Big changes ahead for Perthshire sides
New structure will see teams split into two leagues
A shake-up of the Perthshire Amateur Football set-up will see teams competing in only two leagues next season.
The new structure, decided at an annual general meeting this week, involves a top division with 13 clubs and a second division with 14.
President of the Perthshire Amateur Football Association, Tom Latto, welcomed the move and hopes it will prove to be a success.
“We have lost one or two clubs across the past few years so this has always been a possibility when it comes to annual general meetings,” Tom said.
“The third division, for the last two seasons, has been eight clubs which means they play each other three times to keep up the quota of games.
“That is not something that they really want to be doing.
“It’s always been a possibility, should we go to 26 or 27 clubs, that someone is going to come up with a proposal to reconstruct the leagues.
“Last season there was a proposal to change it to two leagues but the majority, at that time, were still in favour of the status quo as we had.
“There is always the option at the AGM to reconstruct the league and there always has been.
“I’m not sure how long we have had three divisions in the current position, but probably longer than 12 years.
“I think the members accepted that there needed to be a change, although staying as we were was also a proposal on the table. Amateur footballers will soon begin their pre-season training
“The two divisions won through on the vote. That is a first division of 13 clubs with a second with the remaining 14.”
East Perthshire side Blair Thistle have entered abeyance for the coming season but Kinrossie return alongside newcomers Pitfour.
Tom said: “Blair Thistle are hoping they can find a management committee to continue, but not for this season.
“They will not be members of the association for this year.
“Pitfour have applied and have been successful so they will join our second division along with the returning Kinrossie.
“They were in abeyance for last season but will be back this year.
“Pitfour are a club in an area where, in recent years, there has been no amateur football. In the past we had Errol in the association.
“We once had 40-odd clubs in the association and now we are going the other way. But that seems to be a general trend across Scotland.
“The Scottish Amateur Football Association will have lost hundreds of clubs over the past few years.
“You can’t put any one cause to that, we just don’t know. It could be cost, commitment from committees or general interest from players.
“If you look at the youth level, there seems to be a great amount of interest in that for youngsters playing football.
“We don’t know where they are going when it comes to the amateur level.”
Next season’s amateur football schedule is penned in to kick-off on Saturday, August 11.
“With the two league set-up, there will be 24 league games for the first division clubs and 26 for the second,” Tom said.
“We found that, in the past seasons with the set-up, teams who were not successful in cup competitions were running out of games at the end of April.
“Our traditional season until the end of May was a little bit curtailed, especially for certain clubs.
“But this year it will be the opposite with extra games in the league to sustain through until the end of May which is the normal finish.”
Division One: Auchterarder Primrose, Ballinluig, Balmoral United, Breadalbane, Bridge of Earn, Burrelton Rovers, Craigie, Kettins, Letham, Luncarty ASC, Pole Team, St Johns, Vale of Earn.
Division Two: Alyth, Bridgeton United, Coupar Angus, Dunkeld and Birnam, Jeanfield, Kinrossie Caledonian, Letham CC, Pitfour, Rattray, Scone Thistle, Strathearn Grove, Tay Thistle, Vale of Atholl, Wolfhill.