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Challenge Cup


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Barking really not least in terms of travel to NI or Wales. If you want under 20 players to play against seniors reintroduce a reserve league. We could just play our under 20 team in the competition and the SPFL couldn't make a counter argument.

This!

Use the competition to give our U20's a chance to shine.

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4x highland league and 4 X lowland league teams enter at round 1 also.

Imagine saints draw Spartans at home (round 3), we then play crusaders away (round 4) then Tns in the quarters away, how the f**k does that bring in any extra cash to our club??

The invited clubs are to play any home ties in Scotland and are being subsidised to do so apparently. Which makes it even more of a clusterf**k.

Imagine the history books that show a Scottish national trophy final showing Hamilton U20s vs Crusaders. Imagine just how embarrassing that'd be. A crowd of about 400 to watch a national final between a reserve team and a non Scottish side. A final that usually draws 7-10k supporters on average.

Someone came up with a slightly convoluted but decent idea on P&B that the clubs who don't make it through the group stages of the league cup, regardless of division, could then drop into the challenge cup and other junior and invited Highland/Lowland sides making up numbers.

Let's not f**k about here though. This is clearly a tester for colt teams to play senior football in the league system and an excuse to get Rangers and Celtic reserves to play in a competitive environment with senior sides. What other reason could there be for inviting 12 sides in when our own reserves, much less the seniors have proven that they're comprehensively better than two thirds of them?

Edited by djchapsticks
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Dreadful Statement from Raith Rovers

Remember, Eric Drysdale from Raith is on the SPFL Board

http://www.raithrovers.net/25243/challenge-cup-changes-welcomed.htm

I'm particularly fond of the suggestion that letting say Inverness CT U20's play a few competitive matches against the likes of Stirling Albion and Stenhousemuir will help Scotland's international standing! (Do Inverness not have the option of sending U20 players out on loan to League 1, League 2, Championship, Highland league clubs so they can play against older players?)

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If we boycott the competition then there will be a rethink and hopefully jotters for Cockwomble.

Never mind supporters boycotting. Any Championship BoD with a real sense of their clubs worth should tell Donkey arseter to F*ck off. The idea that we are somehow at the same level as Ross County, Hamilton, ICT reserves, plus is, quite frankly, both ludicrous and embarrassing in equal measure!

Edited by stlucifer
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Never mind supporters boycotting. Any Championship BoD with a real sense of their clubs worth should tell Donkey arseter to F*ck off. The idea that we are somehow at the same level as Ross County, Hamilton, ICT reserves, plus is, quite frankly, both ludicrous and embarrassing in equal measure!

It's insulting. Our reserves have already comprehensively proven they are better than 2/3rds of these invited sides.

The challenge cup is unfortunately just the smaller picture. This is most definitely a tester for reserve sides being introduced to the league setup.

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This just goes to prove how detached and clueless those that run the game are from the fans. They've turned a tournament which gave lower league teams a chance to win a trophy into an incredibly shambolic, confused, desperate competition. How could the SPFL Board think this is evenly remotely a decent idea? I would imagine that most Championship teams will play their Under 20 teams in it as well, and not many will care about whether they go out in the first round or lose the final.

Fair do's to them though, they've changed the dynamic around the Challenge Cup from a tournament that fans lacked interest in to a tournament that fans will open laugh at and avoid going to.

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Crazy idea back in January......

http://www.blackandwhitearmy.com/forums/index.php/topic/40995-challenge-cup-revamp/

......still a crazy idea!

************

The Welsh teams are worse supported than our Division 2 teams like Montrose (Avg Att in 2016 = 566) The New Saints (Avg Att. 2016 = 375), Bala Town (281) - it'd be a guaranteed financial loss having to play one of those teams. The Nor'n Irish teams are better supported but it still wouldn't be lucrative.

Then there's the U-20 top flight teams - how many Killie/Well fans turn up to see their U-20 sides, how many will pay to see them in this bastardized competition? I don't even think the OF teams will be well supported unless they reach the S/F stages.

I've no enthusiasm for this revamp - if the present set-up doesn't generate enough revenue then let the competition die gracefully.

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