Football Shorts

With the fourth round of the Scottish Cup taking place this weekend it was always going to be a quiet time in Scottish football. But thanks to the weather, it's going to be even quieter. Unless you're East Fife's lawyer, that is ..

We where disturbed to hear this week of the SFA's cunning plan to keep competition in the league at a healthy level, namely by trying to reduce the number of teams competing.

Scottish football's governing body are doing all they can to recover the £15k Second Division East Fife owe them following the Methil side's unsuccessful appeal over the ban the SFA imposed on former player Kevin Fotheringham for the racist remarks the player is supposed to have made.

East Fife, in line with most SFL sides, is pretty much broke at the best of times, so the SFA have hee-haw chance of getting anything out of them. Knowing this, they've decided to withhold East Fife's annual winter payment, plunging the club into further difficulties.

Look, the SFA are quite entitled to their money (it's not the their fault East Fife decided to appeal), you've got to wonder quite why they've decided to seek their money back in this way. While £15k might not be a lot to a Rangers or a Celtic, to East Fife it represents an unwelcome bill at a time when the club is already facing a £180k drop in their revenue due to "lost sponsorship" and "payments to players".

We hope a settlement is found which gets the SFA the money they're entitled to without sacrificing one of their member teams over, what is at the end of the day, a small sum in the grand scheme of things.

Dundee United looks to be close to appointing their 34th manager. The club is in discussion with Irish league side Bohemians over their manager Pat Fenlon, with a meeting being held today to iron out any disagreements. Bohemians are understood to be looking for compensation of around £250k. Fenlon is a successful manager, having won 5 League of Ireland championships with Shelbourne and Bohemians. Should he be appointed, he will be the clubs second Irish manager - Pat Reilly, United's first ever manager, managed the club between 1909 and 1915 and again between 1917 and 1922. The club where then known as Dundee Hibernian.

Speaking of Hibernian, their current gaffer John Hughes has strenuously denied any stories linking him with the vacant position at English Premier League side Burnley. With Owen Coyle on 'gardening leave' while his move to frankly doomed and desperately dull Bolton is sorted out, The Clarets are looking for a new manager. Hughes however maintains that he wants to remain with Hibernian to pursue the Holy Grail of Scottish football (in Hughes's opinion anyway), namely the Scottish Cup, a cup Hibernian last won in 1902. Hughes will be hoping to make sure that dream remains on track tomorrow against Irvine Meadow.

In this article's second seamless segue, only six of this weekend’s Cup fixtures survive the weather. Aberdeen take on Hearts at Pittodrie in this rounds glamour tie. The Dons will be reinforced by the good news - relatively speaking - of utility player Richard Foster's signing a contract extension. Manager McGhee though will be hoping to avoid a repeat of the last time the Dons played a Cup game, when a 3-2 defeat to Division 1 minnows (batten down the comment hatches) Dundee. The other half of the Dundee football massive, Dundee United, is in action against Partick Thistle, while St Mirren entertain Alloa, a team who have not played a game since the 12th December. The final game of the weekend is at Dunfermline, where Stenhousemuir hope to progress in the competition, though a pitch inspection will be held on Saturday morning.

By the way, there's supposed to be a transfer window in January. Has anyone heard of any transfers?