Eddie

Lokomotiv Vladivostok v Thatto Heath in the first round - that would really get some people on here frothing.

Stockport (and Bury) are league football towns really though, even though they have temporarily fallen on hard times. Almost all of the original 92 to drop into the conference or below have made it back eventually, and most have stayed back in the league with the exceptions of Halifax and Chester and maybe others that I can’t think of. I’d expect to see definitely Stockport and probably Bury back in the league in 10 years time.

I can remember watching South v Goole, at least once. Marine was our biggest game, followed by Southport. Other mainstays of the NPL at that time were Chorley, Colne Dynamoes (moneybags club), Macc Town, Mosseley, Boston and Barrow - happy days

Sounds similar to Norfolk, football in king and while Norwich City are all encompassing some of the non-league clubs can draw some very big crowds, especially for derbies. Some of the Union teams well down the pyramid can get regular three figure crowds too. We’ll never have a league club here though

Top stuff HM! It’s a proper shame what happened to South. They were nailed on for promotion to the NW Counties this season but sadly now the FA have stopped all promotion and relegation in non-league.

Franchises? Ok thanks you’ve explained your comment now, which has changed immeasurably from the original. For the record though the biggest three football clubs in England are American owned, and there are many more around Europe.

Any idea what sort of crowds the Dragons (or indeed any Southern Conference teams) get?

Why do so many Americans invest in European football then?

It’s not relegating anyone, L1 would disappear and funding would be distributed differently. But let’s face it this is all pie in the sky anyway.

The Sandgrounders, it was very sad as they’d been in the Third Division just a few seasons before after winning the fourth. My own childhood non-league team South Liverpool we’re big rivals with Wigan Athletic before they got in the league.

How would it kill the game at lower levels?

Who said they would lose funding? If the structure was different finding would be different. Personally I’d have a 14 team SL (12 is too repetitive and dull) and a 16 or maybe even 18 team Championship as I think there’s enough teams for that, especially if Ottawa and NY come in and Toronto carry on. That would take up the bulk of the existing three divisions and then you could have a Northern and a Southern, Midlands & Wales conference of the tier below including NCL, Southern Conf and the L1 straggler clubs. I’m not saying that is the best structure but is an example of what could happen.

I’m not proposing relegating WWR because of distances, it’s because they’ve won one game in the last three (?) seasons. I’m not proposing relegating Skolars or Cov either (or more accurately moving them into a southern and midlands division to reduce travel time and costs), I just said I could see an argument in favour of it, and then somehow ended up arguing about it when you put words in my mouth

Yes it is to debate, but you’re putting words in my mouth and then arguing against them, which isn’t debate. I’m not doubting that these clubs have great pathways, but in sports that’s not how teams are chosen for divisions, it’s about how good their first teams are and WWR’s quite frankly aren’t good enough for L1. Regarding academies etc, semi pro teams don’t necessarily need them, ie there are local community teams who produce youngsters (Mayfield for example - if Rochdale Hornets started a youth system it would impact negatively on them).

Dear me you are so argumentative aren’t you. I can’t be bothered to address most of your points as you’re just making them to disagree but yes I did say we’d retain the southern clubs and I certainly never suggested a division of three - which would be ridiculous. When you say no Southern team is ready to ‘step up’ I assume you meant to play Skolars, Cov and WWR? If none of them are good enough to give WWR a game then yes I agree they’re definitely not ready.