Well the much vaunted FA commission under Greg Dyke has finally reached its conclusion. Other than elucidating clearly the reason why Diego should not go to a premiership side and play in their B team for the next two years what else does it do for football. It clearly destroys the pyramid system that currently exists by putting Premier B teams from the top ten premier sides into a league above the conference. It provides extra income for the premier sides who can now field a b side at home on alternative weeks and thus make money their stadiums on alternative weekends. It limits or eliminates the number of non EU players in the championship but not in the premiership thus providing further barriers for championship sides to move out of the league and challenge the dominance of the top ten. The FA and the League have just been done over ---again. Dyke head of the commission - says it all really
It's an absolute joke. Even more so when idiots like rio - who were on the commission - try and defend it, despite their obvious links to the top clubs. I enjoyed the conference an league two sides "protest" of tweeting the FAb and asking if they could create a "B" club and start it in the premiership. There's also a petition going round which I've signed and if people are interested, will link on here.
I think we should also try to be positive and produce some ideas of our own as to how to produce the best English qualified footballers and protect our leagues. As four starters for ten I would suggest the following: 1 25% of premier and Championship squads should be made up of players who have spent more than one year in their academy and their should be a contract which retains apprentices until the age of 21 unless released. 2 The size of premiership and championship squads to be limited to 30 players 3 All leagues including the Premier to limit the number of non EU players in the squad to 3 4 75% of apprentices at league clubs must be eligible or sign to become eligible at the end of their apprenticeship for the home nations (3 year qualifying period)
Go back to first principles rather than tinker. Withdraw from the EU, and take back control of our labour market conditions. Impose a quota on each club for the number of overseas players they are allowed to employ. I would advocate a maximum of 3 in a 25 man squad. That means that almost 500 British born players are guaranteed to get experience of top flight idea football each season. I don't buy the argument that we don't have the talent. We do, but the current system doesn't allow it to come to the fore. Introducing this idea will draw the familiar bleat that it will cause rich foreign owners to leave these shores, to which I say 'good'. Abramovich for example can return to that model of stability Russia/Ukraine, and perhaps explain to the Siberian people what he did with all of their natural wealth. The Glazers could return to Israel. Sheik Mansoor could return to the desert. I can't help thinking British football would be better off without all of them.
teams with good youth players could enter a b league? at the rate at which we're going then, our b team could get promoted above our first team within about 4 years.
We don't have the coaches to nurture the talent from grassroots up until the professional ranks IMO. Too many players fall through the net at too early an age. But the FA is so elitist and only make it possible for the rich to go on to claim their badges. That or nepotism at it's finest strikes..
Its ideas like this from people so disconnected from anything that isn't a top 10 prem team that is really sucking the life out of my love for football. The idea is nothing more then pushing through home grown talent for the top clubs, and leaving everyone else to rot! The powers that be so unfairly back the richest clubs, but then footballs all about money now so why wouldn't they.
I doubt many fans of the big clubs would want to see their B teams enter the football league pyramid. What's the point in having two teams with the same badge, ground and kit in the same league system? If Charlton are not playing or I can't get to the away match, then I go along to the likes of Canvey Island, Welling United, Thamesmead Town et al, and this would remain the case even if we had a B side competing on alternate weekends. Football is more than just a game: it is community spirit, local trade and employment, and the enjoyment of mixing with fans of differing clubs. Dyke can shove it.
There is no consideration of the average fan, as usual. Where are the fans coming from to watch this new league ? It potentially jeopardises the wellbeing of League One and Two clubs. If West Ham 'B' are playing Charlton on the same day that Orient are playing at home, & tickets are a bit cheaper, doesn't this put the O's at risk? At least we at Charlton will never need a B Team. We have had one since Curbs left
One idea would be to allow official link up's between Premier League teams and those in Leagues 1 and 2 (feeder system) where a number of their youth prospects could be sent out on loan with the Premier league team paying a substantial yearly fee for the privilege. This would at least allow some of the Premier league riches to filter down to the lower leagues and allow their youth prospects to develop playing league football. Teams in Leagues 1 and 2 would welcome the extra revenue and have the pick of some good quality youth prospects. The Premier B team league is a ludicrous idea!
Imagine selling a star player to Chelsea or having him pinched out your level 3 academy, and then the next week facing him in Chelsea B the next week? Also I don't see the point, prem clubs can loan these players out if they want and it's not like it they don't have game time, there's already a reserve league system
Dyke has already screwed over clubs like the aforementioned Ponders. I'm still in touch with the powers that be at Erith Town. Thanks to Dyke negotiating an earlier game kicking off on a Saturday they have seen a significant decrease in bodies through the turnstiles. I'm reliably informed that this is the case across the board for clubs in that league. For me the bottom line is this... all the time the Premiership is the be all and end all the English national side will ammount to **** all. All this B team bollocks is simply playing lip service to the problem. Dyke needs to be seen to be doing something without rocking the apple cart too much. We all know what the real issue is... the Premiership has become an all consuming economic monster, that must be fed.
Wholeheartedly agree and whilst the ownership of the leading clubs within it is held by foreign nationals it does little for football in this country. Would it be better to cast the top six clubs adrift into a European league and restructure the premiership beneath it as the national first tier with one team from that promoted to a European league each year. There would inevitably be television money for the European league but Sky would have to compete with other European providers. This would lead to less money overall going to the remaining clubs in a bidding war to cover the top tiers in English football but might lead to a more even distribution and funding with the football league regaining control. It seems that many of the ideas raised on here have not been considered by Dykehead's team of premiership loveys and they have just demonstrated that they were all unsuitable to be trusted with the future of the game in this country
Dyke should have timed the launch of his report for the day after England get knocked out at the World Cup in the group stages. It will be an eye opener just how bad England are in Brazil. Perhaps it will act as a jolt for real reform, although I doubt it. Fleet St will go to war for all of three days, and the players will quietly slink off in shame with their WAGs to a 6 star hotel in Dubai. You have to worry about the credibility of any report that has received input from those two intellectual titans.... Rio Ferdinand & Danny Mills.
You need to get back to a structure whereby English owners own English football clubs, & employ an English manager who selects English players.
Much as we all love living in the past we have to recognise the global nature of our economy. We no longer have an empire to exploit in the way we did until the 1960's and the reality of the current world is that most of our operations are foreign owned whether it be car manufacturers or football clubs. Moving to isolationism is the best way to put this country into the third world. Let look at seeing what we can do to enhance our position rather than choose to sit in the corner and ignore the world around us.
Why is it that much smaller countries (population-wise) than England regularly produce a wealth of world-class footballers without the need to revolutionise their existing league structures? Uruguay, Chile, Holland and Belgium seem to do okay with a small pool of talent, so why can't England do the same? For me, it must boil down to the standard of coaching in this country.
Greenhithe, The problem here is that most league 1/2 teams would want to link with the Prem teams with the best academy systems and in effect a bidding war would start whereby the L1/L2 teams would end up paying the best Prem teams to be their feeder team. Also, if you end up as a feeder club to say Man Citeh.. do you HAVE to play their loan players even though they may not be very good/ too young for L1 football?
Nobody is talking about "ignoring the world" I am referring to creating, from first base, a set of conditions whereby English talent can flourish in English conditions. It doesn't just apply to football. I am loathe to see quotas but one is now surely required in football. The pending World Cup fiasco under Woy fielding a bunch of chavs & no marks will be the necessary wake up call.
