tae f*ck.

[BTR]

A couple of years back, the board of East Stirlingshire FC began tentative and very hush-hush negotiations about a move to East Kilbride. It would be interesting to keep an eye on this situation.

[K-9]

By the looks of it if they lose full membership then they will have two years to try and not finish bottom of the league.

About time aswell.

[TheChimp]

A couple of years back, the board of East Stirlingshire FC began tentative and very hush-hush negotiations about a move to East Kilbride. It would be interesting to keep an eye on this situation.

 

Must be very hush hush. I always assumed if they moved anywhere it would be to glamourous Grangemouth.

 

Or maybe they could move to Clydebank again.

[BTR]

Must be very hush hush. I always assumed if they moved anywhere it would be to glamourous Grangemouth.

 

Too many teams in the Falkirk area where you have Falkirk, Stenhousemuir & East Stirling but only a catchment of about 50,000 people. I think the idea was that EK is the biggest town in the country that doesn't have a professional football side and they figured they could develop a fan base after seeing Meadowbank Thistle move to Livingston. I think South Lanarkshire Council were pretty positive about it, but something obviously happened behind the scenes to prevent it going further.

[TheChimp]

Too many teams in the Falkirk area where you have Falkirk, Stenhousemuir & East Stirling but only a catchment of about 50,000 people. I think the idea was that EK is the biggest town in the country that doesn't have a professional football side and they figured they could develop a fan base after seeing Meadowbank Thistle move to Livingston. I think South Lanarkshire Council were pretty positive about it, but something obviously happened behind the scenes to prevent it going further.

 

It would indeed make more sense to have them move to East Kilbride and become Livi Mark 2, but the with EK being a bit close to Hamilton/Motherwell etc, it may have seen them get that idea knocked on the head.

 

Pure speculation on my part like.

[Dynamo]

Too many clubs in the central belt as a whole anyway.

[Sonoftherock]

Too many clubs in the central belt as a whole anyway.

 

But thats where the overwhelmingly largest percentage of our population live....

[Dynamo]

Correct but when teams like Dumbarton, Albion Rovers etc. attract crowds rarely in excess of 400 this shows that there is not the support there for these teams.

[borderterrier]

We need two leagues of 16, and the rest can go into regional leagues, most of them wouldn't be much better than your local junior/semi-pro side anyway.

[paulkaneatemyhamster]

Poor old shire

 

they're run by a bunch of cowboys - who are only interested in the ground - which is with a small fortune in retail devlopment

 

It is about time we had a regionalised pyramid system, as much as i like the Shire they don't bring anything more to the party than say some of the junior teams or HL teams

 

say goes for the likes of Elgin, Montrose, Albion etc etc ... time for a pyramid system, time to give these lower league sides a chance to make it up, Gretna have done well, and you only have to look at say what Wimbledon achieved in England

[BTR]

they're run by a bunch of cowboys - who are only interested in the ground - which is with a small fortune in retail devlopment

THAT'S IT - penny dropped, you've jogged my memory! This is why the deal to move to EK went belly up - East Stirling agreed a deal to sell the land that Firs Park is on to a retail developer, but there is a ransom strip on the edge of the land - to those who don't know what that means, it is a small piece of land that would be deemed essential to future development in a strategic sense, but is owned by somebody else. That somebody else realises the strategic value of the land and can demand an astronomical amount of money for it. Money East Stirling were not willing to pay.

[baldrick_sheep]

I think they should be gotten to f*ck.

 

I think its harsh to have a go at Dumbarton, I think they are a team with a bit of potential, but east stirling should be moved, or we could just bomb F@lkirk off the map and solve the problem that way.

 

I think its about time some of the junior sides are given a shot, cause, with the exception of Gretna, all the new teams in the league have been highland league ones, and I dont think this can continue. Elgin have shown that no other club is worthy of promotion from that league as they are sh*te.

 

There are 12 teams north of the river Tay while 14 teams in the ayshire, renfrewshire, dumbartonshire, lanarkshire and glasgow combined. Considering the the population of Scotland, north of Perth is about 1 million people, and of the old strathclyde region of scotland being well over 2 million then I think The north of Scotland has more than enough football teams.

[10MenWent2Mow]

Elgin only got in because of the size of the town though and the infrastructure that they already had in place. They were not one of the best Highland League sides at the time of admittance which is probably why they have struggled so much. If Buckie or Deveronvale or Keith were to be admitted now they would do a decent job in the league. Most of the junior clubs dont want to get in anyway as they are quite happy with the closed shop that they have. Do join the league all they would have to do is apply for membership to the SFA.

 

Anyway, have they decided to have this revamp of the cup next season with all the highland league teams getting a shot and the winners of the regional junior leagues and the winners of the junior cup getting in. It was going to mean that we came in in Rd4 but with the same number of teams left?

[baldrick_sheep]

yeah, i know most of the junior sides are quite happy, probably financially better off then many SFL sides.

 

I would imagine the league, and elgin, were perhaps hoping that they might draw on new fans after being admitted to the league, has this happened?

 

I would have thought most folk from that area wanting to see senior football would be at pittodrie or inverness already.

 

Seems a bit pointless adding anymore highland teams in.

 

However, cannot really think of many other areas deserving of a new team, as someone mentioned earlier, if a team was relocated to the glasgow area, the locals would already be f*cking off to parkhead and ibrox, would be a new livvy.

 

The central belt experiment with livvy has shown that their is no support there.

 

I reckon the only teams left are good junior teams with an established support. like pollok or belshill.

 

Gretna are a joke really, as soon as brookes mileson snuffs it then they will be a 2nd or 3rd division side.

[H.H]

It is about time we had a regionalised pyramid system, as much as i like the Shire they don't bring anything more to the party than say some of the junior teams or HL teams

 

 

I can assure you that the majority of Junior teams(central region anyway, cant talk for Fife and North) have no ambition or interest in promotion to the Scottish 3rd division. They have a decent set up of their own and the infrastructure in the junior game is solid.

 

In fact that would cost them money to be promoted.

[Sonoftherock]

Correct but when teams like Dumbarton, Albion Rovers etc. attract crowds rarely in excess of 400 this shows that there is not the support there for these teams.

 

Not sure why your picking on Dumbarton here.... we're not the worst by any stretch of the imagination. In the 3rd Division we've been averaging around 800, and over 1,000 when we were in the 2nd Division.

 

Its difficult to compete when Govan is right on your doorstep, but I know for a fact that the potential for support in the Dunbartonshire is extremely high. If we were to get back into the first division or even the SPL you'd see a much large following than teams like Gretna and Livingston.

 

I remember while I was at school, Dumbarton beating Dundee United in a first division league fixture and it was amazing to see the how many huns suddenly changed allegiences.... for a few weeks at least!

[H.H]

I remember while I was at school, Dumbarton beating Dundee United in a first division league fixture and it was amazing to see the how many huns suddenly changed allegiences.... for a few weeks at least!

 

 

Yes I always remember Alex McLeish being interviewed while manager of Motherwell when he stated something along the lines of.............

 

" Its hard when more fans head out of Motherwell by bus on Saturday to watch the old firm than turn up at Fir Park"

[baldrick_sheep]

Not sure why your picking on Dumbarton here.... we're not the worst by any stretch of the imagination. In the 3rd Division we've been averaging around 800, and over 1,000 when we were in the 2nd Division.

 

Its difficult to compete when Govan is right on your doorstep, but I know for a fact that the potential for support in the Dunbartonshire is extremely high. If we were to get back into the first division or even the SPL you'd see a much large following than teams like Gretna and Livingston.

 

I remember while I was at school, Dumbarton beating Dundee United in a first division league fixture and it was amazing to see the how many huns suddenly changed allegiences.... for a few weeks at least!

 

I remember when they were in the first division cause all the school kids got into east end park free when they played dumbarton.

 

Ive a mate who is a big dumbarton fan but rarely goes cause he plays on saturdays, but he says the same things.

 

Apparently there was a huge crowd at the final game played at boghead!

[Red Loon]

Not sure why your picking on Dumbarton here.... we're not the worst by any stretch of the imagination. In the 3rd Division we've been averaging around 800, and over 1,000 when we were in the 2nd Division.

 

Its difficult to compete when Govan is right on your doorstep, but I know for a fact that the potential for support in the Dunbartonshire is extremely high. If we were to get back into the first division or even the SPL you'd see a much large following than teams like Gretna and Livingston.

 

I remember while I was at school, Dumbarton beating Dundee United in a first division league fixture and it was amazing to see the how many huns suddenly changed allegiences.... for a few weeks at least!

 

I can remember going to a Cup game between Dumbarton and Clydebank MANY moons ago when it was a big derby game - there were 8,000 there. It was at Firhill and was the only time the Spring Cup (predecessor to the B&Q Cup or whetever its called nowadays) was played.

 

btw Clydebank won 3-1 so GIRUY

 

See ye at Station Park next season min!

[swaddon]

Getting back to the topic, East Stirlingshire are a nothing club and have been for many years. The fact is that half the Highland League teams would beat them (even Fort William might sneak a draw), yet they only rarely get a chance to get into the League system, which is why promotion and relegation from the SFL is a must. We can't keep having a closed shop where every team is safe in the League no matter how bad they are.