This doesn't square with the fact that they are discussing stopping of loans..another bad idea. Always happens if you leave management alone with nothing to do. All employees out there..keep your manager clogged up with HR stuff and questions then he won't try and reinvent the wheel (and make it square).
Strewth talk about one rule for the rich another for the poor...... Teams like Chelski, Manure, Manditty, Arsenal, Possibly Tottenham, Liverpool......plus a couple more hopefuls. Would totally dominate the lower leagues to such an extent almost all the others would go out of existence. Simply because anyone that shows any spark would be snapped up much earlier and put into these leagues. Therefore starving any movement or financial gain to keep the clubs head above water. What current reserve football is there for, is to keep non first team members fit. To allow injury returnees a chance to get fit again. To allow youngsters to develop their skills. To progress and make their mistakes and learn from them. They cannot afford to do that if they were playing in the first team. The next thing after that would possibly be a kindergarten league to feed the B Team that feeds the first team that sells them to Arsenal who can't be arsed to develop their own. In truth it would be perhaps no cheaper to do it that way than to buy them in, as and when you needed them and in the proceeds keeping some of the less affluent clubs alive.......So for me I guess I do not like the idea.
Anyone here know enough about the Spanish system to know how well the system actually works in practice?
Agreed that it's a terrible idea, but what if your'e a fan of Darlington (for example) and your only other option was to exist no more? Would you take being a 'B' team to someone else in order to survive?
They wouldn't become a b team tho?, the team would cease to exist. Their place in the league would be replaced by say Chelsea b. So Darlington fans still wouldn't have a team to support.
Not well. I'm not sure what the general consensus about it is over there, but in the Segunda and below, B-teams are [barely] competing with larger teams like Deportivo, AlmerÃa, Celta Vigo and Valladolid who have completely different aspirations. These teams aren't allowed to promote to the same division as their first team, and so they have very little to play for. Barcelona B and Villarreal B, the two B teams in the Segunda, are taking up spaces which could be filled by teams who are stuck in the treacherous third tier. The third tier is made up of four different divisions, and even the teams that win each division must still compete in unnecessarily complicated playoffs with the top 4 of each division to promote. I don't think I need to say that we should not envy that system. Here is the highest-profile game involving a B team that you'll ever see. It looks like a friendly (Guardado's goal is stunning though): [video=youtube;Hqe97Xs-1p0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hqe97Xs-1p0[/video] I especially feel for the well supported teams in the third tier such as Albacete, Real Oviedo, Tenerife, Alavés and Cádiz. These are teams with similar stature and support to us who are stuck down in that ridiculous division. I actually posted a thread a while back about the many comparisons between Oviedo and Saints. You have to feel for them.
Terrible idea. I can't be bothered to elaborate in this post as there are so many reasons why I am against B teams.
1 Real Betis 31.000 2 UD Las Palmas 14.157 3 Granada CF 14.138 4 CD Tenerife 13.850 5 Rayo Vallecano 11.857 6 Celta Vigo 10.492 7 Real Valladolid 9.821 8 Xerez CD 9.555 9 Córdoba CF 7.587 10 Elche CF 7.558 11 FC Cartagena 7.359 12 Recreativo Huelva7.057 13 SD Ponferradina 6.467 14 Girona FC 6.323 15 UD Salamanca 6.290 16 Gimnà stic 5.122 17 Albacete 4.316 18 CD Numancia 3.791 19 FC Barcelona B 3.606 20 SD Huesca 3.133 21 AD Alcorcón 2.505 22 Villarreal CF B 1.814 Check out Barcelona B's and Villarreal B's attendances, their presence is just a convenience to their senior clubs. The fact that if Villarreal do get relegated, their B team slip down a div; in accordance with the rule that you can't get promoted into the same division as the parent club - really sums up that Spanish system (barring the divine top div) is a kinda blackwater brew of Football League and reserve combination. (Edit: Oops I missed Joe's post above)
In the words of Andy Gray, No Trying to solve the issue; Money is the sole reason why the top clubs are big enough to have a B team and can horde all the young talent with their massive squads. The new academy grading system is only going to make this problem worse. What the FA should do is rather than bow to the requests of the big clubs is start to impose sanctions and squad limits. Which in fairness they have started to do. Maximise Premier league squads to 28 players older than academy status so they don't horde players. My next idea is to introduce a draft system similar to the american leagues but for Academy rejects. All League 1 and League 2 clubs can have a pick of the academy players who failed to make the grade at the premier league clubs, but for no transfer fee as another way of distributing the wealth through the divisions.
All of us older fans will remember the league for reserve teams, called the Football Combination. Not every team had a squad big enough, but for those that did, it meant there was regular football for players unable to get into the first team. I guess it was called Combination because it included clubs which were in lower leagues, but which wanted to be included in the reserve league. Hence a combination league for all reserve teams entered. It worked very well. Don't know why they stopped it.
