The Away End Title: a trophy where everyone has a chance
IT began as an idea in a message board poster's head. In less than a week it resulted in fans posting on message boards all over the country showing support for it.
This season, it could be a competition that overshadows it's big brother, the Scottish Premier League.
"Let's set up an Alternative League with its own website..." wrote 'Westcoastdon' on popular Aberdeen fans forum Aberdeen-mad. "In this league we will not have the Old Firm in it."
Simple and effective, it's what many fans outside of the big two have been craving for years - a league that isn't set-up for the benefit of two teams from Glasgow.
The rules were simple, the mock league would allocate points on the same basis as the SPL for league matches, but no points will be awarded when a team plays one of the Old Firm - they will merely be seen as friendles.
Will it solve the problems in Scottish football? No. Will it be a bit of fun and give the other clubs not spending millions on transfer fees and wages a chance to win a trophy? Yes.
So, The Away End decided to back the competiton all the way, and has even went and bought a brand new trophy to award to the winners, and you can view that league table here.
And then...... 'westcoastdon' changed his mind. We sighed, read his new idea, and instead of launching into a rant we thought...................hold on, this one is even better.
So the new idea is this:-
We will run a league that includes all the teams from the SPL (including Rangers and Celtic) but run it as a handicap league.
The idea behind the handicap league is that we start the league this way:-
St Mirren ended the league last season with 33 points. In the new season, they start the league with 0 points. Hibs start the league with -4 points (they ended on 37 points), Aberdeen with -5 points and so on... with Celtic starting with -59 points and Rangers with -60.
The idea is all things being equal every team would end the season with the same number of points.
In reality, the most improved team in the season will win the league... and it will be a far more competitive league and far harder for either Celtic or Rangers to ever win it.
This will run from the start of the season to the split. After the split, those in the bottom six get the advantage of having the easier run-in, the teams in the top six have the tougher games, and we have our champion at the end of the season.
Had we ran the league last season, it would have finished with Inverness Caley Thistle edging out Kilmarnock for the title.
Ridiculous? Probably, but we're only having a laugh. And the winner gets a nice shiny trophy.
Keep up to date with the latest progress all season here.
