Give us a break

Meet the Manager night concludes a winter break would be desirable. Thoughts on league Re-construction.

The Dunfermline v Ross County postponement was the Pars sixth of the season but Manager Jim McIntyre is not an advocate of a switch to summer football. He told the recent Meet the Manager Evening that he would favour starting the season slightly earlier and having a winter break. He acknowledged that the timing of that might not be straight forward:-

"When exactly would you have a winter break? This season it has been particularly bad; it's as bad as it has been for years and years."

Assistant Manager Gerry McCabe discussed the merits of altering the timetable of fixtures:-

"It is changed days. You have to think of the fans and what it costs up through Christmas and New Year. If you have a winter shut down, when do you have that? Last season it was January and February when all the bad weather came, this season it started at the end of November. If you said you were closing down for December you might find that it is the best month of the winter. When I played I liked playing in the winter."

Striker Pat Clarke would support sticking with the status quo:-

"I prefer playing in the winter as well. I have done that all my life and you get used to it. In the summer you can enjoy going away with your family or girlfriend and having a few weeks off."

Jim McIntyre predicted that before long all lower league clubs would install artificial pitches.

"It is needed even though players would rather play on grass. Your body is definitely different the next day; it is stiffer."

Gerry McCabe was in agreement expressing a view that Airdrie United's facility is fully booked every night.

"That's where they get their revenue so instead of lying unused from Saturday to Saturday that's the way these clubs are going. It is the only way that they can get extra revenue in."

With the League re-construction debate now having reached an impasse it is likely that the status quo will prevail for the near future but league re-structuring would meet with the Pars gaffer's approval if it meant a 16 team league. Jim McIntyre was asked if managers are asked for opinions but revealed that was not the case:-

"Originally I was a big supporter of a sixteen team league. I thought that was the best way to go in terms of the product for Scotland as a whole but I fully understand where the money men are coming from. The TV revenue wouldn't be there; they would pull out and that's why they are interested in the 10 and 12 propositions. It is all money driven. We can accept that if there was a promise there that for instance they set in place just now that in four years time, once we are OK financially going to revert back to a 16 team league. That would be acceptable for everyone because you could see the reasons why it was being done.

"The broadcasters control it, a sad fact, and there is not enough revenue coming through the gates that the clubs can afford to say 'no we are not going to take that money because we will get it elsewhere'.

Gerry McCabe would favour an 18 team top division:-

"I feel that there should certainly be a bigger league. Clubs are losing money just now so you should change for the better. You need to make the opportunity to bring kids through because let's be honest here, every club is a selling club - even the Old Firm. Nobody can hold on to their big players.

"In an 18 team league the Old Firm would come to your ground once a season and then everybody would come out for an occasion. The ground would be full but if you look at Old Firm fans just now, they are not going to away grounds - OK TV maybe takes away a lot of that but when I was at Kilmarnock you had a guaranteed crowd of 15,000 when you played the Old Firm. Now they are lucky if there are 4 or 5000. They are not going to come to away games and I know the Old Firm have a big say but if you played each other twice in a season both home and away, the cup games could make up the revenue. The Old Firm are always going to be in Europe so I do not see what the problem is there."