Scottish Premier League split - Is it bonkers?

[Gromit]

Can any of our Scottish readers please explain the advantage of splitting the League.

As an outsider, it just seems bonkers. Now everybody is complaining about their fixtures.

Why don't they have a decent size league of 18 teams and play home and away once.

http://news.bbc.co.uk...r/rangers/8617329.stm

I'm sure there must be a good reason for it, but at the moment it is eluding me, can anyone explain?

[Skyline D]

Well they have a split because with the present size of league it's the only way to come up with a number of games between 33 (which is too few and also sees teams playing some opponents home twice and away once and others vice versa) and 44 which is too many and indeed forbidden by UEFA (40 is the maximum a top league can play in a UEFA member country).

The split allows for 38 games. The problem with it is that as fixtures are seeded based on the previous season, unless the top six are the same as the top six the previous year it will be impossible for everyone to level up the fixtures with 19 home and 19 away and also certain that somewhere along the line someone will play an opponent three times home and once away or vice versa.

The clubs don't want an 18 team league for two reasons. Firstly it's perceived that Scottish football doesn't have enough depth to it for 18 teams to be of top league standard and there would be some cricket scores run up by Celtic and Rangers against the Ross County's of the world (yeah, right! LOL). Secondly, in the same manner of turkeys being unlikely to vote for Christmas, the clubs are unlikely to vote themselves a home game less against the big sides as it would drastically cut their incomes.