Eaglesham Amateurs Football Club                      RED and BLACK

Tonight (11/06) the new structures were announced for the non-premier leagues. Bear with us as we try to explain it!

The overview is:
Current Premier Divisions remain the same.
Current Division 1 stays the same and will have 10 teams.
Current Division 2 split into a Division 2a and a Division 2b, each with 9 teams.

Explanation of league structure:
-There will be a Division 1 as there is just now.
-There will then be 2 lower divisions, but to make it fair for all teams that are currently in Division 2, next year (for one year only) the lower divisions will be on an equal playing field and called Division 2a and Division 2b.
-The goal after this season is to then have a Division 1, 2 and 3 with relegation and promotion as normal, but to get to this stage fairly, next year the promotion/relegation will work like this:

Promotion/Relegation for next season:
-Division 1's bottom two teams will be relegated to the new Division 2.
-The winners of Division's 2a and 2b will be promoted to Division 1.
-3rd bottom of Division 1 will play in a 3 team round robin tournament with the runner up from Division 2a and 2b. The winner of this round robin tournament will be in Division 1, the two losers drop into the new Division 2.
-Joining these two losing sides and the two relegated Division 1 sides into Division 2 will be 3rd, 4th and 5th from Divisions 2a and 2b (6 teams) thus making the new Division 2 league a 10 team league from 2010/2011 season onwards (one year's time).
-The new Division 3 will be made up of the remaining teams from Divisions 2a and 2b. That being the teams that finished 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th in each therefore giving you a Division 3 made up of 8 teams.
-Any new teams joining from 2010/2011 season and onwards will go into Division 3.

Where we landed:
Since we were to be in Division 2 next season we were put in the hat for Divisions 2a and 2b.
We were drawn in Division 2b - which, as mentioned earlier, is at the same level as Division 2a. It now means only 16 league games this season instead of last seasons 26!!

Teams Drawn into Division 2a:
AULDHOUSE - new team made from old Mearns Rovers apparently
CENTRE B
EAGLESHAM B.
FINNART - new team from the Sunday leagues, meant to be a pretty good side
JAMESTOWN
LOMOND ROCK
MILLERSTON THISTLE
PAISLEY REID KERR
PORT GLASGOW HIBS - same team but new name!

1st team's league, Premier 1:
ARKLESTON
BUSBY
CAMPBELTOWN PUPILS
CARLTON YM
CENTRE
DUNCANRIG FP
EAGLESHAM
KINGS PARK RANGERS
MOORCROFT
THORN ATHLETIC

The new campaign starts on Saturday 15th August, the Centenary Trophy league sections draw takes place next Thursday, so the 1st team will know who they'll face at the start of their season.

Cheers,

Cunnsy / Neil