George Fraser (General Manager of BSC Glasgow, Chairperson of SLFL)
What do you see the non-league pyramid looking like in the future?
“It’s been obvious for some time that there are obvious geographical gaps in the pyramid system. We are paying particular attention to the gap in our area, the West. We want a fully functioning pyramid, affording all clubs in all grades the opportunity to participate at a level to which they aspire. A North league would complete the geographical anomalies which currently exist.”
Will the Lowland League consider adding more automatic relegation spots as the tiers below fill out?
“As you know we are a members organisation, and the members are aware of the permutations regarding promotion/relegation. It is a situation which will continue to be discussed with all parties concerned.”
Gordon Ronney (Secretary of Kilbirnie Ladeside)
You’ve strongly supported the idea of Junior clubs sticking together rather than some applying to any West of Scotland league. What do you want to see happen?
“Hi Derek, I firmly believe in our association & the clubs that make it an attractive product, also think further dialogue with all PWG parties can achieve mutual benefit for LL/EoS/SoS. I cannot say to much at this moment in time but suffice to say we will do all we can to ensure everyone is content at the end of the process. All about positivity.”
For Kilbirnie, what does an ideal future look like (in your opinion)?
“Kilbirnie Ladeside as well as all other junior clubs must be part of the pyramid structure, we all signed up to that process.”
Colin Boyd (Chairman of Kilwinning Rangers)
As a club which has expressed its interest in the mooted West of Scotland League, what do you see your potential future looking like?
“In the short term we don’t see much change in the future, we’ll be playing who we normally play for the most part. We’ve been a bit of a yoyo club so we’ve played Kello and Winton more in recent years than the traditional rivalries of Meadow and Talbot. the interesting thing is now clubs are focused on improving their grounds, Meadow, Talbot, Cumnock, Clydebank and many others are talking about community club status, this is something that hasn’t happened wholesale before and could be the saving of some clubs, we found out that parents felt our old ground, Abbey Park, was unsafe for kids, so found it hard to attract new fans, and these improvements to other grounds will open the game up to a new generation.”
What were the main factors in your decision to explore joining the pyramid?
“Our plan for moving ground was totally based on pyramid access, we might never win the league and gain promotion however as custodians of the club we are here to make sure the club is fit for the future, improving the ground and having pyramid access means that we’ve got the club ready and in years to come maybe some players from one of youth teams sticks together and decides to give pro youth a miss and see how far they can take the club, that’s the pay off for all the work, while we’ll try to win the league every year it might be a Golden Generation that’s home produced that decides to go up the leagues. We can’t deny our 300 youth team members the chance to play at the highest level.”
Martin McKenna (Head of Digital and Social Media, Saint Anthony’s FC)
You released a statement recently, which had the message of staying strong and supporting the Juniors. What would be the ideal outcome of the ongoing pyramid process for you as a club (and the region)?
“The West region is already going with 63 clubs in total, so our Premier League clubs to join at Tier 6 and be available for playoffs to the Lowland League if successful. Our divisions below are to act as feeder leagues to the top division that would support clubs and the West region as a whole.”
As a West League 2 side, what are the aims/aspirations for the Ants in a pyramid football future?
“Naturally it is every clubs ambition to play at the highest level and we are no different. Our ambition is to climb the leagues from within the juniors, that’s why we made the statement to stay strong and we think it would be a simple but a strong solution.”
Brendan Parkinson (Press Media and Communications Officer, Bonnyrigg Rose Athletic FC)
Bonnyrigg seem to have benefitted from your move to the senior pyramid. How do you reflect on the decision in hindsight?
“Hindsight always gives 20/20 clarity. At the time of us calling the EGM at the start of March 2018 there were only two clubs (Dalkeith & Blackburn) that had declared publicly of their intentions to move to the EoS. Speculation was rife within football forums and printed press alike about what the EGM was about and we couldn’t stop that. We spoke to our management team beforehand and they were on board, as were the playing squad. We set them the target of winning the league as that would gain us Scottish Cup entry for the following season which would allow us more leeway with working towards our license. In the end we saw what happened with lots of other clubs following suit with moving to the EoS but none of that was factored into our decision at the time. We were doing what we believe was best for Bonnyrigg Rose and we were moving with a plan.
We had been looking at gaining a SFA license for several years and the only clear way of doing that back in 2018 was by joining the EoS League. We had come out publicly the previous year to say that if a decision was to be made on moving associations we would ask our membership to do so, as we are only temporary custodians of a club that will be going 140 years next year, and for over 120 of those we had been members of junior associations.
As is the case now it was a highly emotive subject and a small but extremely vocal minority made their feelings clear on the intended move, a lot of which was personal to committee office bearers. Some of those have since said that it has been a great move and they were wrong to oppose it but as per the opening sentence, hindsight is a wonderful thing and we didn’t have the benefit of it at the time.”
What has been the biggest change (or changes) for Rose as a result of moving from the SJFA to the EoS, then the SLFL?
“Have to start with the complete selflessness of the EoS teams to allow the swathe of newcomers into the league at the same level in 2018, and then to run conferences again this season and choose to do the same next season. In an ideal world I would like to see this replicated in the leagues above (including our own), but understand that these things take time as the pyramid is still a relatively new concept in the grand scheme of things and change sometimes takes a while to implement.
Although we didn’t have a vote for 12 months as we were newcomers each meeting was one of collaboration, where everyone there had an equal say in discussions. The top table were to allow debate on issues rather than offer edicts. I also think that as a result there has been better collaboration between clubs as a lot of teams last season were in the same boat in respect of trying to gain an entry level license.
A full fixture list at the start of the season! I don’t think it is a co-incidence that our attendances increased last season despite not playing our “traditional” rivals, as it allowed people to plan ahead for games. We’ve seen a repeat of that this season.
A lot of teams moved across with us so no real changes from that aspect, and while we are new to the senior leagues we’ve been on good terms over the years behind the scenes with EoS/LL teams as a lot of them are based in the Lothians/Borders area.”
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