West of Scotland League Update

Pollok Football Club has circulated the below letter to its members regarding plans to apply to join the West of Scotland League.

27th March 2020

Dear Pollok FC Members,

Firstly, we hope you are well and are coping at this difficult time. As you know we had hoped to hold an EGM on March 24 th but had to cancel this due to Scottish Government advice to restrict large gatherings.

The EGM was called to update Pollok F.C. Members on the proposed move to the SFA pyramid. The following is a summary of outcomes to date from meetings between the West Region Scottish Junior Football Association (WRSJFA), the Lowland League (LL), the East of Scotland League (EoSL) and the South of Scotland League (SoSL).

There is general agreement that the most satisfactory situation would be to move all West Region junior clubs to the pyramid and for all clubs to enter at tier 6 with, in all probability, a number of parallel conferences in season 2020-2021 that will determine which leagues clubs will be in for the subsequent season.

This would be a West of Scotland league (WoSL) with promotion available to the LL via a play-off system for the league champion, if licensed.
* Clubs could retain membership of the SJFA.
* The WoSL would be governed by a new board elected by the member clubs and with administrative support from the LL/EoSL/SoSL.
* The Scottish Junior Cup Competition could remain.
* Clubs would compete in the South Challenge Cup and, if licensed, would gain automatic entry to the Scottish Cup.
* There would be no ?cherry picking? of teams to join the WoSL and the WRSJFA have been contacting all the clubs in the region and encouraging them to join the new WoSL.

It has been impossible to hold committee meetings and our EGM at this time. Pollok F.C. officials have discussed these options over the past two weeks and we believe the proposed plan is a positive step to keeping WRSJFA clubs together while joining the SFA pyramid.

We will apply to join the newly proposed WoSL, retain SJFA membership and compete in the Scottish Junior Cup next season.

Whilst all applications made by the extended deadline of April 7th will be treated in confidence by the LL, so far over 20 clubs have publicly declared that they have applied including four Premiership clubs. We fully expect that number to more than double.

If you have any questions we will do our best to answer them. Please email these to info@pollokfc.com

Best wishes,

Stuart McCulloch
Secretary

Tom Gilliland
President

Graham Milne
Vice President