Winter shutdown?
On Friday the 22nd December 1995 I had finished school and was looking forward to Christmas, New Year and most importantly of all football. The festive period is a traditional time for a footie overdose. I was looking forwardto four Motherwell games and four English games on Sky ( if you haven't got Sky then get it, it's wonderful). Due to dreadful weather all but one of the 'Well games were cancelled and because my chauffeur (dad) was otherwise engaged I missed the Falkirk away game. The weather is better in England so at least the Sky games were on.
The lack of football means that I had to find alternate ways to entertain myself. Gardening was out as its dull and you have to carry a machete to hack your way through my garden. I couldn't play golf as the courses were blanketed in snow. One of the more appealing ideas was to go sledding, although to go flying down hills at several miles an hour is not some people's idea of fun. If I discarded all of these then I would have to stoop to horrific depths. Yes, I would have to tidy my room!?
The weather-people are predicting that Winters will become more severe so all the self proclaimed experts start saying that under soil heating should be a necessity to get into the Premier league. If this was the case, then the league would be even worse, with a lot of the Premier and the top of the First division investing a few hundred grand in under soil heating rather than on the team or even in building the stands that they were supposed to find millions to finance.
A Winter shutdown would be a better option. A sixteen team league would mean only thirty games so we could stop playing for three or four weeks and give the players a rest. A few games would still get cancelled but there won't be as many as there are now.
Derek Wilson
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