The new system in this proposal apparently sees PO2 and the top of 2nd division in the same pot to fight it out for a European ticket, which is absolute bollocks.
Other than that, I don't agree at all that Play-off's are helping to close the gap with the Netherlands. That's just due to the Netherlands hemmorraging talent and money and the fact that our competition has gone full out for the youth, as do they. Seeing as our youth centres are quite good, that closes the gap considerably on its own. If anything, I think the Play-off's lull clubs into complacency during the European season (because, lets face it, making it past the winter stop is already a success) ... I don't see how they 'aid' much, if anything.
Honestly, wasn't aware that PO2 and top of division 2 were battling for European tickets. That just sounds so off it can't be real. How could that ever be a good idea ? I do believe the PO1 system is benificial for the top teams, as there is more competition overall but ur right in saying that this alone hasn't closed the gap with Holland, but I like to believe it helped. Where as big players were hard to sign at start because of this system, I got the impression they are more interested in it now. More media coverage, more high level games, more chances to get a lucrative transfer over the summer.But as u said, youth development helped to a certain extent too but not as much as you say though I think. Ajax & PSV still hold a very high level here, where as in Belgium you could say Anderlecht really confirmed and Bruges is getting there, but Standard has lost a lot of his credit here in my opinion. They were nr1 by far few years ago. You are 100% right about how it encourages teams to piss off during the normal football season where European games are played, but I don't think they'll just do that. Agreed Standard has done it last year, but I think in general Belgian teams are easily motivated for these bigger games (cfr Bruges & Anderlecht form in Europe this year, heck even Lokeren !)
I think everybody agrees something has to change, but this isn't it. I think a) we need to do away with the restrictive cycle between 1st/2nd division. If more teams go up and down, it'll spread cash around better. b) a better spread of the tv-money, in other competitions 2nd division easily receives up to 15-20%, here it's 6%. c) either we do away with the restrictive licensing or we implement a and b. You can't ask clubs for bigger investments if you're not willing to share more. Right now, the more affluent clubs in Belgium seem to want to have their pie and eat it too.
a) Not sure how we can prevent that without fixing b)
c) Licences are a must to me to ensure professionalism
This is a tough one to break and to me a reduction of teams seemed logic, seen the number of real professional squads in lower division (avoiding bankruptcy, shady managers, ..)
What region are you from though? Here in Brussels there's plenty of lower division football, though Without Supporters Brussels can go suck a tail pipe. ;)
I live in south West-Flanders. 15 km from SVZW, KVK & Mouscron. Roeselare & Harelbeke quite close too.