14s Scottish Challenge Cup – 2nd Round (Ties to be played Sat/Sun 11/12 May 2024)
Here is the draw for the 2nd Round of the 14s Scottish Challenge Cup:
Forfar Farmington v Turriff United Youth Stirling Albion Reds v Deveronvale Glasgow City v Rossvale Reds The Swifts Blues v Shotts Bon Accord Blacks Bo’ness United v Bonnyrigg Rose Reds Phoenix Pinks v Glasgow Girls Renfrew FC v Hamilton Kintore United v Arbroath Youth Yellows Buchan Braves v St Cadoc’s Caley Athena Glasgow v Cumbernauld Colts Morton Blues v Aberdeen West End Dundee West Reds v Motherwell Milton Girls v Inverness Caledonian Thistle St Mirren v Winchburgh Albion Burnbank FC Blues v Hibernian Whites Burnbank FC v Inverness Caledonian Thistle Reds
16s Scottish Challenge Cup – 3rd Round (Ties to be played Sat/Sun 11/12 May 2024)
Here is the draw for the 3rd Round of the 16s Scottish Challenge Cup:
Westerton United v Musselburgh Windsor Blues Spartans Reilly YPL v Glasgow Girls Purples Queen of the South v Huntly FC Dumbarton United v Hibernian YPL Thistle Youth v Musselburgh Windsor YPL Athena Glasgow v Aberdeen West End Port Glasgow v Aberdeen Reds Rossvale v Dundee West Royals Glasgow City YPL v Turriff United Bonnyrigg Rose Girls v Grampian Girls United Bo’ness United v Murieston United Reds East Fife v Lauderdale Montrose v Aberdeen Blacks Ardrossan Winton Rovers Blacks v Inverness Caledonian Thistle Bayside 16s YPL v Morton Central Girls v Glasgow Girls Pinks
18s Scottish Challenge Cup – 2nd Round (Ties to be played Sat/Sun 11/12 May 2024)
Here is the draw for the 2nd Round of the 18s Scottish Challenge Cup:
Inverness Caledonian Thistle v Cumbernauld Colts Raith Rovers Colts v Dunfermline Athletic Glasgow Girls v Queen of the South Boroughmuir Thistle Jags v St Mirren Giffnock v Shetland Girls EKFC Girls v Musselburgh Windsor Blues Musselburgh Windsor Whites v Ross County Renfrew v Gartcairn
Note: There was a mistake by the SWF in the 18s draw. It’s now been fixed although SWF simply replaced Ayr United with Dunfermline Athletic instead of a full re-draw. #embarrassing#omnishambles#youcouldntmakeitup
In last year’s mid-season review I pointed out the issues that the SWF had had with a number of cup draws in the first half of 2023, most notably the Challenge Cup at all age groups. The first two rounds of this season’s Challenge Cup draws passed without incident and it looked like they’d turned the corner from the issues of previous seasons. In congratulating them on getting it right it seems I spoke too soon.
Despite the SWF’s Media and Communication Manager constantly referring to me as “media” (before I blocked him but that’s another story for another day) I’m not afforded the kind of heads up that journalists might expect. I’m not on any distribution list that might be useful for a site like mine, despite the work I do in promoting the girls and women’s game. Thankfully I was furnished with the 14s League Cup draws courtesy of many friends (coaches, parents etc) throughout the regions for which I am truly grateful. There are 383 teams across 41 leagues in the girls game this season and any head start I can get in updating my spreadsheets is greatly appreciated.
At the very start of April the regional League Cup draws started to filter through to my DMs. While there were no obvious issues with the two 18s draws and six 16s draws* – there was no seeding and they were all-in draws – when I started to have a closer look at the 14s draws I thought it was some kind of April Fool’s prank.
Let’s start with what I consider to be the worst draw. In the East region all 33 teams taking part in the 11-a-side leagues have entered. 33 is an annoying number for a cup draw because in all knockout competition conventions you’re trying to get down to 64, 32, 16 etc. With 33 entrants you have to knock out a single team to get down to 32. Normally you would have 1 tie and 31 byes to reduce the number to the requisite 32. The SWF, in their infinite wisdom, decided to go with 16 ties and 1 bye, which would bring 17 teams through. Unbelievable! Not for the first time in recent seasons, they got their maths wrong and the knock-on effect is that in the next round – instead of 16 ties – they’ll have to have a single tie, alongside 15 byes. Farcical! This goes against all traditional knockout tournament conventions. The error of the first round instead of being fixed has been exacerbated and compounded in the second round. (They made a similar mistake in the 14s South West League Cup in April 2022 when they had to squeeze in a single 3rd Round tie between Hamilton and Millennium to get down to the standard 8 quarter-finalists because they contrived to put 9 teams through!) However, the mathematical mess of the 1st Round draw has been heightened by another issue with the 14s East draw.
It seems the SWF have decided to ‘manipulate’ the draw to ensure the top tier teams get through by giving them not just one advantage but three. While the first advantage afforded the Caroline Weir league teams is to be seeded and therefore avoid their league rivals – a not unnatural benefit of the seeding process – the SWF have decided to also give the Tier 1 teams the added bonus of a home draw (or in Dunfermline Athletic White’s case a bye). This leaves the Tier 3 teams, as well as being given an away tie, having to incur the additional expense of travelling to play and, almost certainly, be beaten and beaten heavily*, by Tier 1 teams. (*A fair assumption based on the Tier 1 versus Tier 3 encounters during the recent grading friendlies). That’s no fun for anyone. Also, the way the draw was done smacks of sheer laziness. It seems they’ve taken an alphabetical list of the Tier 1 teams and taken the first one and given them a tie against the team at the bottom alphabetically of the Tier 2 teams and then continued the draw by taking the next Tier 1 team and placing them against the bottom Tier 3 team and continuing on like that. If you can’t get your head around that explanation then have a look at this picture where I’ve colour coded each tier to see what I mean. It is, quite simply, the most ridiculous draw I’ve ever seen.
I suggested to the SWF that this draw may end up in a load of 9-0 results and/or withdrawals by Tier 3 teams which makes a mockery of the competition. My concerns were expressed a few days after the draws were made but I’m still, at time of press, awaiting a response. For a few days they actually withdrew the draw from the SWF website. (Update: I was told yesterday, Wednesday 8 April, that the SWF have doubled down on their error and are sticking with the original draw. I’m not aware of any explanation why).
The 14s West draw has been made on similar lines, as the picture below illustrates. Another contrived draw giving a huge advantage to the Tier 1 teams.
What I don’t understand is the lack of consistency across the six regions. Are they going for all-in random draws – giving everyone a sporting chance – or manipulated draws to get the top teams though? Do they want knockout competitions or League Cups in groups? Are they seeding teams or not seeding them? They can’t seem to make up their mind from region to region. Either way, whatever they choose, they’re getting it wrong.
This brings us on to the 14s Central League Cup draw. There are 37 teams in this competition and the SWF have gone with groups rather than a knockout format. While in the East and West the SWF have looked to give an advantage to the Tier 1 teams, in Central it’s a very different story and this harks back to my issue of a lack of balance.
They’ve gone for eight groups; 5 featuring 5 teams and 3 groups of 4 teams (pictured below). So far, so good. All the 12 Tier 1 teams (from the Sam Kerr league) have been placed into just three groups. I have dubbed the group containing Isla Thistle Pinks, Milton Girls, Holytown Colts Blacks, Gartcairn and Motherwell as ‘The Group of Death’ because it’s ridiculously strong. Whoever gets through that group could easily be favourite to win the Cup. Three of the other groups only have Tier 3 teams in them. The draws for Central are below. I’ve still been unable to find the actual group numbers (or letters) so the ones I’ve used are purely for illustrative purposes.
In the North region they’ve plumped for 8 groups of 3 – Shetland Girls having been added to the 23 league teams – and it’s a mixed bag of strong and weak groups. In the South East they’ve opted for unseeded all-in knockout draws for the League Cup (Tier 1 and Tier 2 teams only) and the League Plate (Tier 3 and Tier 4 only), which is sensible. Being the only region with four 14s leagues the South East lends itself better to that split into Cup and Plate from the start. A straightforward all-in random knockout draw is the competition of choice in the South West.
Growing up with a dartboard in my bedroom meant mental arithmetic has always been a strong point of mine (unless it’s over 501!) but the SWF really seems to struggle with the basic mathematics of cup draws. (I also used to play with a weirdly-named game called LOGacta, in which you used charts, dice and cards to create and run league and cup competitions. The dice were a kind of seeding of their own. Does anyone else of a certain age remember it?) The problem is that it’s happening every single season. Lessons are not being learned. Once in a while it would nice if they put their hands up and said, “we got it wrong” and made amends for any errors. Instead, as is the modern, corporate way, they double down, PR their way out of it and hope the issue just goes away. They have to improve this side of their work because those involved in girls’ football, those who drive thousands of miles every year to coach, train and/or cheer on players and spends thousands of pounds doing so deserve so much better because some of these draws lack basic sporting integrity.
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