Posted on 26th March 2012
Blackpool fans will be marching on EFL headquarters next week as they call for the creation of an independent football league regulator.
SD launches Scottish “Fans’ Plan”
This is a story from the FSF archive – the FSF and SD merged to become the FSA in 2019.
Supporters Direct Scotland (SDS), the voice of football supporters’ trusts in Scotland, has published The Fans’ Plan – key recommendations to restructure Scottish football based on the results of supporters’ surveys over the past two years. SDS describe The Fans’ Plan as “a detailed analysis of the issues facing the game.”
SDS spokesperson Alan Harris said: “The future of Scottish league football lies in the hands of its supporters. Fans are clearly telling us, we want more competition, more even distribution of funds among clubs, investment in the game, especially developing its talent from grassroots, and a greater say for supporters in clubs and national football.”
The Fans’ Plan calls for:
- Greater competition within Scottish league football structures.
- Equal funding for each team in a league.
- Support for clubs by central league management to increase the average attendance over a season by 20% come 2016, and achieve an average “stadium capacity utilisation” of 65% within 10 years.
- Two leagues of 16 teams, and a qualifying league of 10.
- Re-introducing the League Cup, with a mini-league qualifying format structured on a geographical basis with four teams in each group.
- Improved training and professional development for all players including greater use of modern apprenticeships and post-career planning.
- The establishment and implementation of a strong club licensing scheme.
SDS said that too many decisions in Scottish football have been driven by short-term fixes and quick wins but claim that that approach to the game is “unravelling at every level” and argue the time is right to “re-build the foundations of the game in Scotland.”
“We are proposing that a combination of league re-structuring, a re-formatted League Cup and more even distribution of development funds, can continue to attract the all-important television sponsorship, create more competition between clubs and widen the game’s attraction to bring supporters back. This is our path to the more sustainable development of Scottish league football,” said Harris.
You can read more about the work of Supporters Direct in Scotland here.
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