Lochgelly Albert

Junior Football Club

Junior Clubs to get chance at Tennent's Scottish Cup

Article taken from the Sunday Mail 29th May 2005

SFA chiefs will this week try to pass a radical shake-up to the Tennent's Scottish Cup that will see the country's top junior sides taking part. The proposal would see four junior clubs handed entry to the North and South Qualifying Cups - the first step on the road to Hampden.

The places would go to the winners of this afternoon's Scottish Junior Cup final between Tayport and Lochee United along with the winners of the three regional Superleagues - Culter, Pollok and Lochee. But it's believed the move faces strong opposition from Highland and East League clubs plus some Third Division outfits who feel their chances of reaching the glamour rounds will be hampered.

However, chief executive David Taylor is determined to push the motion through at the SFA's AGM on Wednesday.

The proposal requires a straight majority of votes - understood to be 47 of the 92 members. Taylor said: "The Scottish Cup is THE national competition and therefore sporting merit should be what it's all about - not what organisation you belong to.

Preservation

"We should be trying to open up Scottish football. We've had a working party on the pyramid league system but the problem is there are differing views on the best solution. "We tend to get bogged down into criteria of grounds and more often geography. "But bigger countries than ourselves manage those dilemmas so we have to grasp the nettle. We can't debate it forever. We need a solution so we've tried to open up our competition as a starting point. "It's not a done deal. Some members are concerned, maybe there's some self preservation, and there are indications that some of the smaller clubs will oppose it. "But in the long run this will help clubs get bigger gates and better competition. "It's a long road to the glamour ties in the third round but it would be interesting to see how the junior teams fared."

Past moves to embrace the juniors into the senior ranks have met with opposition from the junior clubs themselves. Some fear they will struggle to meet the higher standards set by membership of the SFA when it comes to stadia and finance.

But Taylor said: "There IS a different culture in junior football but I don't think that would be jeopardised. Junior football shouldn't be an island away from the rest of the game. "There may be problems when it eomes to stadia but they're not insurmountable. Let's do it and review it rather than not do it.
"If it's knocked back it would be a setback but it won't stop us."